SEO is tricky. I deliver elements of SEO for a variety of clients, without any formal training or instruction I always feel like I’m missing something. There are so many black hat tricks, “experts” who guarantee page rank and frequent changes by search engines its hard to keep track of what works and what is a waste of time. Which is why I really appreciate it when someone comes along and breaks it down as succiently as @CorreyCreed. It really is as simple as it sounds.
This presentation by Corey Creed is a perfect breakdown of link building.
SEO is complex and it takes well though out strategy, metrics and a lot of time, but it is not as mysterious as some make it out to be.