Yup,Mel, that's exactly what I'm implying.

There are a number of factors that determine who gets to the top of the pile. Some are weighted more heavily than others. Traffic not links is at the top of the list. You can try to confuse the search engines by using multiple links, but ultimately Google's filters will become more accurate at discovering this spurious technique and shut you down.

I say again...(last time folks)
If you want to get to the first page of Google, spend a million bucks on advertising to get the traffic or *get one link back from a top tier website* that is already spending the million bucks for you (and has significant traffic).

This will involve creating some kind of optimized *CONTENT* that the top tier website is interested in. If you can do this you will sit on the first page of Google and every other major search engine for your one piece of optimized content.

Information is what drives the free listings of the search engines. Get good at the production of information and you can never be filtered out.