Fair enough, but if forum links aren't white hat then 99% of SEO companies/freelancers are black hat. I have yet to hear an SEO company say "We'll make your product great enough people will link to it organically."
There's a pretty big gap between forum links and nothing.
A websticker program, for instance, that is marketed via actual direct contact with potentially valuable partners, can provide high-quality in-bound links that are voluntary and durable. True, this works better in B2B than B2C. For B2C, an affiliate or discount program can do similar things. These can be supported by advertising as well.
These sorts of programs take a commitment, though. You're not going to make a quick big splash this way. But they do work over time, particularly since Google values age in both domains and inbound links.
True, an agency can't do much about a product. But they can produce content that will attract links. And they can find people who should be linking to you, but aren't because they haven't heard of you.
That's what the best ones like CitationLabs and Eric Ward do.
A really good SEO can produce 100-150 truly earned links a month. But that would cost you $15k/mo and most clients aren't willing to make that kind of long term investment.
Why won't they invest is a question for another thread, but I suspect blackhats have created a "market for lemons."
