I've been in the blogging-sphere since 2007 and my latest project is www.rhumsiki.com ~ a genuine African Tech Aggregator. Blog promotion has obviously changed within these years. Back then we used to exchange links - it's no longer possible, Google gets mad at it, we used mybloglog dot com - now dead, Technorati dot com was at it best, now its at its worst. Then, StumbleUpon dot com could make a difference, today its numb just like Digg dot com.
So what's same as before . The best tool then and now remains guest posting. This is my opinion, but you have to be good at it. Competition is high, its become a full-time job for some. <<CONTENT IS KING >>. It never dies.

Today we all use Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest(very unfriendly for news or African stuff)/what-have-you. But how do you get to the top, how do you get the Twitter followers if you begin today February 28, 2013? Twitter looks saturated for a beginner, right? Here too <<CONTENT IS KING >> but its not enough, not at all. TELL US THE TOOLS YOU USE FOR BLOG PROMOTION. Or do you think it takes care of itself

BTW, have you submitted your website to Google - Google "submit your content"

Hello I would like to meet with u, I'm a blogger also, send me an email and I will reply asap. Mimi_care4u@yahoo.com. I will want u to put me tru in some cases

@chinamims Hello friend, contact me at info[at]rhumsiki.com

Yeah. I agree with you, OP, that most SEO strategies that worked like crazy in the past are now dead.

Google is getting smarter by the day, and no longer are there shortcuts to Google's top ranks.

Content marketing remains the only strategy for long-term SEO and traffic generation benefits.

Unfortunately, most bloggers are still running after blog commenting, social bookmarking sites, forum profile links, and stuffing posts with keywords.

Others are buying tons of useless Twitter followers and Facebook fans, thinking they can convert them into traffic. This tactic was never alive. It has always been dead.

The only strategies that are working for SEO and quality traffic on today's internet include the following:

1. High quality content (not crappy 300-word posts). Not content copied from other sites.
2. Guest posting
3. Submitting articles to high quality directories (not the likes of Ezinearticles and goarticles)
4. Optimizing your posts for long tail keywords

Here are things you must avoid:
-Link exchange
-Buying backlinks
-Publishing copied content
-Targeting competitive keywords
-etc. (I just can't exhaust the list here).

Great follow-up by @Basic Blog commenting and social bookmarking sites like Delicious dot com or Digg dot com were the talk of the day then. Only losers buy Twitter followers. "High quality content (not crappy 300-word posts). Not content copied from other sites." is the best "strategy for long-term SEO and traffic generation benefits".