Usually if I can get to Google page 2, maybe 3 with on page only, 2 or 3 blog or forum comments usually push the rankings to mid/bottom of page 1. I place the anchor text in the body of the blog comment. Lets you control the anchor text, but your comments are less likely to get approved, and not sure my blog would pass a manual review if my backlinks were scrutinised using this method
Getting some dancing in the rankings with a page I'm trying to rank with blog comments currently so will see if the rankings work out for worse or better when things settle