Newbie help with backlinks please

Been reading the forums for a while and trying some things but I'm not sure I'm doing any of it quite right. I've got a pretty unique surname and I want to outrank some things written about me from 2011. Long story.

For backlinks does it have to include my name? And be a link, or does just having the text on a forum/blog help? I have read about nofollow etc so I'm kind of following that.

Does someone have a backlink construction guide?

If you had a unique surname and a couple websites with that surname in the URL that you own, how would you outrank small newspaper sites?

http://moz.com/blog/anchor-text-distribution-avoiding-over-optimization - Read this to know what your backlinks should be called (the "anchor text" is the actual term)

And yes it has to be a link. Obviously, or else why would anyone call it a backlink?

Having the plain text of your site on a separate forum/blog can in theory raise your brands authority in terms of Google (which can be debatable). You obviously have a lot to learn. Please, use the search function of either this site, or google.

As far as your last question... I would do a little under-rated tactic known as SEO.

Thanks Sean, reading the Moz article is helping a lot.

Yep I have a LOT to learn more so than normal and I agree that last question was a bit broad. I meant pointers for the specific situation of having a unique name and trying to get some sites ranked for it. A lot of people on this forum claim unique keywords should be easy but I guess I'm just having trouble with the concepts.

I'd search the forum for this "SEO" you're talking about but I don't want to crash the search tool

Hey J.First of all. Congratulations and Welcome to BHW.
I advice you to focus on both long term and short term marketing efforts. Know your competition. Find out what the sites ranking on the 1st page for the keywords that you want to rank for have done, on-site and off-site, to get there.Search this forum completely.You will be good to go.

Hey dude,

Cheer and welcome.
You need to know a bit more about SEO terminology first.Then learn some popular methods and practice.
You have dare to ask so nothing to worry about.