Yeah unfortunately on the last Google update they switched things up from the norm. With that being said, that is why we have to stay up to date on our marketing techniques. 
James,
Links are just one small portion in the Google algorithm but they still need to be addressed. Stick with as many one-way related links as you possibly can and try to have them in good locations on the other the websites that are linking to your site. Also try to switch up your targeted keywords in the anchor text so that all of the incoming links are not the same. Remember to not only link to the homepage URL, links to your internal pages are great as well.
Things change but solid incoming links from similar content related websites will never hurt. But for the most part just try to get as many links as possible and not just on high ranking websites. Diversify the page rank sites you are looking for links on as well. Think of it this way; if your website was NFL.com, you would have links pointing to your site from websites with all kind of page ranks, 0 and higher. Links will never hurt, get as many as you can.
@james 165249 wrote:
there’s so much hype about links and backlinks etc, and then yesterday a friend of mine said that it doesnt matter. you can have as many as lyou like but if your website is rubbish and the titles arent good enough – you might as well not bother. is this true?