Eli over at Bluehat Seo is right about one thing.  You need to know some programming and have a good action plan to build a great network.

Eli’s Post 

A few of the things he mentions probably aren’t the best idea like putting all you “grey/black hat” sites on the same server.  But those things will get cleared up over time as he does his second post and in the comments.

It’s worth a print out and a read.

Blackhat Techniques

Blackhat – Whitehat Techniques