"and submitting individual posts to social bookmarking sites that are do-follow"
any examples of sites like that?
About blogs... I have 20-30 handwritten blogs that are getting more and more SE traffic every week. I have not done much on backlinking, starting on that.. But, just as an example on how fast you can build if you don't do like I did
I started a blog a some time ago. Long posts, filled with keywords, 1-3 new posts daily for a couple of weeks - got a decent share of SE love almost instantly - then I forgot about the blog. Now I have barely 1000 hits/month there. 61% SE.
If only I did not forget......
Lesson learned