Originally Posted by oldbrad

If your linked from blog directories, your site will slowly get placed further and further back in the directory. Your links will start benefiting them with nothing in return. They give great results at first, but weeks to months in you'll get none.

That is most likely what happened as your link juice was turned lower and lower.

For the anchor, keep the same "main" keyword and vary the usage. For a website of mine focusing on seo for adult sites I used "adult seo", "seo for adult sites", "adult website seo", etc. This approach got me in the top 10 for all my wanted terms including adult seo.