Can anyone refer me to some articles or links on effective ways to increase link popularity on Google.com?

Thanks!

There are certainly some good posts in this forum on the subject... as for external articles that talk about link building, there's a few I know of:

http://www.patrickgavin.com/Link-Building.htm
http://www.socengine.com/seo/guide/advanced-link-building.html
http://www.seobook.com/archives/000227.shtml

Best of luck!

Thanks!

Respect to Seattle!