Interesting similarity
I was reading an old issue of Popular Photography yesterday. There was an article about getting into galleries as an photographer. It said the only way was to be referred. Almost nobody ever is exhibited without great references or by being referred.
This is just like Google. You get nowhere without good back links. If you cheat with your back links or for that matter with your references sooner or later it will blow up in your face. The only way to get good search results is to earn them.