Is social bookmarking for links a waste of time? Do people earn links, seriously?

After the June update our traffic rate fell to a terrible amount. Some of our competitors sites also fell during that time. But as the many more recent updates going on their traffic is seem to rise. But ours is not. It is looking that we have got our penalized.

So, here what I am thinking if I put all of my content to a new domain and 301 redirect them from this present domain. It is possible that the penalty will be passed on to the new one too. But the articles are of very high quality so I don't wanna loose them. Is there any option of doing it without making any 301 redirects?

I am open to all kind of suggestions here.

Can a link from single site hurt? Is it really possible?

How would you guys define a product page to be too relevant for a kw or specific type of search to get de-indexed by Google?

You know that the domain has been on the red flag list or not? Whether or not it being penalized in the past. I am talking about a recent expired domain which is getting auctioned.

Recently I have discussion with a community forum owner. He said he have more than one theme installed in the forum. Once a user joins the forum. He or she can choose the theme as per like. Do you guys do that? And I know that better user experience means more good for website. So does it have any advantages? What do you guys have to say about this?

Competitors are specifically targeting our brand keywords to steal our leads!! In this situation what can be done to stop it. I am all ears here.

I can certainly increase the bids but I don't think it will resolve the situation because if they also increase the bids then I am doomed. I don't have much budget.

So, any opinions.

Is there any way to manually index backlinks?

Refer me some good sales writer's copies so I read and learn directly from them.

What kind of security you guys use in sales page?