Beating the Sandbox - Another Theory

Prompted by a comment by John Scott in the Cre8asite SEO Forums, Rand from SEOmoz comments on the Google Sandbox and what causes it. The consensus seems to rest in the arena of links.

John’s comment:

It applies to links, not sites. And the age of the link is not the only factor. The IP range of the links and other considerations are made, and the person who I discussed this with said that Krishna Bharat is at Google primary to develop and implement this new algorithm. It is supposed to radically change the way links are evaluated.

Rand’s bottom line:

The bottom line is that I now feel very strongly convinced that the Google Sandbox Effect is a side effect of their paying attention to links and the documents that provide them. A good rule of thumb going forward is that you probably cannot trust any link to help you with your search results. This is most likely not what Google wants people to conclude, but it is a safer approach to link-building than seeking out links based on any particular criteria.

But I like Andy Hagan’s comment best:

The sandbox is the trustbox. To beat it, either

1) Aquire HIGHLY trusted links, or
2) Aquire SOMEWHAT trusted link and let them age