This one can take quite awhile, best to apply to get onto dmoz.org early on and then forget about it, and with some luck you'll make it on at some point.
The first thing you need to really tackle is getting some people to your website, and the more targeted the visitor, the better. This first item help both get traffic, and also to get quality backlinks, which will help you achieve better search engine listings placement. Getting your page rank better is you first step.
ARTICLE WRITING
This is becoming increasingly popular, for very good reason. Google is getting smarter at catching sites trying to cheat the system. Writing articles actually plays the game fair, but at a very smart advantage. The articles you write are then displayed at lots of article directories, as well as tons of regular websites with the same topic (note the same-theme backlinks), and sometimes your articles make it into newsletters, blogs, etc.
Now, the search engines find the incoming links to your website from the resource paragraph you add at the bottom of the article. Now you have quality content at quality sites pointing back to your site, very often with the same theme which is a huge plus since Google's Jagger Update.
Now that you get readers of these articles (read: targeted visitors), and you have quality backlinks increasing your link popularity, it is time to look at other ways.
QUALITY WEBSITE CONTENT
Here is a really easy way to start out getting quality content on your website. Put the articles you write also on your website as their own pages, or perhaps in a blog even. Simple, yet very effective.
SITEMAPS
Don't forget this one. It really helps the search engines to walk your website to find a sitemap on your website. In addition, be sure to make the XML Google sitemap and feed it to the new Google Sitemaps tool, making it much faster to get into their SERPs. Yahoo also has a way to feed it a text file with each URL of your website on its own line.
JOIN FORUMS
Join some quality forums, or even keep visiting the same forums you have been using. Just be sure to put a link to your website in your signature along with a few words describing it. This is a great free source to get visitors.
LINK EXCHANGE SERVICES
Link exchange systems can be good or bad, depending on the one you join. The wrong one, the ones that promise you thousands of backlinks instantly, will get you banned in short order. The litmus test for a good service is if you either request or accept each link exchange explicitly. If so, you're in good shape, and your link popularity should start soaring quickly.
As you can see, there are many ways to help get your website off to a strong start. I'm always in favor of writing articles on a regular basis as it truly works, and it also helps establish you as an expert in your field. In any case, just keep your site in mind and try to get the word out, mentioning your website whenever it fits.
