High search engine rankings are from a combination of exceptional content, time, and lots of backlinks.
One of the oldest techniques is submitting to directories, at the least get your site listed on DMOZ, Yahoo! Directory, and possibly Business.com.
If you have a good looking website, submit it to some of the major design and css galleries. Most of the initial links to Narien are from it being picked up by design galleries. It might take you awhile, because there are numerous CSS Galleries.
Infographics are particularly popular right now, maybe it is because they are packed with information including graphs, charts, examples and statistics. This makes them easy to understand, and they are often picked up by social news sites, such as Digg, or StumbleUpon.
Some of the best examples of content that spreads like wildfire is by the creative, Matthew Inman.
Everyone loves getting free stuff in the mail. Consider finding popular blogs in your niche and send them free stuff or samples for them to review.
Good at Coding or Design? Release some free website templates, wordpress themes, or other software that has a link at the bottom. If you don’t code or design, try to find someone on elance, oDesk, or Guru.
Don’t Spam Blog Comments or Forums, Buy massive amounts of links, or build or join link farms.
I build stuff, like Narien, the Useragent API and the Email API