Search engine ranking can be complicated. Yes, links matter. Go out and find related sites and ask to exchange links.
I do this consulting for a living. Some suggestions:
1. Master the search engines.
seochat.com but there are tons of other forums too
2. Pay per click. don't start with google, too expensive; start with cheapies like yahoo, msn etc and figure out what works before spending google-type money
3. site link in sigs. post at a bunch of sites and you get a lot of response
4. links exchanged with other sites, as mentioned
5. write articles for web sites/magazines on your topic. They get spread around a lot. Submit to free submission sites.
6. contests, free giveaways, design-a-logo stuff, etc
7. partner with sites with similar aims - this works especially well on locally themed stuff.
8. online PR. start with free PR submission services to get your feet wet.
9. off-line PR. local papers love "local person makes web site" articles - get a HS or college journalism student to write your PR release for you
9. become an expert, get listed in expert sites
10. free directories (mostly worthless, but every little bit helps) don't pay for a directory listing until you have a good ideal what you're doing
11. Blog - link your site to your blog. really helps the search engines - new content on a regular basis.
12. Ebay - sell a e-report for 99 cents on one of the topics from your forum, and include a link to your forum in the e-report; there are ebay rules on this, but it's worth learning the rules. It's fun to get PAID for getting visitors
Hope this helps a bit. Good luck. We all started where you are, and worked our way up.