Gaz Jones - Webmaster Rantings

Not only is the number of links into your website important, but also important is the weight (or quality) of the websites which have links to your site. The sites that link to yours must be related to the industry you are in and the sites should not contact any spam, dubious search practices etc. This gives search engines some help with your ranking, If they think you are offering a public service,  for free or have highly relevant content to your industry its likely they will rank you accordingly.

There are a few website that offer to help gather links or broker links for you. One such site is Qualified Links which allows you to trade or exchange links for free with other webmasters, they also have a sister site called Qualified Freelancers which allows you to find a freelancer to do some work for you or you can post yourself as available for work.

Another good way to get links into your website is to offer link bait. This basically is either something people will want to link to because its fun like a game or a puzzle, other link baiting things include well written articles and news articles.

For more in depth information there is an article available on SEO CHAT.