Forum Moderators: buckworks
Secondly, don't focus on Google too much in the beginning. Just make sure you have good content, aimed at the right keywords (Wordtracker is recommended!) for your niche market and that your html-code is optimized for those words as well and promote your site in other ways i.e. AdWords.
If you deliver good content, people will automatically link back to your website. Reciprocal linking is still done occassionally, however, I personally believe it's a waste of time.
If you really want to get a head start, sign up with a professional search engine optimization company or teach yourself how to do it by signing up with webmaster newsletters, i.e. High Rankings and WebProWorld.
Good luck!