Spend some time at SEOCHAT.com and make sure you do proper seo from day one. With link exchanges do them manually or at least with manual approval. Dont link with sites in bad neighborhoods or ones that have been penalized at Google.
Include RSS and Dynamic newsfeeds.
Update pages regularly with fresh content or add new unique pages on a steady basis.
Ensure you incorporate social networking links to all pages.
Our resident expert Bob Raines has some great advice in the CAP Learning Center so check that out too for more pointers.