Ok I have 2 methods for you, number 1 I know works - the second is something I read and sounds like it might work, not tried it yet.
1) Whitehat version: Write an article related to the keyword you're trying to rank for and host it on your site, make sure the article links to the page you want ranking (probably your homepage).
Then post your article as a story on lots of pligg websites using something like autopligg, or pay someone to do it for you if you don't want to fork out a large chunk of change.
Greyhat version: This is what I've always done and I know it works. Simply use autopligg to send pligg links directly to your site - this probably works better than the whitehat version because the links go straight to the page you're trying to rank. Doing this for a mid competitive keyword usually gets me ranked in the top 10 on google.co.uk.
2) This is something I haven't tried, but sounds pretty cool.
Set up a links page on your domain and code it with 2 sections, a "random links" section at the top and a permanent links section below.
Go to google > type in your keyword and get the first 30 domains, write them down.
In your permanent links section just populate it with about 10 links to related sites in your niche (NOT ANY OF THE 30 YOU'VE WRITTEN DOWN)
In your random links section you want to put the 30 domains you wrote down, but have it so that on every page load it will only display 2 or 3 of the domains from your random list.
Right under the random links section you want a link that says something like "Is your website in the random links section? Want a permanent link? Click Here!" it should go to a simply 'submit link' form.
Now you're almost ready to get great links from the top ranking sites. You need to get hold of a fake traffic generator, preferably something that sits on your host ticking away.
Use it to send around 50 fake hits to your competitor sites daily and make sure to set the refering URL as your links page.
Your competitors will check their trafic stats from time to time and notice they're are getting quite a few visits from your links page - they'll go there to inspect it and see that they don't have any link on your site, they will assume the traffic they are getting is coming straight from the random links section.
Hopefully the first thing they will think is "I want a permanent link" and click that link to submit their link > but of course, they have to link to your website first before you approve them
This way you get reciprocal links from the top ranking sites for your niche. Of course, if you wanted to you can always cloak your links page so that the links you put up never get seen by Google and thus it will look like a highly relevant on topic one way link from a website that already ranks well.
3) Another method, even though I originally said 2. Just repeat what you've already done, but do it to all the other pages on your website. I do this when I run out of ideas and usually squeeze out another 2 or 3 higher positions.
