There are many ways of generating quality backlinks to your site without resorting to black hat methods. Some of these methods are ones that I have not personally tried, but that I know are extremely effective at generating links and traffic to a website:
Press releases (Especially at one of the bigger PR sites: PRNewswire, PRWeb, MarketWire, Business Wire, etc-).
Guest posting at other websites can send a ton of traffic to your site, not to mention give you a great backlink from a well-respected site.
Write articles for eHow, Associated Content, or start a Squidoo lens that links back to your site.
Become an active member of a forum and put a link to your site in your signature.
Submit to social bookmarking sites, especially ones that offer do-follow links, such as Folkd.com. Just don't spam them!
If you have a blog, submit it to BlogCatalog.com and you'll get a ton of free backlinks over time.
