ok i just want to brush up on my memory but if i remember correctly if i have bunch of quality links to my site with the link title as "forum" then i should rank higher for the keyword "forum" right?
Ranking high in the search engines depends on many factors. First how competitive is the keyphrase you are trying to rank for? The more competitive, the harder it will be to rank for. Try to rank well for longer keyphrases first. Besides having quality backlinks, you need unique and related content, a good title tag, and you can also use alt tags, h1, etc. Just keep reading this forum, you will learn a lot
A regular update of the content in your website along with link exchange with high PR websites will u drag up your PR in search engine drastically. But there are a series of consequences for securing a high PR, it does take time. Proper Meta Tag creation is also a factor.
forum is hyper competitive keyword and chance are that you won't get to top 100 even if you manage lot of backlinks