Well, I just created a blog about a month ago because I lost 30 pounds while trying to fight my osteoporosis and I decided to write a daily report along with some other ideas while I continue my fight. Where's a good place to start for link development?
You might want to submit your sites to social bookmarking sites. There is a link in that points to a list of several. http://dev.krizka.net/shareit
Submit posts to Blog Carnivals Submit your RSS feed to RSS directories Link to other blogs in your niche, then email them and tell them about the post they are featured in. Some will link back. Comment on other related blogs, and leave a link. That should get you started.
I would also recommend looking at the sticky thread at the beginning of this section and submitting to a number of free directories. If nothing else, it might stimulate a slight bit of traffic, but hopefully raise your PR. I also agree: submitting articles to sites with free submission service always helps. It will generally give you some traffic. In addition, if its very content-appropriate, there might be an area in Wikipedia you could submit to.
In the meantime, check out this useful list of directories, which I believe are all free: http://www.directorytrials.com/blog-directory-list/