These days, you're pretty much off track. You need links to and from reputable sites, optimise site layout so Google and Yahoo bots can traverse it easily, have content that the bots perceive as useful. Basically, in Google's case, you're trying to drive up your PageRank. You can install the Google toolbar in your browser to check pagerank, for example. Don't be tempted to buy links: if Google detects this, you'll be on page 7 bazillion forever.
Search Matt Cutts and read some of his stuff to get a feel for how it all works, and what Google wants to see.
Added: Depending on the quality of links, it could take anything from days to months for the bots to start finding the site. To give you some idea of what's ultimately possible, one of my sites is now indexed every 10 minutes or so.