We're not sure if these are the tips that will get you started earning high SE-rankings (as the SEs are always changing their algorhythms and rating- and penalty-patterns),

but this will keep you from being convinced that there's some sort of "rule" that says 'you must be low-rated for x-number months before we'll believe that people really link to your website.'

Really, the 'sandbox'-period is just the time it actually takes for your back-links and link-trades to 'register' with the SEs—"a time to plant, a time to grow and a time to harvest ... there is ..." (not exactly a direct quote from Yoda ... it's more like 'Jesus in the grammar-style of Yoda' ... but they were both Bodhisatvas, so it's all-good).

Have you been under the Sandbox-Spell?