Questions about page ranks, robots.txt

So I want to increase my page rank and get my sight more exposed

I have some questions...I already have VBSEO...what the heck is a robots.txt file and what exactly does it do?

Are there any programs that will help submit my sight to search engines etc...that anyone would reccomend? What have you guys used? I have trafficblazer but don't really like it all that well. I'd like to try something better.

Any suggestions or fingers to point me in the right direction are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

robots.txt is a text file that you put on the root of your server that tells the search engine spiders what they are allowed to look at and try to access.

For example, you probably don't want them trying to register, so you can restrict access to register.php

There are a ton of "submission" tools and services out there, but much more important than submissions to the search engines are inbound links. 90+% of traffic that most (US) people see is from either MSN, Yahoo, or Google.

You can read all over the place about buying links, submitting to directories, etc. but I personally think that the best way to get inbound links is through community participation in your niche - whether it means participating in a competitive message board or chatting with bloggers, or promoting yourself through offline events.