Having trouble ranking high... Could use some advice.

Hello, thanks. Ok, here is my situation:
First of all, I'll just tell you that I have been online for a little over 5 months. My website is titled www.free-weight-loss-resources.com

I basically earn extra income on the website through a weight loss eBook I have written. I'm trying to maximize my exposure through Google. Currently I'm #15 for the term weight loss, #2 for weight loss exercises, and #1 for weight loss recipes.
I would like to be ranked within the top 5 for the term "lose weight". You would think that 224 backlinks through google should be enough to get me ranked higher than #20 for that term.

I've been doing a lot of reading and can't really come up with a reason why I can't seem to rank any higher. The site that is ranked #1 for the term "weight loss" seems to be very old. Only mentions the keyword 4 or 5 times... and yet is ranked #1. It has about 250 or so backlinks, but about 20% of those come from 1 site, www.diet-links.com, in which I've done a domain check on that and he owns that site as well.

Any ideas as to what I seem to be doing wrong, as I am still a newbie? Thanks so much in advance!

Brad

We have some of the most knowledgable people in this forum. I am sure someone here would be able to help you out!

Anybody?

Take heart, all is not lost. Trying various phrases in Google got the following results:-

free weight loss resources #1
free weight loss #3
weight loss resources #1

The site you mention is probably helped by having the right domain name which is unfair but there it is. You've got lots of links to your site too which is good but a few more wouldn't hurt. Do you know what your Google PageRank is? You get it from the Google toolbar and is a useful pointer - a PR of 5 or 6 is good and is probably the best you can expect to get. All in all, you seem to be doing rather well. Good luck with it in the future.

Nick