Use Wireframes , it helps you draw the skeleton of the website

Firstly you should stay away from watching all your competitors sites ....Give yourself some time to think How exactly you want the site to look like ...do some work from scratch ...

at the later...

get into the customer shoes and start convincing yourself ...ideas will start popping out

all the best

Consider video sharing , Podcasting, forum participation, slide sharing, social news participation initially ....

Later stages consider LInk baiting ( article submissions, press releases, sharing...

If you wish you to see site links then You wil have have lots of quality content on the site and prove to be an authority website ...Only then google considers your site for site wide links in...