Google PageRank Help!

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I have been looking to increase the google pagerank of my personal blog so that I am able to take cerain opportunities to make money. Certain sites require you to have a pagerank of at least 2. Mine is zero. Does anyone know of any tips to increase PageRank? I have heard that if a popular site links to you, your pagerank will increase. There are tons of sites out there that are Link directories, but I don't know if I want to pay for such a service. Anyone out there with any knowledge about this?