Meta tags are something you should use for sure but they are not generally going to make the difference in whether you rank well or not anymore. As DotComBot said first you need time. But more importantly you need a ton of high quality inbound links.
Google wants to see that other quality (high traffic) sites are linking and recommending you. Of course that starts with good content but you also have to promote the heck out of your site in forums, digg, stumbleupon, blogs, and of course continuously writing great content.
It takes time...lots of time so hang in there!
