[bcowan]

Like many others I invested a good deal of time and effort developing a program of link exchanges. After a while though I had a good look at this and decided to dump the entire process. Why?

1. I didn't get any traffic from the links in my exchange, mainly I suspect because many 'hide', or at least don't have prominent paths to their link directory.

2. Most of the link requests I received came from completely unrelated sites simply wanting to exchange with the 'any link is a good link...' mentality.

3. Most of my 'link' traffic (99%) came from high quality, high rank sites directly relating to my niche.

Anyway, I dumped the link exchange program and never looked back. My only efforts with link exchange now consist of site reviews, article exchange with specially selected quality 'partners'. In other words, steadily improving link quality naturally through site activities.

Just my thoughts.... hope it helps.