birdstuff - 6:09 pm on Mar 15, 2004 (gmt 0)

I link to my competitors in several ways. At the top of my home page I give side-by-side comparisons of my main product up against 3 of my main competitors. I list the benefits of my version as well as theirs, our respective warranties, and of course prices.

I then provide links so the visitors can verify the info for themselves. They go, verify, then almost always return and buy.

In exchange for the "privilege" of having their link on my home page, they place mine on theirs.

I also have a section at the bottom titled "related resources" where I keep 8-10 links to competitor sites in exchange for a similar link back.

Works like a charm. It makes my site look like an authority on my widgets and demonstrates that I have enough confidence in my products and services to allow comparison shopping. Of course I wouldn't do this if i didn't have the other guys beat on price and quality.

Sure, my logs tell me that I permamently lose a small amount of traffic via these links, but I always receive a lot more than I lose.