Event_King - 3:58 pm on Jul 27, 2005 (gmt 0)

This is one thing I've never completely decided about. Although link swaps are free, unless they are targeted, otherwise they are mostly useless and a waste of time. I could waste hundreds of hours per year, sending begging letters asking for link swaps - it's my experience that the majority of decent sites won't swap, as it's a power thing, to be able to refuse desperate sites. I also think that link exchanges are really a thing of the past, which was popular at the webs infancy, and that has now declined somewhat. I must get about 100 emails each month from dodgy, unrelated and illegal websites wanting free links in my business resource, and they actually expect to get in.

Site owners want one-way links mainly, and except for a few directories and the odd search engine, are pretty impossible to get. Also webmasters try it on by insisting on a link whereby theirs must be on your homepage, but will only return the favour with a link in some link page located deep within their site. Lots of that going on.

If there's no advantage by PR or the swap isn't fair, then I won't bother going ahead with an exchange. I imagine there are tons of webmasters that feel the same way, but I also reckon links should come automatically, if the site is worthy it'll get links.