Link Exchanges in 2010 and beyond? Maybe?

[greenion]

That is what I would like to know, are link exchanges expected to still be a sensible form of online business promotion in 2011? Of course this question is based in an unseen future. Considering that technology these days, seem to be changing at an increasing exponential rate, I would probably guess no.
This question probably has been ask in some form or another here already. So, my take on what I am looking for in an answer, is whether or not to let other folks (that I promote for and with) know that if it is worth the effort in the long run.

BTW - Welcome to those new folks that sign up after me. (And to you lovely folks too, who are already members.) I am looking forward to networking with some sharp folks here. Peace!

[piatkow]

Relevant links are still a good way of getting traffic but a lot depends on the sector that you are in.
A totally unscientific scan of the first page of my site stats showed a 60:40 split between SERPS and people following links (site is for a music magazine)

[dertyfern]

my crystal ball says: yes.

greenion, just link exchanges with relevant websites can yield fairly significant traffic over a long period of time. There's no strong reason that I know of not to do it.

[cnvi]

Your question presupposes that technology somehow -- in less than 24 months -- is going to remap the human brain so substantially that word of mouth advertising, after hundreds of years of being the most powerful marketing tool on earth, will be worthless. Because that's what an exchanged link is, a virtual world version of a word-of-mouth recommendation.

I'm a hair stylist, you do nails. When we link to each other we benefit from increased traffic and our customers benefit from being referred to a quality salon they can trust.

Reciprocal linking has been the backbone of the web since its inception and, if anything, will be an even more important marketing tool in 2010 and beyond than it is now. Because technology, increasing at an exponential rate as you guessed, now has the ability to embed paid advertising in every type of web content.

This, in turn, has powered internet advertising into a $25 billion business in which the lion's share, roughly $17 billion, is spent on search advertising. One of the reasons for things like bogus directory sites being featured above real sites in returns is to force people to click on the paid links beside or on top of the so-called natural returns.

As the shift in importance from natural to paid search engine returns continues, small businesses unable to match the pay-per-click and display ad budgets of their competitors will become even more reliant on relevant reciprocal linking to generate new customers, and brand their site within a specific realm of interest. Relevant reciprocal links when obtained in slow and natural volume improves your link popularity which is one of the factors that goes into determing your search rankings.