Reciprocal Linking - How to make a fair "trade"

[Robster]

Hi all!

I'm very new here, and pretty new at this reciprocal linking stuff.

A quick disclaimer: The whole subject of rec. linking seems to revolve around Google's PageRank quite a bit. I understand how important this is, but I have a question that I want answered without the bias of PR involved.

I know for a banner exchange with another site I would expect a 1:1 ratio of impressions to impressions right? Well, wouldn't the same apply to reciprocal linking?

I've read through quite a few posts here, but most seem to deal with PR.

I see the value in having a site link to mine, so...

Let's say a site with 1/5 of my traffic wants to exhange links. He says "Put a link on your home page and I'll do the same for you". While this is great for him, it's not as good for me.

I was thinking about just using phpadsnew to administer links the same way I do banners, but what a hassle to setup all the accounts / links / campaigns.

So, any suggestions on how to handle this?

Thanks in advance!

Rob

[Dino_M]

If your that concerned with a fair trade, You would aslo need to take into account, the prominance of the link - the number of other links on the page - number of other related links on the page - weather the link opened in another window - the page rank of the page - etc..

Don't think it can be done really. In general, I will place links to site that I believe, will give a genuine benefit to my user. Weather they link to me, or not, is not the most important thing.

I try to keep external links off my homepage but do not have a dedicated links page, nor do I hunt down links on other peoples link pages. (I believe google may award very little PR for a link on a page with dozens of other external links and you will get very little direct traffic)

In short place links were they will most useful for your user and offer other sites links to pages that will most benefit their users.

[Terry_Plank]

Dino has some great suggestions. Let me add that it is not always about amount of traffic. For me, one element is pre-qualified buyers coming to my site. So a linking partner may have 1/5th of the traffic. But, if he does a good job of presenting me and what I have, then the visitor is partially predisposed to considering what I have to offer when they come over because I have been recommended by someone, not just a search result from a search engine.

It's regrettable that we have this term, reciprocal linking as the primary way of describing this important process. I would be better named, link partnering or something.

[Visit Thailand]

Dino_M - You say that it is a factor whether the link opens in a new window. I have not seen that theory before. What makes you think that it can effect anything if the link opens in a new window? anw what effect is it?

[Dino_M]

Robster was trying to place some quantitive value on a link

I would say that a link that opens in a new window can be read and then closed again very easily, a user is less likely to browse the rest of a site.

It is a very small point and just an example really of how hard it is to get a 100% fair exchange.