I only ever add links which I believe will benefit the reader. I never ask for a reciprocal link, never charge for the link, and always research the target site first - indeed I actively seek sites to link to.

Matt

Why do you not charge for links?

I find it interesting that so many webmasters go into this with money in mind, and yet here we have someone in yourself, that willingly gives up at least some of your webspace for nothing, yet this costs you in time and effort. Is there a reason behind this, a strategy, because it's my long experience that once you set yourself up as a 'giver' you are labelled as that for life.

This is very interesting why so many do this web thing for little or no profit. People will take advantage, oh boy - they will.

Matt, I do not see a lot of outgoing links on your site (assuming it is the one linked to in your profile).

Your add url instructions could be clearer.

Maxnpaddy, look at Matt's site. He apparently charges for ads, but not for links from the main body of the articles (which I could not find).

But is link exchange worth it? I've never done this before. Now somebody wants to exchange links. They have 10 times my traffic and the same PR.

I'd say the odd link may be worth your effort exchanging. But beware of the low ranked sites, as much link removal goes on, and you will likely be a victim of it.

Some links can pay off, but these links are very tough to obtain, so most just link with everything they can get. The trouble of linking with anything is the incorrect visitor groupings - the very untargeted traffic you will get, which isn't the point of link swapping at all.

Mass linking just for an ego trip, is very wrong as you'll only end up providing the wrong links anyway, and what use is that.

Be targeted, Be good.

I too, only link to sites that make it worthwhile to the reader. Judging by the fact that any given site of mine links out to about 30 sites in total, goes to show you my view on the number of sites that 'valuable'.

Why charge for the link when you are doing your own readers a good thing?

I think link exchanges are just useless and a waste of time managing the whole program. I simply link to websites that are relevant to my reader on a specific page - readers like to be told where to go for more info and they come back trusting that I will point them to good websites.