I have promised to show you my own opinion about link exchange programs, one of the ways to get the text links and link power to your sites. They could give you really BIG link power - it’s a fact. But you have to know how to use them, and it’s a fact, too. So let me say a few words in that topic.

The first question is why that post has a title “Link exchange programs suck, or why not?“. First thing that you have to know is the price of using it. You don’t control place that your links will be displayed. They could be showed on a site with PR7 in topic similar to yours (there are no better opportunity…), but usually you will get only a few links like that ones, other links will be displayed on sites with less, less and more less quality. As you see, manual link exchange works better, but who has a time for manual link exchanging? No one. How many sites offering link exchange? Not many. Our conclusion is transparent, don’t you think so?

Are link exchange programs being for all?. No, they are only for guys interested in SEO. If you want to get link power, you have to make your own SEO back-end - smaller or bigger bunch of your own sites, with better or lower quality. More sites and better quality, more link power. Link exchange programs just TRYING to value your sites more or less successfully, in order to give you the points, and make system work correct. More points, more and better links. These rules are clear - every user receives his points deservedly…

…or someone knows how to cheat.

Using link exchange program is one of the best ways to get link power, but not for all. If you didn’t build your own SEO back-end, you will not receive fair number of points (and incoming links as result). The best advantage of using link exchange programs is providing a chance to save your time - it’s definitely the fastest way to get incoming to your sites. You are just adding your sites, and being in charge of your received link power. That’s great for smart guys who are playing in SEO commercially for customers - your customer cuts to pay a rent? Just a few clicks, an all his links are turned off.

Which program is the best one? Co-op and Link Vault, supposedly. They just have the best user notes in my community. Below I’ve listed in alphabetical order all link exchange programs that I have heard about. If you know something about any other ones, please report it in a comment.

• Backlinks (http://www.backlinks.com)
• Build Reciprocal Links (http://www.build-reciprocal-links.com)
• Co-op (http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/ad-network/)
• Gotlinks (http://www.gotlinks.com)
• Link Exchange (http://www.link-exchange.ws)
• Link Market (http://www.linkmarket.net)
• Link Vault (http://www.link-vault.com)
• Links Exchanged (http://www.linkexchanged.com)
• Links4trade (http://www.links4trade.com)
• Link Survey (http://www.linksurvey.com)
• Receive Links (http://www.receivelinks.com)