Indirect Links are Bad

Similar to the concept I mentioned in Reciprocal Linking is Dead, you likely have come across this too. An indirect link is a link that doesn't go to http://www.yoursite.com but instead passes though some other script firs, e.g. http://www.someothersite.com/out.php?yoursite

For the same reasons that reciprocal linking is considered worthless, indirect links are also; namely, they don't improve your search engine rankings. And, for the same reason that reciprocal links still have value, so do these. Indirect links, from somewhere targeted towards your site's niche or market, can still generate useful traffic.

Qassia

Qassia is a site that describes itself as an credit-driven intelligence engine coupled to a cascading tag-based web directory. You add items of "intel", short snippets or long articles, and get a backlink towards a designated site also. There's also a profit-sharing element, where you can earn money from any Google AdSense ads on pages showing your intel.

For adding and reviewing intel, or gaining referrals, you will also earn Qassia dollars. Currently, the more dollars you earn, the higher your websites will rank. In the future, these dollard may be used for purchasing advertising on the site.

Probably the most effective way of earning Qassia dollars is by submitting pieces of original, previously unpublished intel.

Reciprocal Linking is Dead

If you are at all involved in promoting a site on the internet, especially using links, you will more than likely have come across this claim. The reasoning behind it is simple; search engines no longer count reciprocal links towards your sites' search engine rankings, therefore a reciprocal link will not increase its' ranking, and is thus worthless.

Completely true - up to the worthless bit. Reciprocal links won't boost your search engine rankings, but anyone who claims that makes them worthless is missing the point. The objective when promoting your site is not boosting your rankings, but increasing traffic. Higher rankings do result in increased traffic, but that assumes that the only traffic a link will create is that from the search engine. A good reciprocal link to a non-competing but relevant site has a good chance of creating quality traffic in itself. The traffic may even be of a higher quality than the search engine traffic, because it's more likely that the visitor who clicks on your link is looking specifically for your product or service.

This doesn't mean you should just build reciprocal links with every site that will have you of course. Look for sites relevan to yours, that don't compete with it. For example, a web designer could look for web hosting firms and SEO firms, as a user of one of those services is very likely to use the others too.