Reciprocal links can be good, but maybe they have outlived
their usefulness. There are so many other ways out their
to build back links, that reciprocal links can take a lot of
time for little return. It used to be normal to have a 'friends'
page or something to trade links. Most people want that link
on the front page, but what do you do when it gets filled up
with a clutter of links? And why would you want someone to
go to a competitor? And if they were not a competitor, what
need is the info on their site for your visitors? I get a lot of
emails, as I am sure you do to, that ask for links. They just
go in the trash. With forums, blogs, social sites, etc., you
can get quite a mess of links in the time it may take to even
get one reciprocal link. Now if someone wants to write an
article for me to add to my site and put their link in, that's
a different story or something similar. But I'll bet most people
shy away from reciprocal linking today. We don't want to
add links to our sites or we don't want the clutter.

That's my only my take. Obviously if you get some quality
links by trading, it could indeed be worth your while.

Paul

.