what are the other best ways to develop links apart from the reciprocal link exchanges.. I am looking for free and paid methods of link building. Arthur.
For free link building generally what many veteran SEOs advise is to build good content(which is always tough for me as it needs loooooooots of hardwork). That is why I go for buying link. That too trying few cheaper links and purchasing them slowly month by month may be an effective idea to grow and avoid BLOOP effect of Google as well. Some times I found Linkworth to be a bit useful for buying cheap links, though you need to be careful about spammy sort of websites.
You can develop a tool that relates to your site and distribute it for free with a link on the bottom or if it is an online tool just start telling people about it. People love to link to tools they like.
Articles, directories, buying text links, buying banner ads, quality content, signature links are all the 'recommended' ways to get links.
Free methods. Submit your site to free directories and article sites. Paid methods buy links or go for paid directory, article or Press release services. You can find them in DP buy sell too. Abhilash.
Generally I heard that too many directory listings with less content links may not bring a positive G traffic. So it is probably better to get some links inside content and add directory links. Not to reduce the importance of directory links, it is better to have a spread.
Wikipedia is another good source of quality links provided your site fits into the content lest the link will be removed in no time....