Hi, I want to use Tahoma font for regular text and Verdana for the links that are in the text. Is this a common way or against the "rules" of proper page design?
This is not against the rules... There should not be any issues. After the change just make sure that it looks fine...
Its better to be consistent throughout your website, however if you are using a different font for say, all your h1 titles, that would be okay.
For a page design, its best to stay consistant.. however design wise: there is an exception: using a different or more fancier font type of your site's name/logo is fine. For content and links, keep them the same type.. it looks more professional and organized that way.
Yeah what everyone else said I usually just use color and text decoration, such as underline or italics, to distinguish links but it's your site so do what you think is best.