I've seen a lot of websites that exchange links on their homepage with other related sites. Some will group the links on the bottom of their site to appear like their navigation. Is this the best way to exchange links with other sites? Or is it just as effective to exchange links with a link page? I know most sites have their highest PR on their homepage.
That's a poor way to exchange links, really. But those who don't know about SEO can not even what to think I bet. Protecting the home page is a basic SEO knowledge. People want to get backlinks on other peoples' home pages of course, due to PR being usually higher than other pages. Home page link exchange should be done very carefully (not just to match the niche and relevancy). In fact, I don't even want to call those links as "link exchange". If you place a link to another site on your home page, you should have a business partnership or some sort. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense to have those links on your home page.
If they're not in the way I don't see where the problem is. Some people actually use a #1 font so you can barely read them.
It is not a way to exchange links with other sites. And does not make any sense. I think you should make a partnership with other to have those links on your home page.