Links from newspapers, magazines, digg, slashdot brings traffic but that traffic is not steady. While the news event last it brings traffic but afterwards no more traffic. Links from Wikipedia don't bring much traffic, but that traffic is steady. Have anyone noticed other types of links which gets steady traffic?
One of my sites has two links from .edu sites that provide constant steady traffic. These one way links are from an article I wrote geared toward college students.
Prime location link from a same category (but not competetive) site. Yes. Link exchange may not work for google but they surely work for traffic.
Craigslist. Google base, Froogle, Myspace. These are sites that you can post on that tons of people traffic on that will give your site viral exposure and soem great traffic. I do it all the time. btw in any linking campaign you should make it seem as natural as possible from link exchange, one ways, site wides etc.
Even competitive sites, I would say. Or maybe we just draw the line differently between "same category" and "competition".
I guess the point he was making is that most competitors don't want to exchange links. Tell me more about getting traffic from Froogle, isn't that only for selling?
Signature links from related forums bring me steady traffic...(now I wish i was able to participate in those niche forums more but they still do bring in steady traffic)
There are many other ways that can help bring steady traffic to your site. One example is to get listed on other sites that are related to you. For example, we run a travel and tourism website and we give free listing to event and venue operators, and to hotels, hostels etc on our site. This is beneficial for them, bcz they can get listed on a number of other travel websites also and get a steady stream of traffic to their sites. More like piggyback on the rankings and traffic of the big travel websites.