There's a lot of talk about getting traffic and page rank through link exchanges. But don't most link exchanges really hurt your page rank? Here's what I'm talking about. Most sites put link for a link exchange on a back page somewhere. Those pages usually don't rank or have a very low rank of importance. Take for example my blog okoutdoorsman.com. It is currently ranked a 3, which I am quite happy about since I've only had it for a couple of months. But since starting it, I've had to move the links to another page to keep my front page from being over crowded. Now the links page is is not rated. So, if I request a link exchange with a site, even one that is high ranked, but their links page isn't would that not hurt my page rank? Is it kind of a double edged sword?
Well I would probably put the exchanges that have a decent pr on your index page until your link page itself gets some decent rank. Having backlinks does not hurt your site, they will help you get listed for whatever you are going for in the search engines. For example lets say you are going after the term Hunting Tips, use that as your anchor text when you request a backlink. Example Link: Hunting Tips See how the Hunting Tips is used for your site. That is an anchor text that google will read to list you for. Hope that make sense and helps. Maybe a fellow DP member can explain it better.
Great point, I did leave that out, don't get to many backlinks to fast. It will look to much like spamming your site and always try to exchange with sites that has relevant content.