I won't lecture you on link exchanges and search engine optimization. Instead, I'll tell you one way to fish for more work (and possibly end the link exchange requests).
I received this email the other day:
Dear Webmaster,We sell health products at [a vitamin site] and are interested in exchanging links with your website.
Regards,
[person's name]
This email is NOT sp/\m. It only ever gets sent to each website once. If this is not the case please let me know.
Rather than deleting it, I decided to write back.
Hi [Name],The new social web is adamantly against link exchanges, so much so that search engines like Google and Bing recognize link swaps that don't appear to make sense (e.g., I don't write about vitamins, supplements, or even health with the rare exception, so why would we link to each other?) – and worse, they penalize sites for such exchanges, sometimes even de-listing them entirely.
I am available to help better optimize your site for search engines and improve the usability on your site, if you are in need of such services. Please see this page for a description of what I do and a current portfolio.
Best,
Josh
I'll let you know if they take me up on the offer. Cuz that'd actually be pretty cool.