We know that reciprocal link exchange is an excellent method for pushing up the popularity of a website and we are working on doing exactly the same as everyone else and and are building as big a list of links back to us as we can - BUT it's REALLY BORING, from our visitors point of view. We would much rather EXCHANGE ARTICLES with back links embedded in relevant content.

Okay we know it works but we still think it's boring for our visitors. And while it might help our ranking, we would rather have back links embedded in really useful short articles and stories that are truly interesting to our visitors at the same time as exchanging links to help popularity. For example, articles about buying property in X place, or DIY tips, hints about how to get your lemon tree to grow, recipies for marmalade, advice about selecting a mortgage, servicing a car, alternative energy sources, or any other informed article that we can include in our main category pages with a back link embedded in the text naturally. We think this is much better to our visitors, much better for us and much more valuable to your sites too.

On our American Links page we have exchanged links with:

Gardening Everything you need to know about backyard gardening, including planting, caring for and harvesting your vegetable garden.

It's in a list with lots of others that we feel will probably only be of use to other webmasters looking for sites to link with rather than our visitors.

We would prefer to feature as an article in our "Living in Greece Articles" along the lines of:

Looking After Your Grape Vine

Grapes make an excellent back-yard crop. The vines do not take up much space, and since there are varieties that are well adapted to a wide range of climates, inexperienced gardeners should be able to produce a good crop. Generally planted with cuttings about 96 inches apart and plant at same level as they were in the pot. Birds and wasps love grapes. If they are decimating your vines, cover with floating row cover or fine netting as the fruit begins to ripen. Don't over water or over fertilize. If your leaves go brown at the edges it indicates that your watering too much. If you get masses of foliage but hardly any grapes, it indicates that you've over fertilized. You should prune your vine just after the domant period (not growing in the winter) when you see the first buds appearing. Cut the vine back to just above the 2nd bud from the root. Don't worry about the sap rising, it's normal and won't harm the vine. The Essential Garden Guide is a good source of help if you want to maintain your own vine but you might even be inspired to grow your own tomatoes, melons, vegetables and salads.

We think that this type of linking is much more interesting and helpful to everyone, so we would ask you to encourage your website customers to submit articles as well as their link details.

Many thanks