There are multiple facets to website promotion; search engine optimization, email list management, offline ad placements, etc.  The list really does go on.  However, one very critical part of website promotion that we have found is to EXCHANGE LINKS with other websites.  This tutorial will explain the ins and outs of how to EXCHANGE LINKS. 
So why exchange links?  Basically, if there are more links on the web that point to you, you have a better chance to get more visitors to your site.  And that's what every webmaster should want, the more visitors to your site, the better chance you can convert them into an income! 
Where should you link to and where should you want links from?  This is not an easy question to answer.  Any link to you is a good thing, the problem is, if that page gets zero traffic, you get zero chance of traffic coming in from that link.   You want links from places with traffic, and preferably links from sites that have similar (targeted) traffic are better yet.  If the traffic coming to your site is already focused on the subject of your site, if they want to be there, you have a better chance to make money thru you site. 
So the next thing you need to decide is if you want to exchange links with your competitors or not.  Some people don't want any of their traffic to end up with their competitors, why help someone do better when you're trying to take their customers.  On the surface it looks like a bad deal, you don't want your competitors to get stronger.  But if your website sells balloons online, for example, and you are one of the top 10 balloon sites online already, it might be a good idea to exchange links with one of your competitors and together try to be the top 2 balloon sites on the internet.  Make an agreement with this other site which states that there will be no other trades with other competitor sites.  Doing an exchange like this should help both parties because the search engines will read that two of the top 10 are now working together and the search engines understand that you are getting stronger and therefore could/should improve your search rankings.  So in this instance you would get related spill off traffic from your competitor and increased traffic from search engines because your site is "more relevant."
Another way to exchange links is to exchange with related websites.   Pretend you sell automotive paint on your website.  In this scenario it would be good to find out what are the popular automobile sites.  Not all automobile sites sell paint, find those that don't.  This would be a perfect fit for those who don't want to work with competitors.
For those that are just starting out, exchange links with anyone that will trade with you.  You need to begin with some traffic, later on you can find better and better sites which will consider your request to exchange links.
Finally, you may wonder why this website doesn't have any links on it (except to our own sites.)  Why aren't we following our own advice?  First of all we already have traffic and this is because we have made link exchanges in the past and secondly this website is not fully developed but will be in the future.  Thanks for visiting, good luck.