It cracks me up when webmasters get so worried about recip links. Do they not get the differences between a linking scheme and legit link trading. SER and SEL link to each other all the time. A large number of SEO blogs link to each other. I linke to SER and SER links to me. We never talked about a link trade we both just independently saw something we like on each others sites and linked.

Concerning the idea of web 2.0, the concept of link exchanges is quickly becoming redundant in favour of content linking and syndicated publication. Not that a link excange will hurt, just that there are far smarter, more beneficial ways to recipriate.

I think it's easy to say that linking happens naturally for the SEO blogging community. One, everyone knows the benefits of it and reciprocates links automatically. Two, content is created daily to link to.

For a small business or a new to the web business, their only choice is link exchanges. Of course they could just "ask" and hope for the best, maybe try and explain the benefits. A new site or an unlinked to site has little to offer other websites besides a link. Hopefully that link will be worth something someday.

Another options is they can allocate some of their budget to paid links, but this adds up quick if you're paying $75-300 a month.

If you're one of those rare sites that has a great concept, viral marketing will take care of your backlinks.

However, if you're like most sites with average content or a regular purchased product, you should probably start partnering up with some other webmasters who have similiar themed sites.