Interesting debate
I have a directory that offers free listings in exchange for links. I don't think it is excessive reciprocal link exchanging yet, but there will come a point in time when it is in G's opinion.
I am in two minds whether to stop it and the reason is this - it is quite niche so the links are relevant. It perhaps isn't best practice, but it doesn't feel unethical either.
What are all the other directory owners doing?
In my mind I am concerned about something like Florida or whatever it was called happening again not because I feel I am being unethical but because if there was anything major there would be innocent casualities, like the oversized
shoemaker described in John Battell's book on Google. To mitigate this I am doing things on different servers, etc perhaps it is a bit paranoid... eggs and baskets
OWG says "Promote your site well" and I totally agree with this and although I don't do much article marketing I do send out press releases which do get picked up - there are thousands of column inches to be filled every week. It is all about PR - that's public relations before anybody starts shouting : )