I have some great links from the New York Times, do you think it is unwise to link back to them if I find a useful article?

Can this really be seen as a reciprocal link!?

I totally agree with the statement "I like the concept that a directory is good only if you would still want the link if it passed no link juice."

However... I have a bit of an issue with Best of the Web (and many other "quality" Directories). The only reason that you would want a link without link juice is if it was bringing in traffic.

We have been on BOTW for 3 years on 5 of our websites. I have just checked and we have received a total of 9 clicks (across the board) in those 3 years. Hardly worth writing home about.

I've never met a person that uses directories other than (yell.com perhaps). I have even forced myself to use BOTW for a week instead of Google and it only lasted 3 days before I gave up.

Am I missing something?

I also just did a search on BOTW for "Air Conditioning" and this result came up: http://www.kingair.com.au (just one example that took me 10 seconds to find)

Is this really "The Best of The Web". Why would Google trust their judgement?

Have you had any successful blog posts? Our safari / firefox count often has a massive jump when we promote things to social websites.

Check your top keywords and see if the same statistic is true.