The basic steps involved in a link exchange campaign are as follow:

1.) Finding potential link exchange partners
In order to gain targeted traffic it becomes extremely important to get links from related websites. The websites can either be horizontally related (dealing with the same products/services/information) or vertically related (dealing with corresponding or complementary products/services/information). For instance a website selling shoes online can plan on exchanging links with similar sites that sell shoes or with sites that offer complementary products like shoe polishes.

Search engines and directories are your best means to locate potential link partners. Yahoo! and Google directories (or Dmoz directory) can be an extensive source for getting started.

2.) Sending mails/requesting a link exchange
After locating relevant and related sites the next task in a link campaign would be to send mails. Mails can be sent manually or by using email software programs that offer mail customization facility. Mail customization is extremely important to avoid being termed as a spammer.

Mails can even be sent after adding the potential link partner's link to your website and then asking for reciprocation. But this is not advisable as non-responses are very much a reality in any link exchange campaign. Following this method would involve an additional task of finding and removing links that did not reciprocate.

3.) Reciprocating to agreed partners
The natural step that follows after sending mails is the reciprocation of links. Links can be reciprocated by using the link information provided by the link partner. After reciprocation it is customary to inform the link partner of the link whereabouts and assure him of a permanent link.

4.) Monitoring the links
Many webmasters feel that monitoring the links is by far the toughest part in a link exchange campaign. Link monitoring is also by far the most important part of a link campaign as many websites tend to close down as time progress and some others may even shift or remove links without notice. Manual link monitoring is a tedious process and can lead to wastage of time and resources. Instead one can make use of link monitoring tools that make use of spiders to regularly monitor links. A particularly useful tool in this regard is offered by Rebrand Software. Another useful tool in this regard is offered by http://www.recip-links.com. This tool is web based and is free.