You really do need to keep an eye on these link buddies. They seem to run off with your link and don't reciprocate! I think I might email them before linking and see if they even respond. I spend two days putting links up, checked them a week later and out of 25 I linked, only 2 had lnked back! A month later it was only 4!
You really should use an automated script for this. It's way too hard to do it manually. What happens when you have 500 link partners?
i have been the victim of many dis-honored trades especially when the pagerank was 0
you can use software to manage your links campaign. it will check your link partners and notify you of any tom-foolery. probably the best way to go, especially as the size of your links campaign gets larger.
Is there any point to giving someone a link if they don't link back?
there's just no "intergrity" in the world these days :) j/k! and Luthor, the answer would be, if the link is useful to your website viewers it would be worth doing. it also is not a bad idea to have some Outbound Authority Links on your pages that point to the highest PR sites. it helps anchor your keywords better.