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There are times when I get emails from people that just make me almost roll on the floor laughing and the one I got just a few minutes ago is a perfect example.

I was getting ready to send out an email to someone when the alert went off to tell me that some more email had arrived. Out of curiosity I checked to see what was waiting for me there and low and behold it was a rejection notice. A link list had emailed me a notification that they had rejected one of my submissions.

Now normally, for a free site builder, rejection notices are not something that you would laugh about but this one was. You see, I must have submitted the site that was rejected at least three years ago ... and probably even longer ago than that. And it's taken them that long to get around to reviewing the site and rejecting it?

Even though I've run a number of link lists myself and understand all the hassles that are involved in running a link list I think that taking years to get around to approving a submission is a little too long.

If you're thinking of starting your own link list as a way of generating traffic and sales and you think that it looks like an easy way to make money then perhaps you should think again. There are easier ways to generate traffic and make sales than by taking submissions from other webmasters.

Running a link list is a never-ending job. You have to go over each and every site that's submitted to you with a magnifying glass to make sure that the submitter isn't doing anything underhanded with the internal links or images. You also have to go over each submission carefully to ensure that the site complies with your rules.

If the site does pass inspection and you do list it that's only half the work done. Every link list owner who has been in business for a while knows that it's important to keep checking every site they have listed to make sure the submitter doesn't change things once the site is listed.

Of course there are scripts that allow you automate a lot of that subsequent checking work but once the script raises a question mark about a site you then have to go and check it manually. So the checking work is always there day after day for as long as you're running that link list.

Add to that the fact that you have to keep on changing ads in and out of the list to keep them fresh and attractive to surfers and you also have to get traffic to your list to make all the work worthwhile and you will soon be questioning your sanity in starting a link list in the first place.

Yes link lists are a lot of work but if you get everything right and you feature the right sponsors then you can make quite a tidy sum from a link list. From one ad for one sponsor on the front page of my biggest link list I made enough to pay the lease payments on our car for three years so there is money to be made ... but it takes a lot of hard work.

There are ways to reduce the amount of work you have to put into a link list. For example you can run a link list that only lists your own sites. If you're knocking out a free site, an AVS site and a gallery a day ... and that's not impossible if you work smarter rather than harder ... you can fill a link list quite quickly.

Another way to fill a link list is to limit the submissions to only the webmasters that you know and trust in this industry. These are the guys you've been chatting to on your favorite webmaster board or on ICQ. With their help you're going to fill a link list quite quickly too.

One of the biggest problems with a private link list is attracting traffic and the bookmarkers that are so important to link lists. It's not impossible to attract that traffic but it will take time and to get things happening you're going to have to look at all the ways of attracting traffic you can find.

Including a recip link to your own link list on every free site you submit to other link lists is just one of the ways to achieve that but be careful ... some big link list owners will reject your sites if they think you're trying to leech their traffic with a recip to your own low-traffic link list.

Buying traffic is always an option you should consider and there are more ways to do that than looking for a traffic reseller. Of course you should consider those guys but you should also think about Adwords. The cost per click may be high but perhaps it's in your price range ... not everyone who starts a link list is flat busted broke when they start it.