We'll try to look at these methods from two aspects. Using the method to promote your site. Using the method on your site as a means of making it more attractive to potential visitors. Guestbooks A guestbook is a cgi application which allows a visitor to leave comments about the website. More commonly found on personal homepages than commericial pages, guestbooks do not significantly add any additional traffic to a website.
Few people use the links provided in a guestbook to surf the web.
Putting your link into people's guestbooks is a time consuming and less than rewarding effort. From the website owner's point of view, a guestbook might allow users to provide feedback on the design, navigation and content of your site. However guestbooks are not easy to edit. Someone could easily fill up your guestbook with inappropriate material and unless you check the guestbook often, it could be days before you're even aware of its existence. From a professional standpoint, it is our opinion that a guestbook has no place on a commercial website, and even less of a place as a means of promoting a site.