I like what Mr Des Walsh has to add to the usual rhetoric about the increasing pointlessness of ‘link exchanges’ and unsolicited requests for reciprocal link.
… to have a page somewhere on your site which explains your policy and strategy. That way you don’t have to compose a detailed response to each person who emails you: you can just refer them politely to your policy page and perhaps wish them well. Why burn bridges by ignoring them? Who knows, one day they might be so famous you would love them to link to you :)
My spam filters eat all these links requests these days. Whether or not any of the spammers will actually follow the link is doubtful – but if they do, who knows they may just click on one of your adsense ads and earn you an extra $0.001