Does a links page actually help your site? I recently added a link page to my website: www.gamecow.com/links.shtml . Do you think other sites will actually use those banners to link to my site?

not unless you pay them, i dont think anyone will volunterally save your ads and post them up in their site...at least i dont do that unless they pay me to

I didnt think anyone would either. But i got an email from a guy asking me if i had a banner he could put on his website. So i made the banners. I guess that the only people that would actually use a banner would be someone that wanted a link to a game site on there page. Most likely some sort of geocities site.

exactly, well you can always have an affiliate program where you put someone elses banner on your site and they put up yours...so i guess you could leave the banner thingy there.
i know a couple sites who might do the affiliate program with you
miniclip.com
hahapages.com
funnywebsite.com
00fun.com
those are among them. email them and find out if they are willing to.