Yup, it is good and it has its uses, even for experienced webmasters, thumblogger is almost in business 3 years now. But you didn't expect a different answer from me
Don't worry about places where you can submit your blog, there are many places that do accept thumblogger blogs, especially when they are "good" blogs. And above all you really don't need to submit your blog to 50 blog directories, 15 to 20 good ones is all you need to get the fun going.
Finding blog trades won't be a problem neither, just post a message on the support board and depending on your blog you will have some nice trades. Or use Blog Trade Finder (
http://www.adultblogresource.com/tradefinder/ ). Or just post a message on a webmaster board, when you have a good blog link trading won't be a problem.
It of course all depends on your blog, most people won't trade with a bad looking blog that is not handwritten or doesn't have something special (like pagerank). But the same applies to a blog on your own hosting.
