1. The way most people dodge this rule is by using the following structure:
http://www.domain.com/freesite-name/niche-keyword/
http://www.domain.com/freesite-name/another-keyword/
http://www.domain.com/freesite-name/yet-another/
.. etc. Just make sure you duplicate all your html pages because not doing so may get you declined at certain places.
then store your pictures in a central location such as:
http://www.domain.com/freesite-name/pictures/
2. I've done both ways. Sometimes i submit to 12-16, other times i submit to 100+. Both ways will work, but I think if you focus on a single entrance and try to get it listed well in the engines you'll be better off in the long run. You can work on promoting it everywhere by adding to directories like dmoz, etc. You can then tweak it later to try to gain higher positions in the search engines. This also helps with the fact that some linklists require you to update your site every so often (once every 6 months to a year, i think.) or they delist your site.
On the other hand, if you submit to a bunch of linklists you could quickly get quite a bit of traffic to play with, it just won't be as high of quality as the search engine traffic. I've heard stories of google delisting duplicate pages. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not.
3. I don't have an answer to this question. I'll just say that I try to make my sites unique (different layouts, custom logo and gallery buttons) .. but as you say they probably all look very similar in structure.
4. There aren't too many partner only linklists, But there are a few. Some are easy to get an account, others you pretty much have to know some people.
This doesn't matter as there are plently of high traffic public linklists. Just keep making nice sites, eventually you maybe able to obtain a partner account at some of the larger linklists.
josho
