Problem loading shared objects from /usr/local/hello/lib after puting path in ld.so.conf

Hi There,
I am facing a problem when loading a shared object from my directory.
I have followed the follwoing steps.
- copied the shared object libhello.so.1.0 to /usr/local/hello/lib
- run ldconfig -v -n . in /usr/local/hello/lib
output:
libhello.so.1 -> libhello.so.1.0 (changed)
- create link to libhello.so.1 : ln -s libhello.so.1 libhello.so
output of ls -l in /usr/local/hello/lib
libhello.so -> /usr/local/hello/lib/libhello.so.1
libhello.so.1 -> libhello.so.1.0
libhello.so.1.0
- put path /usr/local/hello/lib in ld.so.conf
- run ldconfig

But still when I run my application I get an error that says it cannot
load shared object libhello.so.1.0

Also if I export the LD_LIBRARY_PATH, then it works fine.

I am working on 64 bit Redhat Linux Ver 2.4.18-e.32smp

Any help in this regard will be help ful.

Thanks,
Jitesh