Everything I've read has said not to do link farms and not to link to your own websites... even if they aren't on the same IP. People say Google can detect it. So if you aren't supposed to interlink your own websites, then how come a network like this doesn't get penalized? http://www.autoforums.com/index.php This guy links to all his websites, most of which are on the same IP 66.18.170.xxx All his forums also link to each other. If this is a bad practice, how come big networks like this (and many others) do it and get away with it?
Cross linking for purposes of passing PR or manipulating SERPS is what google doesn't like. Just because a site is crosslinking, it doesn't mean that it is helping them rank better. There is nothing wrong with cross linking if the sites are related (which in this case they are) just don't expect google to count the link when it calculates rankings. If you have a lot of links pointing to non-related sites, you run the risk of getting a link farm penalty. If you still want to link these sites for traffic, just add a nofollow tag and you'll be fine.
Linking one of your sites to another is no problem, just do reciprocal linking between your own sites. Say you have 5 sites in one niche, point the worst one at the better 4, the second worst one at the better 3, the third worst one at the top 2, and the second best one at the first best one. Just make sure none of your sites links back to any other linking to it, Google dislikes reciprocal linking.
But they aren't going to give you any benefit if google knows the sites share common ownership - that means, same host (class c ip), same whois, google analytics, webmaster tools, or same adsense code. Google doesn't like reciprocal links because they aren't natural - the only reason the link is there is because you gave the other site a link. Crosslinking your own sites aren't natural "votes" for your site. Google is a registrar and has other ways of knowing who is "voting" for their own site.
I use wordpress and most of my sites are in each of the blogrolls...there is not a problem with this...
Yes and NO Google can detect it if they manually review it and also I wouldn't be surprised if they have some type of algorithm that detect it now days, but on your case you'll be fine. There not going to say anything about you linking to your own site besides that there is a ton of sites that run off the same server they are called shared servers. For example say there was 300 sites hosted on a shared server, but 25 of them linked to you. Would Google penalize you for this, probably not. You'll be fine.
Google is based on algorithms. They assume any site on the same server shares common ownership. The chances are very, very, slim that you will get a natural link from someone on the same server, but algorithms aren't perfect, and google isn't going to count that link.
Yah, just don't be ridiculous with it.... don't link every single site to every other single site in your network......
If you interlink your sites it should be for your visitors not for the search engines. A bunch of links in a footer probably won't help much. If the links are in your site's navigation and your visitors actually click them you'll be fine.
Having the sites listed like that is probably for visitors to go there... traffic from one site to another
I don't think linking to your own sites is bad as long as they are related sites. I've linked my own sites on the same ip and didn't seem to hurt.