Suppose I am selling widgets on a website. Can I build a bunch of satellite websites with like "widgets reviews" and such with links going back to my original site? Does the search engines from on this? Any risk of getting banned or anything form the engines?
I think you might mean "frown" on this. I don't think they would frown... Those "satellite" sites with the links going back to you would be one way links. That's fine. It's a good idea to try to both one way and reciprocal links as well. You won't get banned if you do things in moderation.