If all 5 sites are interlinked together, then yes, that could affect the weight of your backlinks. It may be viewed as link bombing. Best to have them on different IPs if you can afford to.
Hi Heard it is ok to link to each other if they are unrelated but if they are related then it is a problem and this is the hooker since I must keep it tight when linking sites to me they must be related period or not worth it. So your answer can you clear it up for non related or related sites .......what are u referring to ?
It's not a big deal if you just inter-link them. Google will not punish you for 5 domestic links. However if those 5 sites become farm of links then Umm, you've to think. Sarah