We often say that "links can never hurt you" when people ask about SEO. More specifically, many members of our SEO reseller program read about links to / from bad neighborhoods. This get's their brain working as they think through the consequences of linking to bad sites - or getting links from bad sites. And things get even more confusing when you think about your competitors and how they acquire links. If you are confused about this, please give this a watch. I think Rand does a great job showing how links CAN actually hurt a new website. Whereas more established websites with long-standing authority are unlikely to be hurt by a link (or even 10,000 links).