Backlink Sharing

Has anyone had success backlinking to each others websites (where appropriate). Its a particular area that I have not yet explored. I have mainly tried to build content and website design structure. I know there are backlinking factors involved in how sites are ranked. I even dug in some sites on articles that can be ranked fairly high and reviewed some of thier backlinks.

My non scientific conclusion. It does play a part, maybe more so as the sites ages and has more content but it does seem to matter. By the way for some of the sites that I looked at in certain niches not all of the backlinks were great. Some came from really crappy site (hate to say that) but nothing that I thought someone would find interesting to read. Some even looked that same as others, almost as if they were kinda bogus sites developed for backlinking.

Nonetheless, has anyone tried it with success amongst each other here. I am guessing where appropriate with sites that use white hat tactics and fit it in the appropriate content and areas, that it will give your site some extra juice that it needs to get recognized.

So, anyone have some experience here?