A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around how some sites that rank well in Google but only have links from sites they actually own.

The disturbed SEO said:

Guess what? It works. It doesn’t necessarily matter if the sites that link to you are sites you technically own. If you have good quality content and the links are somewhat quality, then it will count. If you abuse it, then Google may take action, but otherwise, it is fine.

Let me quote Wheel, a Senior Member at the forums, who said I “use it myself thank you very much. Works great. And remember, that doesn’t invalidate the content or usefullness of the site that is ranking.”

He added other methods he uses:

What do you think?

Let me be clear, this does not mean you should go out and build thousands of blogpost blogs and link them all to you. If it looks unnatural, Google will eventually get you.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.