Should I be aggressively seeking link exchanges to boost inbound links to new site for SEO?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Erik Ojakaar: I have a new site with very little traffic and  ;I also have another site that is quite popular (lots o traffic) and tangentially related.  ;Should I be aggressively seeking link exchanges to boost inbound links to new site for SEO? I've heard that inbound links are a necessity for search ranking.
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  Mike Stetzer: It's more than that. It's about quality, and more specifically, relevancy. I would steer clear of "link exchanges". I think Google has gotten very good at identifying link exchange networks. I've seen sites get hit by link penalties and never recover.
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  Ranu Jain: Hi Mike,
  
  I think if you own both the sites and they are somehow
  related then there should not be any problem, though there are exceptions to it. ;
  
  Please have a look at this post about linking two similar sites: ;http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-says-it-is-okay-to-link-your-sites-together-but-in-moderation-157141
  
  Mike, IMO the case here is little different. Please you too refer to this URL. You might get agree to what I wrote.
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  Mike Stetzer: Ranu, when he asked "should I be aggressively seeking link exchanges", I did not interpret that as him linking between the two sites that he owns. I interpreted it as him seeking out Link Networks to get links.
  
  Link Networks such as: ;http://www.seroundtable.com/google-ghost-rank-17415.html, which Google squashed in September.
  
  Of course, if you own two domains that are related, you can link between the two. ;
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  Erik Ojakaar: Thanks Mike. Correct, I'm not talking about aggressively linking between my two sites.  ;They are already linked in obvious ways.  ;I'm just inquiring about my new site and whether one of the most fruitful things I can do is try to get links to my site on relevant / related sites. I will definately steer clear of all of the black hat link exchanges.  ;But now I'm thinking I can leverage my popular site and allow for discounts on ads etc., if they also add a link to my new site on their site.  ;?? good idea?