As an Internet Marketer you want to collect as many links as you can to your website so that it appears to be an authority on the subject for the search engines. Search engine traffic is considered by many to be free traffic. Its not like pay per click (PPC) or other types of traffic where you are paying for people to visit your site. Anyone that finds you through a search engine is really a free visitor! And if they buy from you, then that means they are free money too!
Getting a high ranking in the search engines is considered by many to be a black art, with the search engine geeks trying to keep one step ahead of the search engine optimization gurus. With the continual changes in search engine technology it is very difficult to keep up to date with them and to keep your site optimized and ranking high.
This is why backlinks actually work out to be one of the most effective search engine optimization techniques on the market. They are cheap, quick to develop, and long lasting. They are also not likely to ever be completely penalised by the search engines. Yes, certain types of links or links to certain sites may detract from your search engine ranking, but...