thanks guys so much for your input.
LOL, but I’m as confused as ever only now at least I feel I’ve been pointed in the right direction to wander…
to simplify it to terms which are easy for me to understand, it sounds like I should just put in links where they make sense to be; and not worry about whether a site is cross-linked ; or not.
bet my money on the hopes that the SEs will (if not already) be able to spot links that are there for a logical reason and reward accordingly.
and make sure my link text isn’t always the same.
thanks to you both again for taking time out to answer.
and also for keeping me from having to sit down and figure out which sites to link to which etc. I was getting a headache just thinking about it.