"Write for us" pages, spammy? How to tell if a backlink is not ideal

[AhFreshMeat]

Besides good Web 2.0 links, and doing all the off-page recommendations mentioned in @Ryuzaki 's digital course on here (become a part of the community, answer quora etc). I have a few questions on the topic of outreach & spam:

1. I'm gathering write for us pages that don't appear to link out to online gambling, sports betting, etc. But they do have a lot of guest posts on the page. The sites don't get an abundance of traffic but some. I can't tell if it's a bad link or not because I don't understand how to find this on Ahrefs. Is there a way to determine whether I should grab a plethora of these links with some level of confidence its not spam or will penalize my site?
2. Is it unwise to point a lot of these links to the page I'm looking to rank? I hear of people using another website as a "buffer" to safeguard and to never build links to your own site (which sound ridiculous, but makes sense)

If anyone is wondering, right now my link building plan is as follows:
1. Haro outreach
2. Making "deals" or collaborations with writers/editors of high DA sites (being their "infographic" guy in return for links on high DA sites)
3. Page specific outreach based on search operators (keyword + [writeforus/guespost]
4. Sky scraper method

Note: I've been reading through various sources online and I've watched videos, took courses, everything. Sometimes studying can't give you the insight you learn from attempting, failing, and learning. So I'm asking this question for the veterans out there regarding link building if anyone knows this information.

 

[bernard]

I think it's safe to say that any page, with a few exceptions, that has a "write for us" page and charges money to publish is on the way to becoming a linkfarm.

I don't think that necessarily mean you shouldn't pursue it, but definitely don't make them the cornerstone of your linkbuilding.

Did you look at the sites and see if they have any quality at all?

I also used infographic sites once or twice, but truth be told, didn't see much of an impact.

I do think getting in on such sites when they're new in selling links can have some benefit.

As for risk, I wouldn't worry too much, just keep your article good quality and don't do anchor optimized links.

Conclusion: These types of sites are a cheap, but not very effective, option for newer sites.

 

[PaulDragos]

A good rule of thumb is to focus on sites that have some traffic, you can use ahrefs or semrush to determine.

Of course, you can also reach out to sites with little traffic but only if they are specific to your niche. We don't really do this anymore but it works. After all, PBNs still work.

What we believe is most important especially now with all the NLP and semantic developments is that the article where the link is placed must be very relevant. This is why we prefer having control and writing the guest article ourselves.