You can also go the safe way with articles like you should with links.
Only give them to people you know and trust.
You can submit articles to CAP (see the button on top). If you have quality articles about site building or affiliate stuff, I will also post those on my site with a link to you. General articles don’t interest me much, but specific ones do. I will require editing rights though and will change the wording around a bit.
Articles are a good way to get links from sites that would normally not link to you, but you will have to permit some customization.