Articles in exchange of a back link : Need advice

I don't see the problem if he can write some good quality content.

A better idea to build up your blog would be to find good quality content yourself, put it on your site and link to the source, it's called content curation.

Just add you personal opinion though to the article to give your blog a personal touch.

In principle, yes.

Thousands of people certainly do.

I've lost count of the number of other people's blogs on which my articles have been published.

I'm giving them the articles because I want some of their traffic to click on my link, not so much because I want the backlink, but the "wanting it to be published there" part is similar.

Only two things, I think ...

(i) You need to check, as much as you can, that you're not publishing "stolen content" that someone else (the true owner of the copyright) can complain about your publishing - in other words, be as sure as you can that they are really his to offer you.

(ii) You might want to make sure that he's not a direct competitor and selling/promoting exactly the same things as you (because if he is, and especially if he's doing it very well and very professionally, you might not want your traffic going to his site?).

If you want the additional content for your blog, it's a good thing to do.

Don't imagine that you need the articles to be "unique" or that Google will somehow "penalize" you for publishing articles already published elsewhere (if they are published elsewhere): that's all nonsense. Every article I've ever had published on anyone else's blog had already been published somewhere else. What it all boils down to, really, is whether the content he's offering you is material you want to share with your readers/visitors.

Some people call it that, certainly. Usually people who are promoting or selling something to do with "curation". Others call it "theft", if you publish it without the copyright owner's permission. Don't let anyone tell you that "linking to the source" somehow legitimizes re-publishing whole articles without permission - that would be extremely naive!

For my blog, I'd approve with some conditions apply. I only accept unique quality article which I will read first. I'll check with Copyscape to make sure it's unique. Tell the guest blogger that this article won't be published elsewhere; otherwise, I'll remove it.

I've had a lot of requests from people wanting to do "guest posts" on my site, and so far I've always refused. I'm trying to build my own audience, not funnel it elsewhere.

I think regardless of "backlinks" and "SEO" and whatever else, site owners should make up their own minds about whether or not they want to. For me, it's simply a matter of personal preference.

I would recommend (especially for those just getting started) to invest the time in doing likewise. Build up an audience first, then consider guest posts.

A good example of this strategy in action is SEOMoz.