Am I Selling My Soul To The Devil?

I have been a little absent on here just recently due to time constraints. Or should I say some things have been taking all of my time up.
Have I Made A Good Decision?
Through networking I came across a publishing site that has to remain nameless as I have signed up to their affiliate program. They sell website owners the opportunity for backlinks to their site through paying other website owners like me to post articles that they write on their behalf.
Now I am not moaning about their pay as it is really useful but Just recently I have had up to 7 a week to publish. Okay I can say no and I have, if it hasn’t suited the demographic of my readers. The challenge comes from the quality of the articles. As my site is DA 19 they only write 500 words ish some under some over. When my DA reaches 20 my pay and word count will go up.
So the bottom line is this, I having being putting out at least 6 posts a week... this is good for my SEO but I wouldn’t put out a 500 word post ever. My minimum is 1000. This means I have to add to their content and often have to reword the whole lot because it doesn’t pass the duplicate content test! Also I have to find images as they usually supply one generic one.
Okay I have no groans about the money which is paid promptly on publishing the article but I know how much they get paid for the backlink and mostly there will be at least 3 in each post.
So Have I Sold My Soul To The Devil ?
Here we are told that backlinks are not important but trust me there are some big companies I have linked to on my site.
Should I be doing this or have I been caught up in the backlink world.
Everyone’s thoughts good or bad are most welcome.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
I guess I really don't understand enough how backlinks benefit or hurt your site to really respond. Sorry Karen.
Tried and True
Elaine
I have been tempted to start doing what you are doing but haven't tried it yet. I was hesitant it would water down the authenticity of my site which so far is based completely on personal experience and personal reviews.
I hope it works out well regardless of which way you go.
Jessica
There are mixed feelings and views about backlinks. Some say they are good, while others beg to differ.
Backlinks, providing they are white hat, can never be wrong as they provide exposure, and they do actually help to rank a site faster.