Nobody these days just give away do-follow links, so there is that. So, even if you get your article re-published somewhere its very unlikely to get a good do-follow link that can actually work. Again, if you are thinking about getting links from these article sites. Then I will say that yes links from paid article sites can work but it depends on your niche and competition (it has to be very low).
Article submissions used to work 10-15 yrs ago. Its best to focus on good quality content for your site and get it shared through social media. Comments on your site helps as well.
Focusing on creating quality content and uploading it on your site should be the main priority but you will need all the attention you can get, hence you will need to use different guest posting sites to generate Backlinks towards your site, produce relevant and unique content so you will be able to attract audiences.
mm… No, that's not a good idea. If you want, just do a few of those so you can cross it out of your to-do list, but then concentrate in getting links from websites that may bring you real links and traffic.
Not sure if that works anymore. These kind of things which we webmasters used to do "ourselves" to generate backlinks, google identified them and is not giving importance to those anymore. Like article submission, directory submission, forum submissions, all outdated, or very less relevant. Google is giving more importance to links from social sites, where "others" share your links cause it has some value. Like guest posting on blogs, your link is in the content. Links from quora etc. Focus more on these rather than wasting time in traditional methods.
Google knows everything this word getting outdated as like as PR and Articles is not passing more value comparison to specific niche, that's why outreach is the king these day the reason those website contain following. - Exact related niche based with full of loaded fresh content. - Have high end engaged traffic. - Due to high authority websites guest post is the key to success. - Does not mean that PBN only related website.