Hello,
the true is that google is against link building strategies, they follow it and penalize your website is they find out that you generated links in an "articial" way.
But it´s a fact that link building still works, very good to be honest 
But before you start any link building strategy i would recommend you to read a lot about it, because if you don´t do it properly you are going to be for sure penalized.
Some link building tips i wrote somewhere last week, they may help you 
- Anchors: Do not use the exacly keyword you want to rank as anchor, instead use long sentences including your kw.
- Variety: Do not get just "keyword" links, links with url, branch are also important.
- Nofollow: It´s very important to include nofollow links in your link profile.
- **Footer/sidebar: **Avoid links from footer/sidebar, specially if they are nofollow.
- **Variety of domains: **Get your links from different domains.
- Avoid links fromk penalized websites: It´s also very important to analyze the domains your site is going to be linked are healthy enough.
Good luck 