(I'm only a beginner as well so apologies to the experienced players for my inevitable mangling of the greeks and other terminology...
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Due to the liquidity issue I generally only trade liquid series where the market maker has obligations so there is a constant spread around the money during the day and if you ask for a spread outside of that range (or put a sensible bid in) then they will provide one.
For further otm positions the volatility will move about a bit and the MM's will definitely take advantage of volatility spikes to fleece you when you buy and volatility collapses to fleece you a second time round when you sell (and given they are likely to be the only ones giving you a price at all you can't blame them).
Splitting the spread and then moving slightly to the MM's side of it tends to work. You tend to pay closer to the edge of the spread for out of the money than near the money but at the end of the day, as sails points out, volatility and delta will affect the option price orders of magnitude more than a bit of slippage. (and theta too of course as you get closer to expiry particularly for otm when volatility is low).
This is also one reason that if looking to take a long (i.e. 'buy to open') position after a spike in volatilty (e.g. take a delta position after a stock breaks out of a trading range) then you are often better off imo going for closer to the money positions because you will pay a lot of IV for the out of the money positions and unless the large move continues at the same strength you can often lose out even though delta goes in your desired direction, because of the collapse in volatility.
If you trade nearer the money you still pay a bit for volatility but proportionally you are getting more delta and the delta takes over more quickly. (though of course this works both ways - so if delta goes against you then your position fades quickly - on the other hand if volatility collapses instead but delta stays neutral or slightly in you favour the position does better than a deeper otm position.)
Alternately if you are taking long put or call positions before a breakout while volatility is still low in anticipation of a breakout then the deeper otm positions would probably work better.
Even if just looking at delta plays rather than doing delta neutral plays whlie trading volatility or the other greeks its still well worth understanding how volatility vs delta works around the money vs away from the money - it will also help in setting up the hedging side of your spread if using skewed spreads to protect a delta position.
Because of the liquidity issue I've also found myself trading the front month most of the time. If I want to take a longer term view I split my capital allocation over the timeframe and roll over each month. But its always a good idea to check the spreads further out before doing so - sometimes volatility spikes or delta reversals will get reflected differently in the front month vs the further out months.
Not sure if its just my imagination, but the MM's in different stocks seem to have different styles (this would also I guess directly relate to the fact different stocks exhibit different characteristics in terms of liquidity in the underlying stock, typical volatility levels etc.) so its worth getting a feel for the stocks you trade in because it might affect your strategies given slippage is an inevitable part of it.