Good discussion at WebMasterWorld about article submissions losing their effectiveness over the years. Members give some great advice on what works today.

Lobo writes

The point of articles is more integrated marketing, therefore where you need your article to show up is in periodicals, industry magazines and newspapers etc ..

Get your geeky head out of the electronic world ;-) the internet does not necessarily revolve around that..

…Broaden your horizons..

Sugarrae writes

Two years ago, it was a sweet situation and worked *rampantly* in “certain” engines. Article writing has its value, imho, but as stated above, it depends on where you get those articles published. The directory sites simply aren’t going to cut it these days.

Martinibuster writes

I would never advise a client to submit articles to an article directory, especially not articles straight from their website, lol.

The quality of sites using article directories for articles are, imo, from the worst conceivable SEO neighborhoods. You’re essentially giving away your site content to sites that are no better than scrapers.

As someone else posted above, articles from respectable magazines and news media are better, but that involves putting on your public relations hat.

Focus on getting your articles published on high-quality sites within or related to your industry. Become an industry expert.

Approach it from a marketing perspective with these goals:
- To build awareness of your web site, product or service.
- To establish your site as an authority or expert.

By taking this approach you will get traffic, branding and links. Plus many secondary links from other websites, blogs and newspapers that pickup the story.

Are you an industry expert? …Or is your competition?