How do articles work?

[MrStitch]

Bare with me here, since I've only been doing this for a few months....

I've written my first article. Still waiting for approval though. While waiting, I've been reading more about this article process and what it's for. Originally, I thought it was to get one good link. But other people here are saying that you can get other people to publish your article, and gain many more BL's from the process.

Forgive me for this, but exactly who is publishing these articles? Is it other sites? Magazines? What is the real overall effect that you're trying to accomplish with the article, if it's not for the one single link tied to it?

[LifeinAsia]

Most people are trying to get multiple BLs by having other sites post their articles. (Would you rather have 1 BL for your article or hundreds of BLs for doing the same amount of work?)

[MrStitch]

Obviously more, however...

Why do other sites post these articles? Isn't that considered dupe content? Will it even matter, just as long as a link is there?

I don't know if we'd violate the TOS, but could you give me an example?

[LifeinAsia]

Nowadays it usually would be considered dupe content. But until a few months ago it was the thing to do.

For some people, it's the difference between having duplicate content or no content. They throw up an article, put some advertising in it, and figure out some way of getting traffic there. (Or they already have traffic coming to the main site and they just want filler for other pages.)

[youfoundjake]

Well, I've been struggling with this very topic for awhile. I just signed up for a service that will submit an article of mine to 200 article sites. Up until this point, I had been manually going to the article sites and posting it... the cost was free.
I did break down and pay for this service, a small fee, and if it doesn't work out, I lose $15. If it does hit, then great.
Primarily the reason I'm doing it is to get more IBL's, and whether its duplicate content or not, its 200 links pointing to my site.
Does anyone else wonder if its worth it?

[Jane_Doe]

Does anyone else wonder if its worth it?

I wonder if too many dodgy backlinks may hurt a site. I don't know, but once you have them there is no easy way to get rid of them.

[MrSpeed]

The main purpose I write articles is to gain multiple IBL's with as little work as possible. The thought process is to submit to a few of the larger article directories and hopefully other sites will grap those articles and syndicate them.

Why do other sites post these articles? Isn't that considered dupe content?

I write unique articles that are not on my site. I don't care if other sites get duplicate content penalties.

I tried one of those article directory submission services. So far it looks like I got the same results by just submitting to the top 5-10 article directories.

Some of the article directories actually send some traffic.