I write articles from time to time, upload them to our website then wait for them to be indexed.
Once they are indexed I then submit them to
http://ezinearticles.com/ and
http://www.goarticles.com/ (there are loads more but I just don't have time), put optimised links in the sig and wait for them to be published.
We don't actually get that many people publishing them. I suspect it is to do with my tone of writing - I can do
SEO copywriting but I tend to be a bit formal to be entertaining enough for blogs etc - more than anything.
I know at my old company people who had a friendlier, more relaxed type of article writing style tended to get much greater exposure.
I hope that helps.