manual is recommended....not only for PR even for article, ads, directory.....dont go for automatic for softwares for submission.
It has to be manual all the way. Search Engines can tell if you are using software for submissions by the link patterns. i.e. if 10,000 ppl use the same software to submit to the same sites they will all have the same collection of links.
Na they have some software for a few it is working. I think some people also use firefox. You can not post 75 PR sites and charge 10$ do it manual.
Do it yourself. Most software only works for the first few users who use it. Once google catches on they punish the other users.
I take it there are 2 reasons you want to submit articles? 1 to drive traffic to your site and second to help with your search engine rankings. if you wish to use this as an SEO activity then automated software is not good. Google, dislikes automation as it un-natural. Google likes links to your site to be organic and the the site to grow naturally. if you use automated software the link patterns will be flagged by google and you will be penalised.
that depends on where people are submitting from. people from developing countries can afford to do submission job for $3 per hour. i c it all the time. i love to see however all the people preaching about manual submission being the best. for sure it is the best but thats not what OP is asking