What is the value of backlinks in an article directory like ezinearticles? I mean, if its a copy of an article I wrote for my site, isn't it dupe content? If it's a custom article I wrote for ezine, and I put it out on 100 article sites, then don't those 100 article sites have dupe content, and then they go supplemental so I get no link love?
that is true but you still will get good pr if you submit enough. The best way is to submit a unique article so it can rank highly in serps.
no value...if u duplicate a article... unique article really help. if u can't write well...then try to give review in article with plain and simple english, that's fine.
that depents on how you make the article directory backlinks. if it's a copy content, i think it will not counted as backlinks
So wouldn't I have to make 3 different articles if I wanted to submit it to 3 different directories and get 3 backlinks?
Yes think so. See Do one thing write one article, rebrand it like shuffle the data meaningfully make 3-4 articles from one article. and don’t forget to change title of each one. You will amaze it really works. I had done it for my couple of sites.
Here is a tip - write an article with 10 paragraphs, write 6 different versions of each paragraph, use a random number generator to mix them up - this can give you over 60 million different versions of the same article. Send a different version to each article directory - then come back in about 30 years and tell us how you got on Seriously, it takes 6 times as long to write the article - but you can submit for evermore (manually of course - so this takes longer also). A large majority of the articles will be at least 75% different from each other. Have at least 6 different titles more if you can think them up (all with your keywords), and at least 6 different descriptions (again - the more the better) randomize these as well. Write a different profile on each site as well, this will make all your profile pages unique. In a few months you will have a large number of backlinks and the pages will hopefully not be supplemental or considered duplicate (mind you Google seems to want to put everything into supplemental these days!). Hope this helps - have fun.
Of course once a webmaster takes one of the articles and publishes it it will become dup content. Even duplicated articles can carry good link juice as they are contextual links.