Probably a dumb question, but do people just type in the search terms which are contained in the article you submit and that shows up in the serps? I just didn't understand how if you get a new article accepted, it is more likely that that will get seen before older ones in a search engine or what the deal was. I honestly didn't know if it was that or normal people just went to ezine articles everyday and had it bookmarked, looking for new articles to read to educate themselves or what? Doesn't seem like those people would be targeted at all, so the search engine answer seems more appropriate.
I'm also interested in the answer to this. There is ONE Ezine Article that has, I swear, the top spot on Google for 3-4 long tail keywords in my niche that are low competition, and have decent search volume. (1 to 3k a month). And get this, the thing was written in 2006. That guy's probably raking it in and has been for 2 years off of one little article he wrote one day. I'd love to knock him off and steal that revenue. Leave him thinking, "Why aren't my checks coming in anymore?", you know?