If I am submitting articles to multiple sites on a submission site or syndication service, am I defeating the purpose of the link if I am creating duplicate content all over the web? I have heard that links for duplicate content is better than no links, but I am not sure. Also, If I am submitting articles, should they not be the same article as ones on my website? Does that downgrade the article on my site?
My opinion is ' no backlinks' is better than duplicate content. Quaility and unique articles submitted in High Pr article submission sites do really work. At least worked for me. My accepted articles in ezine articles helped my rankings. They were not written perfectly as I am not a native English speaker but the content was good enough to be accepted. I have only 3-4 articles submitted and already ranking good. But I do not have any answer to your second question and would love to hear what others will say about it but I can say that I bookmark the articles in my website instead of submitting them to article directories. I also bookmark my accepted articles to drive indirect traffic to my website.
as angelicakaka answered your first question perfectly.., to your 2nd question..., YES, the importance of your article is lil downgraded if you are submitting 1 unique article to a set of article directories, say for example 10 sites. in my opinion having 1 unique article to 1 unique article directory which gives more importance in the eyes of google.. quality article always attracts users attention.. so make as much as quality and most important it is interactive content really helpful in getting a very quality traffic towards your website.. hope this info helps you out a bit.., hope to see some more insights by some DP fellas..,
Have a read at this http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/07/new-notifications-about-inbound-links.html .... Mat Cutts says something about excessive article directory submissions.... Now this is just my opinion and with some readings about syndicating content. People who syndicate one content all over the place/web are doing what's called article marketing. They don't care about google, they don't care if their site ranks or not. They syndicate their content in hoping to reach a lot of readers. Now if you have published the article on your site and plan to syndicate it. Then if people did read the syndicated article and clicks the link going to main site and see or reads the same article. Most likely, they will leave the site instantly. I'm really not good in explaining things but hope you get something out of this post.