Even so that it is true that Forum are good and that Directories aren't to bad either does it really depend on where you are. US, for example, has way more SEO agencies (ergo Competition) and therefore Directories have nearly 0% influence. The new Panda Update on Google doesn't help much either when it comes to Article Pages. Therefore, the best solution is to be creative and spend money on building something that is worth looking at, instead of spamming the forum and articles side with useless links.
Unique copy writing definitely. Have you seen the Old Spice ads or the latest Magnum Ice Cream chase thingy? They are great for sharing, bookmarking and add, on top of that, great SEO value. And if you think about it, spending $100 on directory links or $100 on a photoshoot/page design/video creation, you get more out of the later one, even if it doesn't give you 1 Million visitors.
Due to recent google changes, stay far, far away from duplicate content (like what you might get from article marketing), stay away from robo posters, and anything else that can create duplicate content. Build backlinks and create unique content for your sites, and you should be good to go.