Well, my home page is a pr3, most of my main product pages are a pr3. but due to an article - the page on my site corresponding to that article is a PR4.. so articles DO work..and they DO get links!!! and yes I know my PR sucks, but I just haven't the time to bother with trying to get legitimate one way links just to appease Google, and the people contacting ME for link exchange still want to do reciprocal, and generally offer me a link on a pr0 non-indexed page... yeah right.... Anyway, I've been ranking consitently at good positions on mostof the other big serps, and my site IS a quailty site, so Its googles loss....and mine...sigh....
Yes, article marketing is very effective for getting people to join your opt-in list or to get backlinks. You just have to be sure that the article is high quality and appeals to your target audience.
try becoming a buzzle.com author. It takes a few weeks but my articles are always listed number one in Google with them.