I do not like spinning as I consider it to be black hat and obviously if google see the same content changed slightly on loads of different sites then you are doing it for ranking purposes.
You say SEO the articles, but if you do a search for the title of the article in "" shouldn't it bring up all the articles that Google has indexed?
That is a common misconception. Articles don't get indexed unless they are targeted to get indexed, just like any other web site page.
You have to use tags, keywords and such to tag it, then build link references to it. Google will give rank to the directory you posted the article at for their content being the latest and greatest, in part due to your article being submitted as user content.
However, the article itself isn't indexed unless you personally index it. In doing this, I would index the source page in your own article archive on your site, then use the link in the directory posts footer and author profiles to backlink for you. This is common practice with article marketing anyway.
Then, link wheel around your article and build it up in a looping process.
1. post article on your own site archive.
2. post article into directories to get a backlink and set them to go viral.
3. post notice of your article link ' on the directories ', from your site blog and social accounts; blogger, your site blog, facebook, twitter, etc.
These steps will build a backlink loop and jump both your site and your article link through the roof. The chain works something like this...
Your social links to the article link in the directory gives juice to your article profile and article. This boosts you to an authority and a higher ranking author on the directories you promote.
The articles from the directory link, then takes the juice from the above process and gives it to your home site that the article sources from in your profile, therefore, giving you serious rank boost.
That's what articles do, as long as they aren't crap and they are kw related.
