PLEASE I NEED ADVICE

^^^ This.

Building backlinks to copies of articles published in directories can, in the long run, be a big, counterproductive mistake. And you don't want to send traffic from one article to another. And building up those directory copies of articles in the SERP's is short-term and deeply flawed thinking.

This is something I completely avoid, because it can damage my business.

I want to build my own sites, not other people's, even if I have my own backlinks on the pages to which I'd be sending traffic and making links.

It's true that there can be a short-term traffic advantage to building backlinks to directory articles, but it's the classic case of "the descending ceiling" to do so, and is really short-sighted: it can produce some fast traffic and fast commissions, but every inch you raise yourself up in that way silently lowers the ceiling by three inches and limits the height you can eventually reach. The more you do it, the more certain it becomes that in the long run, you're shooting yourself in the foot and will end up with an article directory permanently outranking your own site for your own keywords (not exactly an ideal way to build a business!).

I'm in business to develop my own appreciating assets (my niche sites) over the long term, from which I can continue indefinitely to derive increasing, passive income. Sending to directories the traffic that I produce with my backlinking campaigns would take me in the opposite direction.

Many people do this, because of the potential for a small, fast benefit from it, don't quite appreciate the long-term damage, and end up consigning themselves, almost by force, to a "rinse and repeat" model of article marketing instead of a "building a business" model. At first, there may be a small gain, but in the long run there's a big loss in terms of opportunity-cost. For many people, that's ultimately quite likely to be the difference between making a living and not making a living.

It's easy to imagine that you're "getting traffic from article directories" when in fact you're actually "sending traffic to article directories" rather than building up your own properties.