I strongly recommend this one (and I happen to know that so do other people I know who are successful with article marketing in 2013): Turn Words Into Traffic

It was written a long time ago, but the underlying basis of article marketing is more or less timeless and predates the internet, anyway. It's fully relevant to 2013.

And a few threads which might help ...

How I write articles: How to increase likelyhood of article syndication?
How I use articles: Your article writing ISN'T working! This is why:
How I find publishers for articles: How to Find Article Syndication Partners?
How I approach them: Questions about Content Syndication
How article directories work (it may help other people, even if you've already decided it doesn't interest you): How do Article Directories work?

Here are 6 books about article / content marketing that might help you:

1. Content Strategy For The Web
2. Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy (2nd Edition)
3. Clout: The Art & Science Of Influential Web Content
4. Content Rules
5. Get Content Get Customers: Turn Customers Into Buyers With Content Marketing
6.The Elements Of Content Strategy.

All are available on Amazon and or bookstores. Just Google these titles.

Don't waste your time.... focus on social media signals

Guest posting is a great way to get some great article traffic, also if you can find some niche related article directories I've had good results with that.

Guest posting can be a little tedious so my assistant contacts related sites, and gets the yes then I write the content. You have to go though a good amount of people for them to say yes.

It also helps if you have a big list and say, I'll email my list of 20k people and send them to my post on your site when it's live.

Is article marketing still effective? Have they recovered from Panda beating?

The best practices of article marketing in 2013 haven't actually changed much from article marketing in 1713. Writing to directly engage targeted readers using the leverage of strategic alliances through syndicated partners is extremely powerful. Assuming the article has other positive engaging factors relevant to the reader, and coupled with the leverage achieved through syndication, it can drive massive and highly targeted traffic. For any given commercially viable niche there may be hundreds, or perhaps even hundreds of thousands of relevant publications for potential syndication. As referenced by Alexa, this marketing model is explained in detail in this classic ebook written by Jim and Dallas Edwards well over a decade ago; Turn Words Into Traffic.

It is possible to build your own niche list rather quickly by offering relevant content to authoritative publications with large readership audiences. This is accomplished through regular contributions of articles, which can carry a subtle but powerful perceived endorsement by the publisher. Using article syndication in this manner as a marketing tool has been well understood for about three centuries now (perhaps even longer if you include China where mass publishing was first invented in 1051 with moveable type). Writing for branding and credibility consistently beats the hell out of writing for clicks and backlinks.

Social signals are working good. I've been doing article marketing with same keyword anchor links and otherwise too, it doesn't help much and sometimes damage, until the link is directly from a high-PR site.

If you are going to pursue an article marketing strategy you really will have to write great content, or have it written for you.I like this form of marketing and my plan is to do more article marketing this year.

In today's environment, to me article marketing does not work anymore. It can but results are slow. Everyone wants fast results. Social media is the way to go. (ie. twitter, FB, instagram, youtube)

Article marketing or content marketing if you prefer, does work. From my own results I find the quality of the traffic is better - more interested in what you have to offer long term rather than just wanting to get a freebie.

But you need commitment to put the time in to writing the content - I think that is what puts people off as Chase Watts says.