Think about this question for a moment:

1. You have unique content
2. You want to post this exact same content to article directories, ostensibly to build links, correct?
3. You're wondering if this is a good idea?

If content is unique, but then you cut and paste it into dozens or hundreds of other sites, it's no longer unique...not going to get you the result you want.

BTW, old-fashioned article directory submission doesn't work anymore (Panda killed it). You're better off writing unique content one article at a time and contacting bloggers to get it posted.

As long as you have published the content on your website, and it is indexed in google it is fine to send it out to article directories because you will be getting the credit for that content.

If you have good quality unique written content, other publishers can pick up your content and publish it onto their website with a backlink to your site. This is considered a quality backlink and it can generate you alot of traffic.

If you have your unique content published on your website FIRST, then yes you absolutely can submit it to directories.

I suggest submitting it to ezine, articlebase, amazines, and goarticles. These are a few top article directories.

The reason I know this is because a fellow warrior Alexa Smith does this. She writes good quality articles that get syndicated and published onto other's websites. She claims that this is where she gets all of her traffic.

Article marketing is still very effective if you do it properly.

I don't know who the xfactor guy is, but here's what I recommend doing to all my clients:

1. Create a site that Google can understand. Is the structure crawlable? Does each page target a specific keyword? Are all the minimum tags in place? (i.e. title tag, meta description tag, image alt tags)

2. Create original, high-quality content that's every bit as good as anything you find anywhere else (if not better). SEO can't succeed long term with poor content, and you'll get better results faster with great content.

3. Get your site listed in the important directories in your industry, create social profiles on the big networks (facebook, twitter, relevant forums/social sites in your industry) that link back to your site, and if your site is locally oriented then get into Google local, Bing local, etc.

4. Start building relationships with the experts in your industry. Is there a blogger that talks about your industry and/or is well read in your industry? If so, try and strike up a conversation. Email them, write thoughtful, interesting comments on their articles, etc.

5. Start contributing to the community. Write guest blog posts for quality blogs, develop tools, share data...anything you can do to make the web a better place and establish yourself as an expert.

6. Promote your site the way you would any business - think about where your customers are and then get your message in front of them.

7. Rinse, wash, repeat.

That's all there is to it. Don't focus too much on techniques like article marketing...even if they do work for you today they won't last long-term.

BTW: Article marketing isn't nearly as effective as it used to be, which is to say it's basically ineffective now. Don't waste time on it.

For SEO, I believe you would want to make sure that the search engines cache your website first, and then only you can lift and send content to other websites such as article directories. You want the search engine to understand that this content has originated on your site and the rest of it is syndication with acknowledgments to your site.

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Website content should always be unique. So, don't submit your website's content in article directories. Write different content for article submissions.