There's basically two ways most people get backlinks from articles:
1. They write high quality, unique articles and submit them to the quality, established directories (like Ezinearticles.com, GoArticles.com etc); or
2. They use Unique Article Wizard or a similar service to create hundreds or even thousands of spun, unique articles from a single article which are then submitted to lower quality directories
The first method is obviously the most effective as spun articles look spammy to Google and the article directories aren't taken as seriously. So here's what I do that combines both methods to produce mega ninja results:
1. I write 10 high quality, 100% unique articles relevant to my niche (or hire a freelancer to write them for me) and submit one article per directory to the high quality directories. So all up I submit 10 high quality articles (I don't submit the same article more than once). The directories I use are (just Google them):
-EzineArticles
-GoArticles
-SooperArticles
-ArticleBlast
-IdeaMarketers
-Snipsly
-Knol.Google
-WrittenMind
-Amazines
-Isnare
-Buzzle
-ArticleAlley
2.Once they're approved and live, I then create spun versions of those articles using Unique Article Wizard but instead of linking to my primary site, I link to the quality articles using my target keyword (and variations) in the anchor text, creating a powerful article link wheel.
This looks quite natural to Google because articles can naturally get thousands of backlinks quickly. But I don't overdo it. I usually just create a few hundred spun articles linking to each quality article.
This method may sound simple ... and that's because ... it is!