Article Syndication, Gaining Steam?

A few signs that article syndication is becoming more mainstream as a link building method:

new article banks are popping up left and right

I've seen a lot more posts on webmaster forums on article syndication

This thread from SEOChat introduced me to a pretty comprehensive article submission list.
If you are promoting multiple sites, it's a good idea to come up with a
good article submission list; if you do, each 500 word article that you
have written can provide you with over 50 relevant, permanent backlinks. Not a bad deal.