One of the topics discussed at PubCon was the idea of submitting articles to generate traffic and to gain link popularity. My questions are the following;

1) What are a few quality sites where you can submit articles? (Not 100 in a list but 2-5 quality submission sites)

2) Does anyone have any examples of articles they have written that were widely distributed? Any tips on achieving this?

3) Would an article on the history of the sundial be a good idea for a site that sells sundials?

Thanks for your help, questions 1 & 2 are the ones I am most interested in.