Are article directory submissions really helpful?

Deeksha Paliwal asks:
You have done a really nice job on your blog and it is also very much helpful for SEO and adsense purpose. I am a new comer in this field and I started my work at home and have so much financial problem that I m not able to take any kind of own domain and hosting service. Are article directory submissions really helpful to get visitor on blog and site and is this the best way of SEO?

I have an adsense account since 1 and half months and till now I earned only 3$. I am not getting enough visitors to my blog based on online shopping. Please have a look of my blog: www.onlinebabyproducts.cc.cc and please provide me feedback and what should I do to promote my blog.

Answer:
Thanks Deeksha for the feedback on this blog. Glad that you found the info helpful. Before we go into answering, I would like you to read this post where I wrote about creating a website with zero investment.

Article Submission for SEO
There are a lot of article directories out there and the numbers are ever growing. People are flooding them with well written (and not so well written) articles. What might be the reason for this trend?

Yes! This is one of the best ways to some quality back links, better rankings and better traffic. In addition to the search engine dominance of these articles, you also will get a decent flow of traffic (from the RESOURCE BOX) if your articles are well written and some ezine publisher chooses it to be published in his ezine (or web site). While this is one of the ways in which SEO is done, this is just the tip of the SEO ice berg! This is one of the many steps involved.

Promoting your Blog
You are a very new publisher and you blog is new too. During the first few months of blogging, you shouldn't look at your income. Build content and income will follow.

I guess there’s something wrong with the URL. Pls leave a comment with the right URL. I don’t review blogs here SEO wise, what I can offer are some quick tips on your ads.

For promoting your blog you can read this article on making your blog better.