So how does somebody fight duplicate content? Or avoid it?

The first thing you have to do is make your articles very different from each other. Generally avoid the same topics which will lead you to very similar headlines.

Another often-ignored area is the resource box. Previously, I would use exactly the same wording on my resource box for hundreds of articles at a time. This will definitely sound off the duplicate content alarm bells.

One of the best way to overcome duplicate content is to narrow one's focus. For instance if your article is on illegal immigrants in the United States, narrow your focus to the illegal immigrants in the state of California.

If you must submit your article to numerous directories, then each article has to be different for maximum effect. Personally I usually submit only to a single high traffic articles directory. The viral effect takes over from there. While a number of these re-postings will inevitably be duplicate content, many others will not be because the webmasters re-posting the articles will know what to do. The best way to do it is to write a brief comment and then link to the article at source. Still even the duplicate content obtained virally does not concern me because it is other people's time and effort involved. And what's more, re-posting on a massive scale allows a good number to slip through the duplicate content dragnet (I estimate over 20 per cent).