Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Article Marketing Tips: Writing a Killer Resource Box

December 9, 2009 by cindy  
Filed under marketing

A good resource box leads your reader back to your site. Photo by webhamster.

A good resource box leads your reader back to your site. Photo by webhamster.

On Monday I ranted just a bit about a couple of really bad author resource boxes I had discovered.

Today I thought I would cover how to write a really outstanding resource box that will drive traffic back to your site instead of driving them away.

The number one key to a terrific resource box is to make it a natural extension of the article itself. The article should be complete without it, of course, but the resource box should pull the whole article together just like a good concluding paragraph does.

Don’t Put a Stop Sign at the End of Your Article

Don’t start with your name. A lot of writers want to begin the resource box like a biography. “Mark Marketer is an Internet marketer specializing in organic worm composting…”

As soon as the reader comes to the name, they know the article is done, and they stop reading. Your name is a big red stop sign, and if they stop reading, they don’t click your links.

Don’t start with “For more information about worm composting…” Same problem here. The reader knows the article is done, and she moves on to the next thing.

Gently Lead the Reader to Your Site

Do tell us what your site adds to the article, with appropriate anchor text in the links. “Organic worm composting is a fun hobby the whole family can enjoy. Whether you choose an indoor worm composter or just introduce some worms to your organic garden, you are sure to benefit from these living garbage disposals.”

One Link or Two?

Some article marketing gurus will tell you that no one clicks on the second link, and that’s probably true, so I recommend putting your best link first. But don’t forget that link building is also one of the goals of article marketing. If the directory you’re submitting to allows more than one link, then you should definitely use it.

The resource box is the most important part of your overall article marketing plan. Don’t just throw something together as an afterthough. Make it work for you.

Related posts:

  1. Getting Started With Article Marketing
  2. Is Your Content Provider a Parasitic Leach?
  3. All About Anchor Text

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