Distributing your articles to various article banks and directories online (what I refer to as article marketing) won't work for you unless you have a well-developed resource box. A resource box is the bio information about the author that appears at the end of the article. Why is a great resource box important to the success of your article marketing efforts? Because it is the key element that will drive traffic back to your site, which should be your primary purpose when you engage in article marketing as an Internet marketing strategy. Rather than trying to sell readers with your article resource box, promote your call to action and give your reader a reason to click on your call to action to go to your web site and learn more. It's on your web site where you do the selling, not in your article resource box. Here are the 7 essential elements that you need to include in your resource box for maximum clickability: 1. Your name. Article marketing is all about branding and identity, so don't forget to identify yourself in your resource box. 2. Brief bio. Don't try to convince your reader that you're the expert here. If your reader hasn't figured that out through reading the content of your article, a lengthy bio won't change things. A short yet effective bio is written in the following style: (Your name) helps __________ (fill in the blank) to do ___________ (fill in the blank) even though ___________. (fill in the blank) 3. Call to action. Don't simply invite the reader to visit your web site in your call to action or just subscribe to your email newsletter or to join your mailing list. Give the reader a reason to visit by offering your client attraction device, which is a a free resource that the reader receives when he opts into your list. This free resource might be an ecourse, audio, video, ebook, or special report, all of which serve to continue to educate your reader, thus raising your level of expertise in the eyes of your reader. Furthermore, asking your reader to opt-in to receive your client attraction device permits you to keep in touch with your article readers long after they have read your article. Your ultimate goal in capturing their contact info is to convert them to customers. 4. Compelling domain name. Article marketing and resource boxes work best if you let your domain name do the talking for you. So, rather than sending someone to JohnSmith.com, for example, send someone to a domain name that portrays an exciting benefit or feature in which the reader might be interested. You can use your domain registrar's domain forwarding and and masking features to help you channel your reader to the desired location on your web site. 5. Keep it short. Many article directories limit the article resource box to 450 characters (yes, that's CHARACTERS, not WORDS). Use your limited real estate wisely to ensure maximum clicks back to your web site. 6. Accentuate your offer. To drive home the point that I want someone to click on my call to action, I include ==> just before the domain name of my offer. 7. Anchor text. If you have the option of including HTML coding in your resource box, create a hyperlink to one of your primary keywords/keyword phrases for which you want to create valuable backlinks. So, for example, if I wanted to increase my findablity on search engines for the term "Internet Marketing Coach," I'd link that phrase in my resource box to my web site URL. If you use this last tip, keep in mind that most article banks permit no more than 3 hyperlinks in any article. If you use one on the anchor text and one in your call to action, that leaves you with only one to use in the body of your article. Remember, it's the body of your article where you provide valuable info to your reader without any promotions, and it's your resource box where all the promotion occurs. A well-crafted resource box can entice readers to click on your offering and drive droves of traffic to your web site. Note: For a great example of a resource box, see the end of this article.
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