Your resource box is the only place in your article you can actively promote yourself and what you want to offer. Therefore give some thought to what action you want your reader to take and you will be handsomely rewarded.
Purpose of the article resource box
After providing valuable information in your article, your reader’s mind will be well prepared for your offer at the end of the article. Your article is where you give free information so you are serving the needs of your customer. Your resource box is the only place where you are allowed to take something from them. This is a natural give and take scenario. If you have provided an excellent, value oriented article your visitor will be happy to respond to your offer.
Steps to create an effective article resource box
The resource box should only be a maximum length of 6 lines. If it is longer than that visitors
may not make the effort to read it and move on.
1. Include your full name
Readers want to know who wrote the article so this is an opportunity to say who you are and why you are an authority on the subject (see resource box below). If you don’t include your name you lose the chance of branding your name to your business and missing out on the chance of building your business reputation.
2. Include your web site address
Readers will check out your web site address to see what you are offering and what business you have. Make sure you write the whole address ie http://www.domain.com. This not only helps your visitors to copy and paste the address into their browser but most article directories will automatically make this a live link. If you don’t write the complete address the link will not be live.
Tip
Use anchor text in your resource box. Most article directories allow you to include 2 web site addresses. Display your full web site address and also insert it in your anchor text to boost the link popularity to your web site. ie article marketing
3. Include your offer
Your offer should take them to your web site where you are promoting it on your web page.
Use 2-3 lines to promote your offer. Examples of different items you can include are: free ebook, short report, e-course, or newsletter subscription.
Tip
The advantage of a newsletter subscription is that you can send multiple offers to the same person over a long period of time. People don’t often respond the first time, so offering it to them several times allows them to make an informed decision. The downside of a one time offer is that you only get one chance to make your pitch.
4. Include a call to action
After pitching your offer, ask your reader to take action ie visit your web site and subscribe to your newsletter. Offering several calls to action will only confuse them and cause inaction through indecision. Keep your resource box simple so it’s clear what you want them to do.
Tip
Apart from your main web site address, you may want to include the address to your subscription page or blog. This has the advantage of getting two inbound links to your web site instead of one.
Conclusion
Create several different resource boxes if you have different items you wish to promote. This will save time recreating your resource box. Try to vary the anchor text for each box. Search engines frown upon people that use the same anchor text repeatedly.
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Affordable Web Site Design
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