Article Marketing Bootcamp: Resource Boxes That Work

At the end of each Article Marketing submission is a bit of author information and marketing copy known as the resource box or bio box. This is the key to turning the potential energy of interest you've created in your article into the kinetic energy of sales, name recognition or website traffic - whatever you're engaging in article marketing to achieve. There are three main components of a resource box:

• Author name and brief professional information.
• USP (unique selling proposition), laser marketing statement or some other form of short and snappy sales copy.
• A call to action with links.

In addition to being finely tuned individually, each component of your resource box needs to be an integral part of the overall finished product, pull it's own weight and move the reader steadily toward taking whatever action you want him or her to take. In total, your resource box should be no more than 2 or 3 sentences long. Less than that and you risk leaving out important information. More than that and it becomes a solid mass of text that will be skimmed over by the reader.

Here are 5 tips to help you create an effective resource box:

1. Know what you want from your readers. What do you want your readers to do once they've read your article? There is no right answer to this question, but there are wrong ones. And the worst possible wrong answer is "I don't know." The whole point of Article Marketing is to generate content that results in a specific action. Have a clear purpose in mind when you write and make sure that purpose is reflected in your bio box copy. And don't forget to update your box as your offers and information change. An out-of-date bio box is better than nothing, but not by much.

2. Know why your readers should care. Your readers are busy. They have jobs, families, hobbies, friends, a 3-month TIVO backlog and the attention gravity well that is the Internet, all vying for their time at once. If you want them to initiate any action on your behalf, whether that is clicking through to your site or downloading a resource, you have to give them a reason to bother.

3. Ask for the action. Don't just put a naked link out there by itself. And don't use boring, "Click here for blah blah blah" link text. Yawn. Instead, create descriptive link text that clearly indicates what's at the other end of the click and that compels the reader to click through. One marketing truism is that pain has a stronger effect than reward on the human psyche. So a pain-point call to action like, "Are you flushing money down the drain by overlooking these 12 commonly missed deductions? Find out in this special free report!" will always outdraw the reward-based version, "Drop by my site and download my free report on 12 commonly-missed tax deductions." (PS - don't put a period/full stop after a link. It can mess up auto formatting of the link on the user end. Just double space and start the next sentence normally.)

4. Be specific. Unless you only write in one exceedingly narrow topic targeting the same, equally narrow market, don't create a one-size-fits-all bio and slap it on every article you write. Have several resource boxes that target specific niches within your Article Marketing strategy. For example, if you specialize in tax advice for small businesses and solopreneurs, then create a bio box for both markets plus one for general interest pieces, and use them according to which market the topic of your article is targeting. Doing this means that you can prescreen readers and direct each prospect to precisely the right web page, resource or product for them.

5. Less is more. Mark Twain once wrote, "I'm sorry this letter is so long, but I didn't have time to make it shorter." It takes time, skill and lots of practice to turn 200 words of rambling information into 3 sentences of tightly coiled laser-marketing copy. Nonetheless, it is a skill you should work hard to perfect. Don't make your reader sift through a ton of chaff to find a cup of wheat. Present them with an already prepared, warm-from-the-oven marketing cookie in a perfect bite-sized portion.

All of the quality writing and insightful content in the world won't do you a bit of good if you don't follow through with a dynamic and compelling resource box that leads to a specific call to action. Without it, your article is just so much dead-end copy. Interesting, sure, and probably quite informative. But not much more than that.

Take the time to craft your resource box with care and intent. Remember to go back and update it regularly with new offers and fresh information (see if your directory will do a "find and replace" to exchange the old resource box for the new one on existing articles). Make your call-to-action clear, compelling and specific. Then finesse and trim and tighten it all up until all you have left is a pure, concentrated shot of Article Marketing rocket fuel, ready to boost your business into the stratosphere.

Author Info:
Soni Pitts is a professional freelance writer and editor, with experience that ranges from short web articles to full-length ebooks and beyond.

"Need professional quality writing, but hate to write - or just don't have the time to do it all yourself? Don't let less-than-perfect writing skills or a tight schedule leave you at a loss for words. Query writer (at) sonipitts.com for a free consultation, samples and a quote."

Article Marketing - High Volume Begins With High Quality & Quantity Articles

Recognition on Top Article Marketing Sites starts at nearly 1000 articles. If you don't have at least a thousand written, you won't make the front page list, and the numbers are rising. But that isn't the only way to get noticed.

Quality counts too.

Effective Article Marketing presumes you know something about keyword optimization, grammar, and basic writing techniques. While there are those who make it to the top of the Article Marketing heap with bad grammar, no keyword optimization, and low grade techniques, their work doesn't capture the audience, or get republished. Fact is, if you want to be seen, provide QUALITY.

Quantity counts too.

You can write a valuable piece of prose in 100 words or less, however... that won't get you published at EzineArticles or very many of the other Article Marketing Sites either. The majority of sites want 250 to 300 words minimum. Optimal article size is around 500 words. A dynamic, highly visible, useful and informative article will always be more published and more read than a bunch of words slung together to look like an article.

High Volume Results.

While 10 - 20 articles on the Article Marketing Sites will get you some results, if you continue to write consistently, building your directory by 5 - 10 articles or more each week, your business will grow, your articles will have higher impact, and your traffic volume will increase. If you desire to make a difference online, increase your volume.

Are you ready to make a difference?

Add these two high volume templates to your repertoire FREE at

http://advertizeyourbusiness.com and learn the SECRET of writing high volume articles.

Jan Verhoeff writes content. If you're interested in knowing more about valuable content and how to write online, visit http://janverhoeff.com and sign in for a FREE Subscription to Jan's News & Updates.

Article Marketing - Which of These 3 Article Marketing Mistakes Are You Making?

Article marketing is simply getting your information in front of as many eyes as possible in as many consumable forms as possible.

Here are three common mistakes that article marketers make and what to do instead.

Which mistakes are you making?

1. Failure to go deep - Going deep means writing enough articles to make a difference. So many marketers write just a few articles and that's it. Then they say that article marketing does not work, when in fact it works great, some people just don't work it! Article marketing is a numbers game. The higher the number of articles you have, the higher all your other numbers are going to be. So choose one of the higher ranked article directories and go deep with lots of articles on that one directory.

2. Failure to go wide - At the same time, others will only submit to one article directory and no others. While you can get results and traffic from just one article directory, why would you wan to limit yourself to just one when you can get results from many article directories? Going wide with your article distribution allows you to reach readers that you would not be able to reach otherwise.

3. Failure to go long - I see so many people start out all gung ho in article marketing and then fade out, complaining that article marketing does not work. You need to be in it for the long haul. You want to think of this as a long term business. I get new visitors and new subscribers every day from articles that I wrote and submitted years ago.

And now I would like to offer you free access to two of my Article Writing Templates. You can download them by going to http://www.TheArticleGuy.com/bonustemplates.htm

Would you like to get in on our free weekly Article Guy TeleSeminars? Visit http://www.TheArticleGuyTeleSeminars.com to get started today!

From Jeff Herring - The Article Guy & GreatArticleMarketingNetwork.com

Article Marketing And Why Your Business Needs It

You have probably already heard about article marketing and now you are wondering if it might be able to help promote your business. Web sites by themselves can draw some traffic but are often limited in terms of successful business marketing or campaign marketing. Of course, that depends on the type of online advertising you are using. Article marketing, however, provides you with a very efficient and lasting tool that can bring lots of targeted traffic to your doorstep - ready to look at what you have to offer. Here are some reasons why article marketing should be part of your online marketing strategy.

1. It Provides an Excellent Product Marketing Tool

Whatever it is that you are selling, the Internet can put the word out faster than any other means. It can also reach a much wider audience, even providing you with a global outreach - at a relatively low cost. You may already know that keyword promotions, such as Google's Adwords, and other cost per click programs, can be very effective also - but they are not cheap.

Article marketing, on the other hand, which also uses those same keywords, is free - except for the cost to produce the articles (unless you write the articles yourself). These articles can be professionally written on the same keywords that your web site focuses on, and they can be distributed at no cost to you and posted online - in multiple places.

2. It Brings Targeted Traffic to Your Website

Once you have a number of quality articles written by a freelance writer - one who specializes in Website content, you have the quality you need to get the job done. Your article marketing starts when they get posted at some of the more popular article distribution web sites. The search engines find them - and they begin to direct targeted traffic to your web site.

3. It Directs to the Right Page

The article itself needs to be written around a keyword or keyphrase which will then direct people interested in that subject to a particular page on your Web site. For instance, if you were selling plumbing products, then you would want articles dealing with all aspects of plumbing. Titles may include things like How to Choose the Right Faucet For Your New Kitchen; or, How to Fix That Leaking Showerhead; to, What Are the Most Popular Bathroom Fixtures?, etc.

Each article leads people to the right page on your web site. The first article, for instance, How to Choose the Right Faucet For Your New Kitchen, would direct traffic to your Web page which provides more information, and some links where your visitor can find new faucets, faucet parts, and possibly books on the subject. As you can also see, a couple of the titles work to get people's attention - and you then provide the solution to their problem - and get sales.

4. It Is Effective Because of Multiplication

One of the great aspects of article marketing is that other people are most likely selling the same thing. You ask, how can that help you? Simple - every web page needs web site content. Since other people who have plumbing web sites (according to the earlier illustration), or blogs, also need web site content, they look for free articles to build their web site faster. Article distribution centers require that the author's name and web page links remain attached at the bottom. This means that for every individual that picks up one of your quality articles - it also provides another inbound link to your web site (at no cost to you) - increasing your search engine popularity.

5. It Works Around The Clock

Each article continues to be a part of your strategic marketing plan and efforts as long as it remains on the Web. Article marketing continues to work to promote your product or service around the clock. Because others will pick up some of the articles - your Web site popularity grows even more with time, increasing your targeted traffic - and profit.

A simple way to get started is to communicate with a web content writer who knows how to write for the search engines (SEO), and who can give you the quality web content articles you need.

By Mike Valles - a home business, finance and real estate writer and marketer. For more information about Internet marketing and tools you can use - including PLR and MRR materials, Web page templates and headers, go to his Web site at: Article Marketing To Go.

Powerful Article Marketing - Uncover 6 Hidden Steps to Energize Your Article Marketing

Are you looking for ways on how you can take your article marketing to the next level? Let me uncover the 6 hidden steps to help you do just that:

1. Submit only to reputable article submission sites. Don't waste your time submitting your articles to publishing sites that have little or no traffic at all. These websites cannot help you in any way reach your article marketing goals. Stick with the ones that are highly visited so you can increase the chances of your articles being read and republished.

2. Increase the number of your articles. In article marketing, more articles mean more inbound links. More inbound links can lead to increased targeted traffic. As you know, when you have enormous traffic on your website, you can tremendously increase your sales potential and your online revenue.

3. Make your content targeted. To drive quality traffic to your site, you must produce content that will attract the right kind of online visitors. For instance, if you are selling cosmetics, you must write about beauty tips and other related topics. These can attract people who are deeply interested in your products who might consider buying from you.

4. Keep you articles focused on one theme. Avoid presenting irrelevant data or content that can greatly confuse your readers. Prepare an outline first before you write your articles. By doing so, you can decide on what information you need to include or exclude on you content.

5. Keep SEO in mind. Don't forget to design your articles in such a way that they will be search engine-friendly. This is the best and only way to give your articles good page ranking.

6. Read and follow the rules set by publishing sites. This is to save you from the hassle of revising your articles should they be rejected by article submission sites.

Want to learn how to sell high ticket products online? Download my brand new free guide here: "How to Sell High Ticket Products Online"

Sean Mize teaches a powerful, highly advanced system of creating and selling high ticket products online.

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Fast Article Marketing - 4 Targeted Steps to Energize Your Article Marketing

If you want to strengthen your online presence and establish your name as an expert on your chosen niche, you better start writing and marketing your articles. Currently, this is the most effective way not only in driving quality traffic to your site but also in building trust among your potential clients.

1. Carefully choose your topics. In deciding the topics for your articles, consider these major elements: they must be relevant to your target niche, they must be able to promote your products, helpful to your target market, and they must be timely.

2. Write more. Don't be contented with the number of your articles posted online. In article marketing, the more articles you write and submit, the more online users you will be able to attract. Set a systematic approach when utilizing this technique. Set specific days for your writing and for your submission so you can be more productive. You must also allocate adequate time when you can check your progress and improve your articles when needed.

3. Solicit feedback. If you are not getting favorable results, ask for feedback and recommendations from other article marketers or from your target audience. These people can help you look at your articles in a more objective way so you can easily identify the areas of opportunities.

4. Submit your articles. You have 2 options when posting your articles online. You can opt to manually submit them or go with automatic submission using various software. If you aim to accomplish more, I suggest you go with automatic submission which can help you electronically post you articles in just minutes. You can use the time you save on writing more articles.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.