Your Article Resource Box - How To Maximize Its Use
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Your Resource Box is the primary reason for you to write and publish articles! Because, in there, you can put a call to action to whatever you want your readers to do.
In the previous posts, we have discovered how to write and publish articles and how new and knew generates website traffic.
The end of your article should transition smoothly right into the resource box. That box should present itself as the next logical step.
Consider this strategy and test it: contribute your most beneficial tip at the closing of your article and offer your second best tip at the beginning.
This is in contrast to a sales letter, where we typically kickoff with our strongest benefit and work our way down to the lesser ones.
In an article, you may want that big blast near the end, just before your readers are funneled into your resource box. Besides, your final tip can carry the biggest weight if you lead up to it, by making all earlier tips hinging upon the last one, and by indicating the final tip to come.
Chances are, you want your readers to take a specific action, so your resource box should hint at more information to be found on the topic. Therefore, rather than sending them to your website, you want to send your readers to a special (landing) page containing specific info about the issue.
Tell them to do so! Create a specific call to action.
Tell your readers how to solve that problem, how to relieve the pain, how to get more of what they desperately want, how they can reduce the risks they take. In short, tell them where they can find the solution for all the problems described in your article.
Similar to what you do with your article title and the headline on your landing page, your resource box must express anticipation, desire, urgency, curiosity, and/or other emotional hot buttons.
To entice them, you can consider using an “ethical bribe”. Just like you need a premium to get them to opt in to your list, you also may need one to get them to your landing page in the first place. Test to discover what works best.
In the end, like your title, where the goal is to have your article read, your resource box must get your readers to visit your special landing page. Not tomorrow or next week - NOW!
And similar to the relation between a Google Adwords ad camaign and your landing page headline, so must your resource box match with the headline on your landing page. Think about it. If your resource box looked like the following:
Jane Tough is a certified massage therapist, consultant, speaker and author. Watch her stress reducing monthly workshop on video. Jane is giving free access to her private site, but exclusively while charter memberships last. Join today at http://JanesToughMassages.com…
…your landing page headline should tie into that offer. Maybe:
To Jane Doe’s Private Membership Forum… Before
All Charter Memberships are Gone”
Or something like that. I just made that up, but you get the idea.
Remember, everything in your article is designed to funnel them to go to your landing page mentioned in your resource box.
Tell them EXACTLY what to do next: click, subscribe/order/download, whatever you want them to do and tell them to do it right NOW!
Here’s an extra, powerful tip: if your smart, if you’re really smart, everything at your landing page is premeditated to get them to subscribe to your list. Because you can communicate with them over and over again if they are on your list! So it’s a two-step process, two incentives: one to get them to go to your landing page and another one to get them to subscribe.
Finally, when done with all that, leverage your article wherever possible. You definitely want that article reused as much as possible all over the Internet (and off line as well).
- Post it in the article directories.
- Post it on all relevant forums.
- Submit it to search engines.
- Post it on your blog.
- Post it on your website.
- Encourage others to publish it in their ezines.
- Include your article in viral ebooks to be passed around the web.
- Offer your article as a premium report for other people’s products. Expand on the article, if necessary, to make it a content-packed report.
- Offer it for others to use on their content sites (e.g. Adwords), membership sites, as part of a mini-course, anywhere your target market will be exposed to it.
- Offer it to your affiliates.
Worried about duplicate content? There IS a nice and rather cheap piece of software, the only one that I can recommend, that allows you to easily rewrite articles and PLR content.
Sooooo…. did I forget anything?
Do you have something to add?
If so, post your comments below.
Tags: articles, publishing, resource box, writing
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February 26th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Great suggestions. I always need help with my resource box. I like the tip on using your best info at the end of the article, and the second best at the beginning. I hadn’t thought about using that info to funnel people to my blog.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Thanks for sharing this great tips. I haven’t do much about article writing yet because I can’t see the result I want.
Maybe I’ll give it a shot again and apply all the tips above
February 27th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Phenominal! Love this article. Thank you!
February 27th, 2008 at 5:41 am
Hi Case
Loved this article as it had a lot of tactics which I had never thought about before and I am going to use them on my next article.
Main point near the bio - bio text to match landing page etc
I believe that this information is worth ‘gold’ as I am sure it will lead to more interest.
Many thanks
AnneMarie
February 27th, 2008 at 8:41 am
@Darlene Test it Darlene. Check if that really works, because it also depends on the niche you’re in.
@Raymond Try it. Still works!
@Michelle Glad you liked it Michelle.
@AnneMarie You’re welcome AnneMarie (did I spell that correct this time?). You should definitely want to test this.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Thanks for that info Case. I usually forget to add the “download” or “subscribe” bit but of course it makes perfect sense to tell them what to do….!
February 28th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Great Post! Yes we should pick a resource box that we are going to use before finishing the article. The reason for writing the article is to drive traffic to the site in the resource box. Make sure the article itself has good content and with no sales pitch. The advertising is in the resource box link.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Thanks for sharing to us about this resource box. I’m quiet interested to know more about this and hopefully give a try.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:08 am
A five or six line resource box is not to no purpose of, but a resource box of three to four lines is most generally well received and very successful. You must give the reader a reason to click your link without noising like a sales letter. So, forget the free bonus offers and the limited time only jargon. Just force the reader with facts and attempt not to sound like a salesman.
One critical and often ignored point is your hyperlink in the resource box. Please remember to make sure that your link’s anchor text includes the keywords that you want to be ranked for in the search engines. Avoid use your personal name or website URL except those are the terms you want to get ranked for.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:06 am
I run an article directory and the misuse of the article resource box is apparent in many of the submissions I receive.
The main objective of the article resource box is to generate leads. Your call to action should get the reader to take the next logical step, which is to obtain a position inside your sales funnel.
The second objective of the resource box is to prove your credentials as a category authority. This means you should include your real name to allow the reader to associate the topic material with your expertise. Always, always include your name!
You’d be surprised at how many readers will search Google for your NAME so they can be introduced to more of your expertise.
Article marketing can be very rewarding but only if it’s done properly.
Your article is SPOT on the money. You’ve made some really great points in this article and I appreciate the knowledge you shared.
Good job!
All good things,
Bonnie
June 10th, 2008 at 3:21 am
Great article Case. Nowadays, the resource box has become a vital spot with the introduction of Bum Marketing.
Travis Sago started this concept which basically needs you to promote affiliate products by leaving a link in the resource box of an article related to the particular product.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:30 am
With these valuable tips, I have now come to realize how powerful article marketing can be.
Articles are not only useful in one’s link building efforts, they are also valuable at getting some needed traffic.
My heap of thanks to you for the guidance you provided in this post.
Might as well start implementing these tips.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:47 am
My experience with article resource boxes, at first, was very bleek. I came across an article like this not too long ago, made a few changes, and now I feel like a resource box guru!
Just a few simple changes can increase CTR dramatically.
My trick? After the person reads the article, you have to make them feel like they absolutely need to click through to find out more information.
A good one I use on a weight loss article is: “To learn how this will kill you within 5 years, check out xxxxxx right away - your life depends on it.”
Gets ‘em every time