All-In-One: All About Article Marketing

[Sean Ski]

Keep resource box short and stir up curiosity...

"Best Article Writing Robot in the World"

will almost always pull better than,

"John is a nice guy who likes to sell stuff and blah blah no one cares... and he also has this article software at this site"

[aboutalhah]

Warriors love this thread, so I just thought I'd add it here. Download the 3 step by step pdfs on the thread:

How To Make $414.44 Per Month With Affiliate Marketing Blueprint!

Franck

[Chris Thompson]

There has been lots of debate in the past about publishing articles to your OWN website first. This proves that you SHOULD.

From Buzzle:
"Eventually your article will get posted on potentially 100's of web sites. Search engines need to know where the content originated from. This is why it's important to post your articles within your own blog, or web site before you submit them online to other sites."

Source:
Post Your Articles 1st Before Submitting Them Online!

[Simon74]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

Instead of posting articles in article directories and have to get them approved, you can use web 2.0 sites and post them without approval.. and even borrow higher authority.

Squidoo.com
Weebly.com
Hubpages.com
Quizilla.com
WetPaint.com
to name a few...

Thanks for sharing this great info Jason!

Simon

[Jag82]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

Instead of posting articles in article directories and have to get them approved, you can use web 2.0 sites and post them without approval.. and even borrow higher authority.

Squidoo.com
Weebly.com
Hubpages.com
Quizilla.com
WetPaint.com
to name a few...

Why not post to both article directories and web 2.0 sites? And spin the articles for individual submission (to make the content unique) while at it?

Let's try to get a bigger piece of the internet pie.

Jag

[Gitonga]

Originally Posted by warriortx

(Video Video Video) Use keywords as the title and uploade to all video websites..

this is about article marketing,do you mean i submit my articles to video sites?how is this possible.

[JohnMcCabe]

One thing I don't understand is the obsession over do-follow vs. no-follow links. Unless, of course, your sole reason for submitting the article is the link.

Wanting to get something for your submission is obvious. But there is more out there than just link juice.

If the link is no-follow, but people read and click on it, you get something out of the placement.

If the link is no-follow, but other people syndicate your article - and your links - you get something out of the placement.

As I see it, that's three valid reasons for submitting articles to other peoples' sites, and only one has anything to do with do-follow/no-follow.

1. Direct traffic via click-through
2. Syndication, spreading your article across the web
3. Any SEO benefit for the link

If a given site doesn't give you at least one of those three, then go ahead and cross them off your list.

[samsonthomas]

Let's have some tips on the bio-box. After all, that's what the article is intended for.

If you get lot of views but no URL clicks, it really isn't worth anything. In fact, you've lost money - in terms of your time and energy.

So then, who are the bio-box experts out there? What can be considered as a good ratio of article views / URL clicks in general?

[LilBlackDress]

Originally Posted by theimdude

Hi Jason,

Magic Article Submitter works great but I submitted a article to 600 directories and only 98 have been approved and the rest still under review. It has been 6 weeks. Another drawback is that it only submit to article dash board sites but a plus is you can submit spin ready articles. We must twist Alex's arm and ask him to include other directories in the program as well.

A friend of mine started a new site using article dashboard and has 7000+ article on already. It is articleblast.info so you might want to add that to your submitter.

Can there be potential problems with so many links coming from lower authority directories like these?

[Marhelper]

When you write a resource box, do not waste your time focusing on who you are or all that you accomplished. Lay aside your ego and make the sale. Give them a reason to want to click on the link in the box.

[Allen Graves]

Originally Posted by LilBlackDress

Can there be potential problems with so many links coming from lower authority directories like these?

I personally don't believe there could be many potential problems, but I certainly don't see any potential advantages - at least not in the last several months.

I believe the juice from these sites has been all but squeezed out!

Allen

[henry21r]

Thanks buddy for sharing the list of directories... i need it very much because my son use to write articles for school....it would be helpful...

[MattSteel]

Originally Posted by Bryan Kumar

This is a cool idea, Allen! Another way to add tons of value to this forum.

I love article marketing. It's gotta be my top strategy (has been for a long while.)


The title of your article is more important than most marketers realize.

Think of the tips you've read or heard about creating powerful headlines. Many of the same principles apply here. Your title should:

• Relay a strong benefit to the reader (preferably a specific one.)

• Include 'hot button' words, trance words, or Keywords. The reader should immediately recognize what the article is about, and whether or not it relates to him. (These are also the keywords/keyphrases that your targeted buyers would be searching online for.)

• Phrase your title in the form of a question, just as many powerful headlines are. Ex: "Would you like to improve..."..."Do you make these xyz mistakes...", etc......


Bryan

Lots of good tips here, Boss! This thread is terrific! This is good advice for a variety of writing types. Good of you to share! KUDOS!

[hamed]

Here are some tips to convert your article readers to buyers.


1. Do not overdo it.

You do not need to overdo your promotion when it comes to your articles. Internet users these days are much wiser than they are before. They can easily see through it if you are simply trying to stick much advertisement in their throats. Instead of overselling and hard-selling, aim to establish credibility through your articles.


2. Establish credibility step-by-step.

You cannot instantly create credibility over a single article but you can accomplish this step by step. You have to make sure that your article content is honest and believable enough. Instead of blunt promotions, you can try providing information related to your niche or you can create product reviews which compare your product to the competition. This way, readers can know why they should prefer your product or your company over others using verifiable information.


3. Create opportunities for them to get more.

Once you have established credibility, then you must provide them opportunities to have more. You can lead them to other articles; you can lead them to your site for more ideas; you can lead them to your sales page to buy; or you can lead them to another page to regularly subscribe. The important thing is, do not stop with your articles as they are only stepping-stones to making each reader become a buyer.

[Mike Morgan.]

1. You need to have high quality articles ;
2. You should create more articles in a short period of time ;
3. You need to facilitate article creation and syndication process so that you will have time to create more and more articles ;
4. You have to create search engine friendly articles ;
5. You have to get your article published in as many high traffic sites as possible, etc.

[Nahar]

SEO checklist (some of the on page factors)

The following is a list of factors which will increase your chances of your article being listed on top of google results. Keep in mind that search engine robots will never buy your stuff but people will - if your web pages read and look attractive to humans. So, please keep the following factors in mind but make things feel natural and convincing. Designing your content for both spiders and humans might be tricky at times. As a general rule: whenever you cannot make both sides happy – consider the people your priority.

To avoid the repetition of “keyword phrase”, the word “keyword” is used to convey the same meaning. Also – unless indicated otherwise – the word “keyword” means the “page’s main keyword or keyword phrase”

• Title: Include the main keyword in the title (for best results: let your title start with the keyword, for example: “keyword | 5 tips”, etc.)
• Start a sentence with the keyword (once or twice)
• Place an LSI keyword (related keyword) close to the page’s main keyword (once or twice – don’t overdo it)
• Use LSI keywords in the text (1 to 4 times)
• H1, h2, h3 tags – include the keyword at least once
• bold or italic – emphasize the keyword at least once
• image’s file name – as long as the image directly relates to the keyword

[JAIDEEP2959]

Originally Posted by kendrickyi

Keyword density; try to have your keywords or key phrases appear 2-5% of the time in your article

Google and Ezinearticles don't accept keyword density over 2%.

However Yahoo and Msn accept keyword density upto 5%.

[JAIDEEP2959]

1) Make sure you write articles in good English or get it done from native English speaker.

2) You should write articles using long tail keywords which has less competition to get on the first page of search engines and provide extremely targeted information. You can get those keywords from Google keyword tool.

3) Articles shouldn't be too long, shorter articles like 300-450 words get more views.

4) Don't reveal all the important information in the articles. You should hide some important details to make sales.

5) It is better to put a link of a squeeze page in the resource box with strong call of action to collect the leads.

6) You can bookmark your articles and share it with your friends on Email, Facebook, Myspace etc.

7) If you participate in forums, use the article link in signature file to get more views.

Good Luck.

[sndas]

Originally Posted by TMG Enterprises

Use your content as many times as you can, whether you change it up or not. Don't limit yourself to simply using an article one time for directory submission. Use that material until it's worn out...on your own site, on the web 2.0 properties listed above, in your autoresponder sequence, incorporate several into a free report to build your list, add it to a larger paid product, create a video, make it into an audio file...etc.

That's the key to making your content really give you the best return on investment (either time or money).

Tina

Hi,
I agree with Tina's article marketing tip. As I also use all my articles following the same procedures excluding any audio or video clip.
It provides a great result.

Thanks
Satya

[GeorgR.]

--> Always talk about a PROBLEM and a solution

"How can i ..."
"How to..."
"How to Fix..."

and so on are GREAT titles. Combine with effective keywords.

You would be amazed if you'd know how many people look daily on google for a VERY concrete solution to a problem "How can i fix...." <-

In your article, make it clear that you are competent and you know what you are talking about. Dont over-promote a product, sound neutral and knowledgeable.

PROVIDE the solution. Dont spill the WHOLE solution in the article - the "ultimate" and "best" solution for the reader is always to click on your link <---

Eg. the article *could* be about some freeware software which does this or that, you mention this in the article, but you make it clear that the comerical XYZ has more features and is better for only few bucks....and...guess where you can get it? Yes...from clicking on your link.

[GeorgR.]

Originally Posted by sndas

Hi,
I agree with Tina's article marketing tip. As I also use all my articles following the same procedures excluding any audio or video clip.
It provides a great result.

Thanks
Satya

Do you re-use your articles AFTER they have been published on EZA?

[boaterscott]

When I posted this last night, I thought perhaps I'd get a few late-night responses. Wow, great insights. I've learned so much. I've decided that I'm going to:

1. Do good keyword research (I feel like I can handle this).

2. Use those same keyword(s) not only in articles, but in video titles too.

3. Start writing using many of the suggestions here

4. Submit, submit, submit.

If anyone is stil reading this thread - does anyone have an example of a short article that includes many of the things talked about here?

-keyword(s) in title
-keyword(s) in article
-good resource box
-catchy statement at the bottom

[LadyL08]

If you have Windows Vista you don't even need Dragon Naturally Speaking. There is speech recognition built in.

I've found I can type faster than speaking and correcting using speech recognition, but it is so much nicer to be relaxed and not so hunched over the keyboard.

[KathleenHobbins]

Originally Posted by vicone

So often I see articles written that provide the reader with too much information. The author appears to be driven by the need to inform and educate the reader.

However, the purpose of the article goes beyond that - from the marketer's perspective it is a marketing tool which will hopefully generate clicks through to the website contained in the link that has been provided in the resource box.

It is tempting to provide information in an article which contains the details you expect to find in a catalog. This needs to be resisted.

Provide Useful Information That Is Incomplete.

When the reader's appetite has been whetted and they are eager for more details the resource box tells them how to get what they want - by following the link it contains.

Control the reader's flow of interest all the way to your website.

Ivan

I learned this by testing it. When I first started article marketing, I treated my articles like a short term paper, not like a marketing tool. I always gave away all the information because that's what you do with term papers.

But I had the advantage of getting on a lot of email lists of some very successful IMers. (Yes, that can be an advantage if you learn from them.) And I often clicked through to read the sales pages. When I noticed how they balance what they give away, I started imitating it. You need to give away some information to build credibility. But you need to withhold enough to build motivation for the reader to do what you want -- click through or sign up for your list or click the "buy now" button.

When I learned that, my CTR soared.

[dadvocate]

I posted basically this (just added a little more here) elsewhere to try and help someone, so I thought I may as well contribute here too:

I would recommend that you keep your article between 300-500 words at the most. Longer articles have a tendency of boring the heck out of people. Keep in mind that A LOT of people don't actually read a whole article. They 'scan' it. The longer the article they have to scan through, they may never end up at your link.

I personally have clicked away from articles that were to lengthy. ;]

Plus, don't EVER try to sound like you're selling something. You also want people to feel like they've gained something from your article, so give them enough information to provide this, yet at the same time keep them wanting more (which they'll get through your link ;]). Add personality to your article, like as if you were addressing a friend.

Keep your keyword density at around 3-5%. That will be enough to get listed in the search engines without becoming spammy, which search engines don't like.

The most important thing is to develop a trusting relationship with your audience. Like I stated before, address them like you would a friend. This is extremely important when it comes to developing a list of subscribers as well. Trust is and always will be the most important thing in IM.


Shawn

[Sylvia Meier]

Article marketing is not a get rich quick scheme, it takes hard work and constant upkeep. At some point you will reach a level where you don't have to write everyday etc to keep your income flowing but it will take you time to reach that point. Don't expect the results to hit overnight. It is a long term strategy. Keep at it and it will pay off.

Do your research, what works in one niche may or may not work in the next, and for this reason understand it takes testing and fine tuning each niche to get the perfect formula. And on the same note, remember what works for one person may or may not work for the next. Some people can get away with longer articles and not bore the crap out of the reader, where other authors are better suited to the shorter articles, so as not ot lose th reader before the click through.

Just keep trying.

Sylvia

[dadvocate]

Originally Posted by Sylvia Rolfe

Some people can get away with longer articles and not bore the crap out of the reader, where other authors are better suited to the shorter articles, so as not ot lose th reader before the click through.

I'm sorry. I should elaborated more. =)

MOST people get turned off just at the SIGHT of a lengthy article as well, in most niches, therefore do not even bother to check it out. This is exactly what you DON'T want when trying to get a click-through. If they want more info, they will click.

An exception to this though would be something like the relationship niche. Someone trying to salvage their relationship/marriage will be extremely desperate and therefore would most likely read a lengthy article, provided it has great content to offer. Therefore, in such a niche, you could provide a lengthy article indeed, offering enough information without giving too much away.


Shawn

[Trent English]

One big thing I am not understanding here. Most people here seem to be advocating giving tips, answering questions, solving problems etc. in your article like you are writing a paper on a certain topic.

Why would you solve the problem in your article? Isn't the product you are trying to sell, or the report you are trying to give away meant to solve the problem?

Shouldn't the article itself be reminding people what their problem is, and why it is a problem in the first place? From here we can suggest our product as a solution.

It seems to me that doing it the way that most people suggest just solves peoples problems and sends them on their way...what is their incentive to click on our link or move on to our next offer?

[dadvocate]

Trent,

IMO it works best to give them SOME tips, but keep them wanting/needing more. This is a way of showing them that you actually CAN help them, and that you WANT to help them. By the end of your article, you have to have them WANTING to click that link and KNOWING that it will definitely be worth their while. Anyone can say, "click the link and I'll show you how", but if you give them a "taste" of what your offering, they will be "salivating" for more, in the process increasing the amount clicks. ;]


Shawn

[aboutalhah]

It's a shame that articlebase is nofollow... however, they give you really decent rankings (sometimes even better than EZA). I submitted an article last week and it got ranked FIRST in Google in less than 24H.

And the keyword is super profitable.

I say: do not boycott AB because you still get a lot of traffic and branding. This is good.

Best,

Franck

Originally Posted by acedalright

Beware of Nofollow directories!

Why give your blood, sweat and tears driven content to them if they won't give you a miserable dofollow link?

2 directories at the time of writing this that are nofollow enabled are Articlebase and articlealley.

I say boycott them in favor of dofollow directories.

I liken it to painting a friends house and not been offered so much as a drink.

Your Call?

[himanuzo]

Article marketing method is useful for link building regardless the article is duplicate content or not.

[Kylerudy]

thanks for the great idea

Kyle

[AvidAZ]

Some good advice here. I tend to write long articles as a few of the sites I like to post too require 750 words as minimum. I usually have to write a trimmed down version for eza.

[SEOQueen]

Article Marketing remains one of the best ways to draw your target market to your website and convince them that you are the best answer to their needs.

Only Article Marketing Can Give You The Traffic You Need To Increase Your Exposure And Skyrocket Your Profits

[GeorgR.]

>>
Beware of Nofollow directories!
>>

Don't you think it would look a "little" suspicious if ALL your backlinks are dofollow?
I am pretty sure Google analyzes that aspect too to determine how "natural" links are...

[kungfumarketer]

Hello friends! A lot of great tips here! I'll have to come back & read more of them. I have been doing a lot of research on articles with tons of views & testing myself.

There are two things that really stand out to me. A great headline can be incredibly effective, even if you don't do well with many other aspects. I'm not saying write garbage, but I've seen articles where people don't do much of anything right, but they have a great headline & get massive views.

The other aspect would be great SEO & use of keywords. It's not about density, it's about placement.

Write your article first making it natural & readable, then go back & optimize. It doesn't have to be super keyword dense, it's more about placement. Use keyword(s) as close to the beginning of your title as possible.

Also use them at the beginning of your teaser copy (summary or meta description). Use them close to the first word of three to four paragraphs as well as in your author resource box. Having them peppered lightly through the article (3-5 times), but properly placed will do far more than trying to put them in there a ton of times.

Happy Holidays to all,

Scott Blasczyk
kungfumarketer
MLM Peak Performance

[John Tighe]

I posted this elsewhere before discovering this thread. I think it ought to go here too!

I've been doing a lot of article marketing recently and I thought it might be helpful to put together my list of top 20 sites.

The sites that have made it onto the list have done so based on a combination of Alexa Rank and Page Rank: ie, a site has to have a good combination of both to make it onto the list.

For convenience, I've arranged the sites in order based on their Alexa ranking.

Please feel free to add your suggestions if you think there are other sites that should have made the cut!

Page Rank

Even though links may be no-follow I felt that Page Rank was an important ingredient as the higher the PR the more likely your article is to show in the organic results.

Figures in brackets = 2007 rankings

The figures in brackets show the sites' respective rankings in May 2007 - I've added these because they give an indication of which sites are on the way up and which are on the way down.

It's interesting to see how many of the sites (11) have lost page rank in the last couple of years. Only two - ArticleBase and GoArticles - have gained page rank. Of the remainder, three have stayed the same and there are four sites for which I don't have figures - these are marked (n/a).

Of the 16 sites for which I have figures all of them have increased their Alexa ranking.

EzineArticles remains the Daddy of them all, but ArticleBase is catching up fast.

My personal top three (marked with an *) are EzineArticles, ArticleBase and GoArticles. In addition to their combination of high Alexa and Page rankings, these seem to be the sites that are most likely to get your article a high organic ranking in the search engines.

John

Alexa Rank / Page Rank

EzineArticles.com * 128 (499) / 6 (6)

ArticleBase.com * 471 (8735) / 5 (4)

Buzzle.com 1343 (9698) / 5 (6)

GoArticles.com * 1647 (3592) / 6 (4)

ArticleSnatch.com 2486 (n/a) / 4 (n/a)

ArticleAlley.com 3089 (14259) / 5 (5)

ArticleDashboard.com 3265 (5255) / 5 (6)

IdeaMarketers.com 4529 (13121) / 3 (4)

Amazines.com 4703 (17509) / 2 (5)

SelfGrowth.com 4843 (9653) / 5 (6)

SearchWarp.com 5848 (6032) / 5 (6)

iSnare.com 8374 (8791) / 6 (6)

EasyArticles.com 8792 (n/a) / 4 (n/a)

ArticleRich.com 8982 (n/a) / 3 (n/a)

ArticleCity.com 9029 (11526) / 5 (6)

ArticleTrader.com 9303 (17633) / 3 (5)

SelfSEO.com 9930 (15945) / 3 (5)

ArticleBiz.com 10983 (49044) / 5 (6)

ArticlesFactory.com 16040 (30664) / 4 (7)

uPublish.info 18811 (n/a) / 4 (n/a)


Alexa rank and Page Rank are as listed on 17-19th December.

[aboutalhah]

It depends on your niche. Noone can really give you an answer.

but as a rule of thumbs, you'll make $1 per article (I'm talking about direct sales).

I also wanted to say that the money you generate is not just from the first sales (affiliate/your product), but from your sales funnel.

You must focus on building a list.

Franck

Originally Posted by chukwuma

Now , how many quality articles do i need to write in a day in order to make $200 p/day

[frankstar]

I like to work backwards.. also known as reverse engineering. Find something that works / looks like its working, then copy and add to it. Here is a method of finding the best articles in your niche on EZA. If you know the successful articles you can use them as templates and also get an idea of how they are being promoted.

You've all seen this thread by Jack Duncan right?

http://www.warriorforum.com/war-room...ss-spying.html

He gives a great method of searching EZA with a search string on Google like this:

site:ezinearticles.com "been viewed 0..301100" "submitted on * *, 2009"

This will search EZA for all articles viewed between 0 to 301,100 times submitted in 2009.

If you play around with this, you can count the number of articles on EZA that have been viewed under 1000 times, under 2000 times, 3000 times etc for the whole year.

To cut a long explanation short, 95% of all the articles submitted to EZA in 2009 were viewed less then 7100 times. The top 2% of articles were viewed over 10100 times.

To find the "best" articles I like to cut out the top articles, as often the viewing figures are skewed because people have bought traffic, or its been featured on Oprah or something.

So the "best" articles are often ones that have been viewed over 7100 times, but under 10100 times. To get the good articles in a niche (e.g vegetable gardens), you'd do a search like this:

site:ezinearticles.com "been viewed 7100..10100" "submitted on * *, 2009" "vegetable garden"

You can then see articles that have "worked", and make your own from them. Also you can get an insight into how the author has promoted the articles by putting the title of the article in quotes into Google.

As Steve Wagenheim said earlier in the thread niches behave differently, so finding good articles in various niches allows you to tune into that niches perculiarities. The fact that they have had good viewing figures also means that they have been tested to a certain extent.

You could also adapt this method to a monthly level



Francis

[7_8_shortcuts]

Leaving the classic "conclusion" part from your article
may increase your Click-Trough Rate...

(People subconsciously expect the conclusion but
get to your resource box and are more likely to click)

Another way: Give like 2-3 tips and tricks that
make a lot of sense and are very helpful and then
begin the last one but leave something out to
increase the curiosity and get the visitor to your site

BUT

If the help-factor of your article isn't great, then you
will not benefit much from getting the click anyway.
You need site visitors that are warmed up for what is to come.

If you are new, don't try to work too many niches simultaneously.

Write for one niche for couple days/weeks and see
what they respond to best.

[PCRoger]

Forget about article views and click throughs, unless you are going to dig deeper.

As was revealed in a thread the other day, stats at EzineArticles are showing way fewer views because Ezine came up with a better algorithm to filter out "bots" and just show views by real humans.

Some people are reporting 75% drops in views from what they used to get on a new article.

Now that you know that, doesn't it make you feel kind of silly for checking stats so frequently?

Pay attention to where sales come from; then duplicate those types of articles, those types of headlines, those types of resource boxes.

An article with 10 views and 1 click that led to a sale is infinitely better than an article with 10,000 views, 2000 clicks and 0 sales.

A guy I worked for years ago taught me that it's not how hard you work but how smart you work.

Work smart, you'll make more money on less effort.

Regards,
PCRoger.

[IM Headlines]

One little thing, don't submit your article to just one directory. Seriously, people
who use only 1 directory such as EZA have no idea how much traffic they're losing.

After your article gets accepted by EZA, submit it to other directories. Then
submit it to document directories such as scribd, and on websites like hubpages.

Cheers,
Johnny

[Deepak Media]

Every niche is different. Same strategy doesn't work in all the niches. If you see a little success in one niche, try to maximize it instead of try to get the same success in other niches.

Once you feel that you cannot leverage anymore, automate it and then move to the next niche. Until then, make the maximum out of it.

"When you have found gold, you dig more... you do not go to other places to find more gold until the first spot is depleted."

[JGLinked]

Thanks for the sharing of lists and ideas, I have certainly turned to web 2.0 properties in addition to directories, and found the results to be awesome.

[hireseowriters]

Duplicate Content Penalty don't work often. But sometimes, Ezine suspend your account for content similarity

[mikeevee]

So far I have done all my submissions manually. I submit to my favourite three directories: EZA, GoArticles and ArticleBase.

Do Article submission services save a lot of time, and if so which ones are the best to use? From this thread "Magic Article Submitter" seems to be well thought of.

What tool do you use?

[Deepak Media]

Originally Posted by Gitonga

this is about article marketing,do you mean i submit my articles to video sites?how is this possible.

Article Video Robot will convert your articles to videos in a matter of minutes.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Keep your articles short...400-500 words...

Use only two back links...choice 1, choice 2...

[Mrs S]

Originally Posted by adamv

Make sure your resource box has a strong call to action. Readers want to know what clicking on your link will do for them.

Nobody cares that Sally Jo is the best puppy sitter in Camden County with 14 years of experience doing blah, blah, blah. People just want to know how to get the puppy to stop peeing on the carpet.

The resource box should tell people, "to solve your problem, click the link", and little else.

I'd disagree with this one - I put the CTA up front in the resource box but then I finish up with a sentence about me and what makes me qualified to discuss the topic. I get a higher CTR on bio boxes with the 'about me' sentence than those without.

[Zack Lim]

Originally Posted by Mrs S

I'd disagree with this one - I put the CTA up front in the resource box but then I finish up with a sentence about me and what makes me qualified to discuss the topic. I get a higher CTR on bio boxes with the 'about me' sentence than those without.

I agree with you to put CTA up print and put the "about me" sentences below.

Another point I would like to point out is to ensure that there is at least one full url with the http:// in front of the domain name in the resource box. I have seen some resource box where it only contain anchor link.

I personally think it will be a good idea to have one full url link and one anchor link in the resource box. This ensure that when the article is being syndicated, one of the links will still be live in case some website do not recognize the html coding.

Zack