how my articles have a 50% CTR

[ArticlePrince]

These are the guidelines that I follow to write my resources boxes (which average about 38% CTR), so I hope these help some of you. Please feel free to let me know of any tips that I missed or don't know.

1. Make the resource box another paragraph for the article – Most know this tip, but I always try to include everything. Basically, write a 400 word, 5-6 paragraph article. Then copy and paste all but the last paragraph into the article box, and copy and paste the last paragraph into the resource box. What's great about this method is that it allows you to embed links within the article, which people are much less suspicious of. Give it a try, see how it works.

2. Top author – Many article directories allow you to view who the top author are for each category and subcategory. So, climb as high as you can in the author rankings for your category, then mention it in your resource box. This works especially well on EzineArticles. If you become the top author, change your profile and mention it EVERY resource box. It instantly credits you as an expert, and your clickthrough rate will increase dramatically. A bonus to this is that your article views will increase, as people frequently see who the top authors are and read their articles.

3. Solve their problem – If you're any good at marketing then your product will solve a problem that your reader has. While you should focus on the benefits to the reader of the product, specifically say how it will solve their problem. Focus this on the keyword, and you'll be golden. For example, if your keyword is 'get rid of acne on your nose', write your resource box about how the product will get rid of the acne on their nose. Make sense?

4. Not a bio – this isn't really a tip so much as a warning. Most readers simply do not care about you or your pseudonym. DO NOT use your resource box as a bio box. The only thing that you should mention about yourself is if you have a degree relevant to the niche, or you're the top author.

5. Links – make one link an anchor text link for your keyword, and make one link a call to action link. So, for the earlier example, one link would be 'get rid of acne' (because 'get rid of acne on your nose' is too long a link for many article directories; always use the broad keyword if you have to shorten), and one link would be 'get rid of the acne on your nose right now, go to www.yourwebsite.com immediately!' A bonus to this method is that if someone just copy/pastes your article instead of the proper publishing method (which is very common), your website link will still work. If you had two anchor text links, they would both be dead.

Hopefully these were helpful, let me know of any that I missed. I'm always open to learn new tricks.

[ewenmack]

Number 2 is a new one to me...but makes perfect sense.

Thanks for sharing.

[JMPruitt]

great advice. I had always been told to USE the resource box as a bio. I will change that on my next set of articles and see if it helps.

[Sara Young]

Something that works nicely is too leave out some information. So for example, post 5 out of 7 tips in your article and then make it clear that they should click on your link to get another 2 excellent tips.

It's also helpful if when you write the article, you constantly have in mind that the purpose of the article is to lead the reader to the resource box. If you have that purpose in mind, it is more likely that you will write in a way that will encourage readers to click.

[Sour]

Another trick I use is to make the final tip of your article a link. Example:

Here are my 3 tips on how to lose weight:
1. Eat healthy
2. Cardio exercise
----end of article body and start of author bio----
3. Read my amazing <your link>guide</your link> that got me to lose 10 lbs in 2 weeks.

<your link>Click here</your link> to shed those unwanted pounds!

[bahnsurf]

Hi,

There are 2 types of bio that actually matters.

• One is for branding purposes (if you want to crave a name inside the niche you are in)
• The other is for people to BUY your product or services you are offering on your site.

Hope this helps to clear some myth on type of resources box to be use in the articles.

[marciayudkin]

4. Not a bio – this isn't really a tip so much as a warning. Most readers simply do not care about you or your pseudonym. DO NOT use your resource box as a bio box. The only thing that you should mention about yourself is if you have a degree relevant to the niche, or you're the top author.

If you want your articles to be reprinted and not just read, then you DO need to include your bio in the resource box. Many publications will not reprint an article that doesn't say who the author is.

If you do want to be published and not only read, then your resource box should include both a brief bio and a call to action that goes to an opt-in page.

Marcia Yudkin

[SellDGuide]

Nice Advice... In the resource box, I highlight the problem and then provide the Link as the solution to problem.

[geoffcruz]

1. Make the resource box another paragraph for the article – Most know this tip, but I always try to include everything. Basically, write a 400 word, 5-6 paragraph article. Then copy and paste all but the last paragraph into the article box, and copy and paste the last paragraph into the resource box. What's great about this method is that it allows you to embed links within the article, which people are much less suspicious of. Give it a try, see how it works.


I do this most of the time where i write a paragraph long resource box, and then just recently ezine sent back my article stating that my resource box is too long. I was not happy with it but what can i do, maybe my resource box is almost half the length of my article but it is still in the word limit.

[Alexa Smith]

The excellent point Marcia makes above seems to be very, very widely ignored.

If you're using article directories for their intended purpose (and the majority of marketers who aren't doing this are leaving a lot of their potential takings on the table), you want as many people as possible to re-publish your content. For this to happen to any appreciable extent, you do need to include your bio in the author resource-box: many highly ranked authority sites simply won't re-publish your article without it.

[JayXtreme]

I think Tip number 4 is one that could spring a very lively debate.

Whilst I agree with Marcia, I also believe that there are times when the re-publishing of content is not always necessary to get an article to perform on a massive scale..

For example,

You might have an article that would get re-published a thousand times, but, if that article is wasting the resource box on Bio information where it isn't necessary... then you may find that having it re-published is no more successful than having it published only once.

I think it is something that is not black and white, and is situation specific.

There are many times when having a Bio in the resource box will make your CTR suffer terribly.

For times like this, it is much better for you to use the resource box as a final paragraph, allowing you to insert links much further up the content than you would be able to otherwise...

Depending on the circumstances, isn't it?....

And that's why many pieces of advice about article marketing can be wrong on a Friday and yet correct on a Wednesday

Situation specific

Peace

Jay

p.s. All of the above is irrelevant if you aren't actively testing what will work in your niche(s)

[JohnMcCabe]

Regarding tip #4, I think you can have your cake and eat it, too.

It just means adjusting your definition of "bio" to fit the situation. In many of the mainstream magazines I read, the actual "author bio" part of what would be the resource box is only a few words long.

"Joe Schmo has published eight books on growing cactus underwater."

You can include a short closing paragraph with your call to action, along with that short bio that establishes authorship and credentials. If the key phrase was 'growing cactus underwater', you could even get your KW link here.

"Joe Schmo has published eight books on growing cactus underwater."

[marciayudkin]

Whilst I agree with Marcia, I also believe that there are times when the re-publishing of content is not always necessary to get an article to perform on a massive scale.

I agree with that point. However, it can also harm you if you are not consistent in your approach to articles.

If you write some articles that are solely intended for the search engines and others that are intended to be read and republished, some who read the latter and like what they see can find the former kind and lose respect for you. And you can't really bypass this pitfall by using a pseudonym for the search-engine articles but send people to the same web site. If the articles are on the same topic, those who become most interested in your articles can still easily find this out and get turned off.

My best clients and customers respect me for my clear thinking and content-rich writing, and I would be a fool to squander that and publish some substandard articles just for search engine purposes.

Your situation and goals may differ, of course.

Cheers,
Marcia Yudkin

[JayXtreme]

Originally Posted by marciayudkin

I agree with that point. However, it can also harm you if you are not consistent in your approach to articles.

Consistency in having quality content is a good thing, but I don't believe that the use and function of a resource box HAS to be consistent..

It is most definitely something that will change with each topic/subject.

If you write some articles that are solely intended for the search engines and others that are intended to be read and republished, some who read the latter and like what they see can find the former kind and lose respect for you. And you can't really bypass this pitfall by using a pseudonym for the search-engine articles but send people to the same web site. If the articles are on the same topic, those who become most interested in your articles can still easily find this out and get turned off.

Who made any mention of articles solely for the search engines????...

I think you're making assumptions, Marcia. Such assumptions are making it very difficult to have a discussion here.

My best clients and customers respect me for my clear thinking and content-rich writing, and I would be a fool to squander that and publish some substandard articles just for search engine purposes.

Changing the use and function of a resource box does NOT necessarily mean that an article suddenly becomes "substandard" and "just for search engine purposes"

Your situation and goals may differ, of course.

My situation and goals certainly differ from yours, and that I am glad for... I'd hate to spend my time imposing my self-righteous attitude onto others

Peace

Jay

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

Consistency in having quality content is a good thing, but I don't believe that the use and function of a resource box HAS to be consistent.

No, indeed - it depends on the purpose of the article, doesn't it? I do agree with the point you're making, here (and so do the few people I write articles for, in addition to my own).

For the record, I wasn't suggesting with my comment above that a resource-box should be limited to your bio, simply that in articles aimed at re-publication it would be extremely counter-productive to omit it. I accept the other points in the o.p., too. It just strikes me as ironic when you see people complaining that nobody re-prints their articles, and when you look at them, they don't fulfil most of the "obvious re-publishing criteria".

[DogScout]

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

Regarding tip #4, I think you can have your cake and eat it, too.

It just means adjusting your definition of "bio" to fit the situation. In many of the mainstream magazines I read, the actual "author bio" part of what would be the resource box is only a few words long.

"Joe Schmo has published eight books on growing cactus underwater."

You can include a short closing paragraph with your call to action, along with that short bio that establishes authorship and credentials. If the key phrase was 'growing cactus underwater', you could even get your KW link here.

"Joe Schmo has published eight books on growing cactus underwater."

I have yet to publish my 1st article, so I am a spectator here, but this seems to make good sense? (When I do start into this, I want to try to do it as well as possible, though I suspect there will be a good leaning curve when the reality hits), but info like this and others in this thread are extremely helpful, Thanks to all.

On a side note, I have done a couple of Press releases. They don't seem to draw traffic from the release itself. I still have to drive traffic to the release in order for it to even be viewed or search traffic sometimes finds it, even when one is on the front page of the PR site less than halfway down the site traffic doesn't seem to hit it (even with a catchy title). (and the conversion sucks, which maybe my writing. Lol.) PR is more branding than selling? I am still new to it, so am probably missing something obvious. Read a ton of other PRs to help figure what the release should look like, so I might be reading the wrong ones, IE ones as unsuccessful as mine appears to be.

Mark

[ArticlePrince]

I don't think that every resource box should have the same format, these are just the guidelines I follow. By the way, if you have your own products or are branding then I highly recommend a bio, but I wrote these tips to be geared more towards people that are just learning article marketing, and mosst beginners do not have their own product. That's just my opinion. However, I have NEVER used any kind of bio in the resource box for any of my pen names, and about one out of every 10 gets published (the websites way, I can't track who copy/pastes). Another trick that can work really well is to cut off your resource box midsentence and make a '...' and link to your page, which has the read of the paragraph. It works pretty well, but readers will start to figure it out, so try to use it sparingly. Glad I sparked so much debate though!

[ArticlePrince]

I'm finding an example of each one, I'll post the links tomorrow

[davidkimball]

Is this an effective Resource Box?

-------------------------------------------
David Kimball is your Financial Freedom Navigator, a personal financial coach, author, and speaker who provides simple budgeting solutions for navigating your way to financial freedom.

Check him out at (weblink). Receive free tips on budgeting, free downloads, and encouragement at (weblink).
------------------------------------

The last two articles I created there only received 66 views in the past two months and two clicks. So I came up with the above new one. What do you think? How would you rework it?

David

[Alminc]

I love this post. I am new to article marketing (not to IM) but
what is written here in point 1 was my own thinking few months ago.

Including a bio has sense if you are really, really GREAT, not just good,
at the subject you are posting articles about. But if you are just good
enough in order to do article marketing, then it's much better to apply
point 1 and get as many clicks as possible to your money sites.

Why is it so? Simply because nobody cares about you if your articles
are not great. But they care about their troubles and they are clicking
on 'solutions'.

[JohnMcCabe]

Originally Posted by davidkimball

Is this an effective Resource Box?

-------------------------------------------
David Kimball is your Financial Freedom Navigator, a personal financial coach, author, and speaker who provides simple budgeting solutions for navigating your way to financial freedom.

Check him out at (weblink). Receive free tips on budgeting, free downloads, and encouragement at (weblink).
------------------------------------

The last two articles I created there only received 66 views in the past two months and two clicks. So I came up with the above new one. What do you think? How would you rework it?

David

Truth be told, I'd blow right by without a glance. Except for the last sentence, it's all about you. What the heck does "Financial Freedom Navigator" mean, anyway?

Since you mention free downloads (plural), I'd pick the one most relevant to the article. Then I'd try (test) something like this:

"Download [name of download] free at (weblink). While you're there, be sure to sign up for even more free tips, downloads and encouragement that make your money worries go away.

David Kimball is a personal financial coach, author, and speaker who provides simple solutions for navigating your way to financial prosperity."

Notice that there is nothing about budgeting or budgeting solutions? People tend to hate budgets and making budgets. For many with money troubles, budgeting conjures up images of another lecture on how to spend money and how to do without. Absent extreme circumstances, if they were any good at denying themselves and controlling their spending, they wouldn't be looking for solutions to money problems.

While your coaching and budgeting help may indeed be the answer to their problems, you'll need a lot more than a few words in a resource box to persuade them. The only job in the resource box is to get them to click through to the next step.

[davidkimball]

Thanks, John! A great education right there. Boils a lot of overpriced ebooks down to what is really needed :-).

[JohnMcCabe]

Originally Posted by davidkimball

Thanks, John! A great education right there. Boils a lot of overpriced ebooks down to what is really needed :-).

I'll PM you my PayPal address... (just kidding )