How To Getting Killer Clickthru on Your Article Links Without Taking Off Your Clothes :)

[kayelex]

Sorry for the title.. Doing a little experiment on shock factor

I know alot of you out there are wondering how you can increase your clickthrough on your links in your articles. And, for the new people out there, basically clickthrough is the amount of clicks on your articles divided by the amount of views your articles get.

The first rule is to keep that article short if you can. Stay within the articles requirements because most have a minimum word count. The reason you want to keep it short though is because you want your link in your bio box to be above the fold; meaning you don't want them to have to scroll to see your link.

Then you want to do a little trick I like to call article stitching.

Let me give you an example :

LAST SENTENCE OF THE ARTICLE

-------------------------------------

That is just the tip of the iceberg though. If you want to 
get more killer tips on  how to fix "your keyword problem", 
then I would take a look at "your url" to get some more 
information about this issue.

Now the ------------- will not be there obviously. I only put that there to show you where the article ends and the bio box begins. But, you can use that bio box to sort of continue your article. That way you give them what they want in the body of the article and you get what you want in the bio box. Since places like Ezine Articles have the "you scratch our back, and we scratch yours" mentality, then you are definitely providing them with the win/win they are looking for.

[CashTactics]

This is excellent advice and I can attest to anyone reading this that it works. I have been stating something very similar at the bottom of my articles. You always have to have that call to action in order to get people over to your main site. This one paragraph will up your click through rate by a mile.

Great post!

[CurtisN]

Thanks for the great tips.

I just wanted to add something about what I see a lot of authors doing at the end of articles: talking about themself.

As in, "Joe Shmoe is a full-time _______ who specializes in ________. For more info, visit joeshmoe.com." <---Boooooring!

It does usually take a bit of rewording to make the article flow into the bio box, but an important thing to keep in mind is to have an "unboring" call to action.

If you had a competition (aka split test) between "click here for more info" and "don't wait until your next panic attack to find out how to stop them for good", I'm sure the latter would win. Obviously I could have found a better way to phrase that, but you get the point

Curtis

[kayelex]

Right on Curtis.. I totally should have mentioned that too. I think it is such a waste to talk about all your skins on the wall in the BIO box. I would much rather use that piece of real estate to get a link to my site.

[CPA Affiliate Coach]

Great post on a technique that does indeed work. And just to add to what Curtis said, never forget the WIIFM (What's in it for me?), even in the bio box. Your readers don't want to waste their time and when they see the link, they'll have a mini-conversation with themselves in a fraction of a second - "should I click the link or is this just another waste of time?". Let them know what's in it for them in your call to action.

[petevamp]

That is a great set of tips you have but I have found that since I use hubpages mostly I have to make sure the articles are full so I tend to make them around 500-1000 words. This just depends on how knowledgeable I am on the subject I am talking about at the time. How ever I do tend to make sure my bio boxes are noticeable if I can not make them entirley noticable I will place the link random times through out the post making sure they can see it before the fold as you say. for instance if I am talking about an affiliate program for say debt relief. I will start talking about the topic. Then shortly into the article I will place a link saying something like this. This is one of my favorite places to go and which helped me eliminate my debt link.

That also leaves me a chance to place another link in the bio box which with my bio boxes they tend to look like this


Stealing your work here:
================================================== ==================

That is just the tip of the iceberg though. If you want to
get more killer tips on how to fix "your keyword problem",
then I would take a look at "your url" to get some more
information about this issue.

================================================== ==================
I have found this to be the most effective. It points out to the person reading the article that there may be something important here.

[captivereef]

nice tip i will try it out, i have been doing alot of bio box experimenting lately and this willbe fun to try!

[kayelex]

Yeah.. I should clarify that this mainly was aimed at EZA and other traditional article directories. Hub Pages has a higher minimum word count. However, can't you put your 2 Hub Page links anywhere in the post?

[Anomaly1974]

Just so you know (and trust me, you do not want the visual) some of us happen to work better when we're nekket!

Sorry, but I could not resist!

Now back to your regularly scheduled discussion!

[petevamp]

Originally Posted by kayelex

Yeah.. I should clarify that this mainly was aimed at EZA and other traditional article directories. Hub Pages has a higher minimum word count. However, can't you put your 2 Hub Page links anywhere in the post?

Yes on hub pages you can place your links any where. The only problem is think about how article marketing works first off. You need to be able to drawl them in first to make them want to go to your page. If you can not do that with in the first paragraph or second. It is likely that your link will still be below the fold of the page. There for the odds of them scrolling back up to the top of your article. Just to click that link are slim to none. This is why I drawl them in first. Then later on in the article I will sell them the link. Again I also place two links to the same site in all of my hubs. First targeting my main keywords for that hub. Second targeting either a direct link to a particular post on my blog or going to another related topic on my subdomains/domains which I have over a hundred to choose from.

[melanied]

Another great technique, that goes right along with this, is to offer a video demonstration in the bio box. People love videos!

[Blondmoo]

What do you personally consider a good CTR for articles out of curiosity?

[jojobusiness]

This is GREAT advice. I'll certainly keep this in mind when writing my next article.

[Zombie]

Howdy

Well seeing I am sitting here without a stitch of clothing on I just had to check out this thread

I have just started article writing, and had been struggling with what to put in the bio box. Now I have something which makes a lot more sense then what I had been using.

Thanks kayelex for the tip

Kevin

[MunkMurray]

sounds really nice,
I'll try that and tell you how it went

thanks

[yezbick99]

Originally Posted by kayelex

Sorry for the title.. Doing a little experiment on shock factor

I know alot of you out there are wondering how you can increase your clickthrough on your links in your articles. And, for the new people out there, basically clickthrough is the amount of clicks on your articles divided by the amount of views your articles get.

The first rule is to keep that article short if you can. Stay within the articles requirements because most have a minimum word count. The reason you want to keep it short though is because you want your link in your bio box to be above the fold; meaning you don't want them to have to scroll to see your link.

Then you want to do a little trick I like to call article stitching.

Let me give you an example :

LAST SENTENCE OF THE ARTICLE
 
-------------------------------------
 
That is just the tip of the iceberg though. If you want to 
get more killer tips on  how to fix "your keyword problem", 
then I would take a look at "your url" to get some more 
information about this issue.

Now the ------------- will not be there obviously. I only put that there to show you where the article ends and the bio box begins. But, you can use that bio box to sort of continue your article. That way you give them what they want in the body of the article and you get what you want in the bio box. Since places like Ezine Articles have the "you scratch our back, and we scratch yours" mentality, then you are definitely providing them with the win/win they are looking for.

Nice article. This seems to be the key from my experience as well.

[cypherslock]

LOL But I LIKE to IM nekkid......good tip, been using this one for a while. I love this place!

[kayelex]

I have gotten click through rates of up to 45% before using this technique. I have heard of people getting higher than that.

[Zeus66]

EZA claims the CTR average is 2%-7% (I think). Last time I read anything about it by their owner, Chris Knight. What I've found after posting articles across a wide range of topics/niches, is that it varies a lot by niche. You can have identical author boxes at the end (only change being the URL and the subject matter), and see a big difference in CTR.

I don't disagree with the OP on anything suggested. It's solid. Just be aware that comparing CTR's between niches is misleading. Test within your own niche to get a handle on what works for that audience.

John

[kayelex]

Zeus is spot on. I don't mean for people to get all excited about what I put in there for CTR. It does vary on niche type, and how good you are getting people to follow your article to your bio box.

[kayelex]

Forgot to ask. Melanie mentioned doing videos in the bio box. Is that allowed on Ezine Articles?

[egavasyak]

Great article and info I'm just starting on article marketing ans intend to put these tips to good use.

Thanks again

[kayelex]

Glad you liked it egavasyak. Also wanted to mention that if you are using Ezine Articles they have a rule about using more than 4 words as anchor text. If you use more, they will put the article back in review and you have to correct it before they let it go live. I forgot to mention that earlier