Do you submit articles with unrelated resource boxes?

Yes, sometime!
The purpose of the resource box is not just to say that you wrote the article. People use article directories in order to promote their website or product. The idea of the resource box is to encourage people who have read your article to want to click on a link in your resource box to either learn more, get something related to the topic of the article for free, or find out more about this very interesting author!

One final tip that every internet marketer should know is that it is extremely important to housebreak your iguana. You'll never get any work done if you're cleaning up after it all the time. lol

Seriously though, I rarely write on topic if it's a boring niche. If there's any remote way to tie it in, I'll try. But if you're writing for backlinks and not clickthroughs, I've found that writing on interesting or popular topics are more likely to be picked up and syndicated, getting you many more backlinks.

But yeah my clickthroughs are like 3% for off-topic articles vs 30% for on-topic articles.

You might want to consider refining your research skills - Ezine Articles is considering rejecting articles that have a mis-matched resource box.

At least that is the impression I get from a question Chris Knight asked on twitter recently.

If you are just doing it for backlinks, then why not?

Actually if you are just doing it for backlinks then I guess you needen't even worry about keywords or anything else, right? Just write an article about whatever you can write fastest about.

The thing we often IM'ers forget is that not everyone is writing articles as an article marketing exercise. Some people just like to write articles. In fact, I've seen plenty on EZA where the person doesn't even have links in the resource box. They just wrote on a topic that interested them and published the article. So, I don't think it's too weird that you might write an article about internet marketing and then in your resource box talk about your pet iguanas.

I agree with others that there is no problem having links in the resource box that are not related to the subject matter of your article.

I make sure all of my resource boxes are directly in line with my articles. Just in case a mod comes across my article.

not really..i dont see the point to be honest. Then rater spend 15 mins and write a matching article and killer resource box.

When you have to write articles that don't even interest YOU, that might be hard to interest others. In such a case, if you can afford it, it would be better to get someone writing your articles for you. Or, finding a niche you would actually be interested in writing about.

As for getting away with writing unrelated content, I've never heard of such thing in my 5 years of article marketing.

Well, this is a hard one really....or is it? Hand up all those who have included the odd non topic related links in a resource box for link building purposes? Thought as much.

Linking to unrelated pages is pointless as far as I am concerned.

You aren't going to get a single sale or list member, and links from non-related pages are getting less effective from what I can see.

Not to mention that any article directory editor in their right mind would decline an article that didn't link to related content. (Notice I said, "in their right mind.") LOL

I just think its a bad idea. Integrity, honesty and good ole' fashioned hard work is what it takes for me to make the grade. Tricking search engines is playing Russian Roulette as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to take that chance.

JMO

Cheers,
Allen

I don't really think that an article with an unrelated link in the resource box necessarily indicates dishonesty, laziness or even tricking search engines (Ok, well maybe a little bit of tricking since you know you are writing it for backlinks).

What if you were a home schooler who also raised hamsters and you wrote a really informative article about home schooling and then in your resource box put in a link to your hamster site?

I'd rather see that than a crappy article stuffed full of useless fluff that links to a related site.

To each their own....for me clickthroughs are nice of course but hard to come by because many people are looking for wine related terms for research not to buy immediately.

Yes, I throw up unrelated research boxes all the time

Hey Allen,

I know where you are coming from and I agree that from an "article marketing" point of view having a resource box that points to an unrelated site is just stupid.

I think of articles in different ways from most people though (as you know!).

There's the ones where you "market" which you want to have your related links in the resource box.

Then the ones for backlinks where related is probably a good idea but I guess not necessary.

I'm not saying that it's good to put unrelated links in in a sneaky kind of way like to fool the visitor or anything. I don't think that's what the OP meant. I think they just meant to write an article about one topic and then put something else in your resource box.

You know, like Joe Author writes about how the cold weather in Florida is going to affect the tomato crop this year and then in his resource box puts "Joe Author is an avid tomato lover and also feeds them to his iguanas" with the link to the iguanas keyword. I don't think that would offend the average surfer.

But on the other hand, I can think of ways this sort of thing could be abused.

Lee

LOL - THere are those damn Iguanas again.

Actually, around here it is the strawberry crops - do Iguanas like strawberries? I Googled it, but all I found was articles about cold weather in Florida.

LOL, JK.

Good points.

Allen

LOL! I don't know but I actually had a site on Iguanas a while back. Sold it on Flippa though. I think they only eat green stuff.

Lee

OK, I think I'm either missing something here or I'm just a friggin idiot. (BTW, "Friggin Idiot" is leading in the polls right now, he will make a statement after the polls official close.)

Whatever link I put in my resouces boxes, is hyperlinked to a relevant keyword for my site. If i'm using a redirect to an offer then I'm still hyperlinking and relvant keyword............ie...MaxbOunty's Free iPad offer..........I hyperlink the words........"get a free ipad" in my resource box.

Now if you're writing for pure seo back linking purposes, you still need a relevant keyword, in my humble, somewhat uninformed, opinion.

If you're just putting "visit this site, http:// yoursite. com" you're not getting a backlink thats worth much.

So if you like writing about iguanas but your site is about loan modifications, what are you going to hyperlink in your box.................."loans for iguanas" ?

I know some people just like to write about their "passions", but come on. If I wrote only about my "passions", I'd have a hard time getting the articles approved

My point is, sometimes what you like to write about ain't gonna make you any money

Like I said, maybe I'm missing something..........

Peace

You know what that tells me? You either do not know enough about the niche, and need to start doing Google Alerts, more reading, and research, or...

You need to step up one level from your niche, into the larger niche above it.

Example: If your niche was "How to correct your golf slice" then step up to the larger niche of "golf swing".

You could write many more articles on the larger niche, and every one of them might benefit from your "golf slice" link.

Create quality in all of your methods, and you will multiply your efforts.

No I never do that article marketing is one of my way to get quality traffic. I mean how a person will feel if my article is about dating and in resource book I talk about best computer deal. The visitor gonna think I was drunk when I wrote that article.