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We've had an amazing outpouring of interest in the Resource Box Rehab Lab we've recently opened up, and little by little we're trying to help folks with some specific common resource box pitfalls and opportunities.
Recently we talked about how important it is to NOT just include a link with no other information in your resource box.
You really want your resource box to have an "About the Author" feel to it rather than "this is an ad for my site" feel.
I noticed many entries that did have an "About the Author" feel to them, which is a great start! But after telling them who you are and why you're an authority on this topic you're writing about, you need to give them a specific reason to click your link and go back to your website.
Let me just pick out a few examples from our entries in the Resource Box Rehab Lab:
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Posted by Steve Shaw at October 6th, 2008 | Comments (1)
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I've told you previously how consistency is key with article marketing, and it is–while you don't want to go overboard and submit gobs of article in a short span of time, you do want to submit 1 to 8 articles a month, steadily over an extended length of time.
The challenge that I find myself and many other authors running into is being steadily creative and productive with my article writing month to month. If I'm left on my own with no planning at all, I may do well for one month, but then the next month life seems to "get busy" and I slack off on my article writing efforts.
I know that sometimes unavoidable things happen in our lives that make us put our marketing efforts on the back burner, but many times what holds me back is a lack of planning, of just thinking "Oh, I'm sure I'll get those articles written somehow, sometime, somewhere this month."
Time and time again, I notice that when I get very specific about when, where and what I'll write, then I manage to stay right on track with my writing with minimal effort.
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Posted by Steve Shaw at October 2nd, 2008 | Comments (0)
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Alright, so you know that with your resource box you need to tell the reader the following things:
1) Who you are (giving your name and a little bio info)
2) Give them an idea why you're a trustworthy authority on this topic you're writing about
3) Give them a reason to click through to your website
4) And also give them a link to your website
Whew–that's a lot of information, and did I mention that you need to do all of this in no more than 450 characters (including spaces)?
(Oh, and when I say "characters" I mean letters and spaces)
So, it's a bit of a magic trick really to be able to cram so much super important information into such tiny space…but it can be done!
From our recent Resource Box Rehab Lab, the "War & Peace" style resource box 
was something that I noticed quite a bit.
I know how that is–you have such a short space, and it's sometimes hard to do the streamlining necessary.
But remember, in addition to the technical space requirements that most article directories have for a resource box, you want to make your resource box as concise as possible to better draw the reader's attention to the bits of information that are the most important.
What do you cut out? What should you put in?
Let's take a look at some examples from our Resource Box Rehab Lab participants, and we'll see what info makes the cut from these resource boxes that are a bit too long.
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Posted by Steve Shaw at September 29th, 2008 | Comments (1)
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I really appreciate all the participants in the Resource Box Rehab Lab — as I look through the entries, I see some great teaching opportunities and chances to help fellow article marketers take things up a few notches!
Today we'll be looking at what I'm calling "the Sig Line resource box" phenomenon .
This is where the information put in the author resource box would more appropriately be seen at the end of an email, where your signature line and various contact information usually appears.
Or, I guess this could also be called the "business card resource box" phenomenon–it's the same info as you might find on a person's business card.
Just to be clear–don't think of your author resource box as a business card, but as an opportunity to:
a) introduce yourself to your reader
b) tell a little about yourself
c) inspire some confidence in your expertise on the subject you're writing about
d) give the reader a reason to go to your website
e) give a link to your website
There is a finesse to an author resource box that a business card or sig line doesn't have.
We have the opportunity to talk to our readers, to make a personal connection, so let's get creative when we're doing our resource boxes!
Also, remember–we do want to include our author name, a little bio info that will inspire some confidence in the reader, a reason to click, and a link to our website.
If your resource box look like a business card, here are a few things to keep in mind:
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Posted by Steve Shaw at September 22nd, 2008 | Comments (2)
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Well, I don't know if these folks are actually rich and famous, but these are the first round of folks who are being added to our Resource Box Rehab Hall of Fame, because their resource boxes are pretty darn good just as they are!
Let me go through this first batch (we'll add more folks to the Resource Box Rehab Hall Of Fame as time goes on), and then I'll tell you why these resource boxes have got the right stuff:
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David Haslett is Senior National Director of the Freedom Equity Group. To discover how modern debt management technology can help you pay off your mortgage and other debt, go to: http://www.fastestmortgagepayoffplan.com
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Gerri D Smith apparel designer and creative writer wishes you love, beauty and wellness. You are unique and must be treated with all the individual attention you deserve. Pick up your Free craft gift when you visit, http://www.distinctive-elegance.com
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Robert Harden, fitness coach at Extremely-Fit, invites you to visit http://www.extremely-fit.com for more fitness and nutritional articles, like this one. You may also feel free to contact Robert via the contact form for fitness advice and questions.
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David Hurley is an Internet marketer based in Hiroshima, Japan. His website focuses on developing viable Internet marketing strategies and features a FREE Internet start-up course for your home based business success. No sign up required! Check it out at: http://grasp-the-nettle.com
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Why do these resource boxes get a gold star?
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Posted by Steve Shaw at September 15th, 2008 | Comments (0)
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Recently we've been collecting resource boxes from folks who would like some pointers on how the author bio box that sits below their articles could be better.
I did an initial "triage" of the resource box candidates and this is what I noticed:
- Some resource boxes were absolutely excellent, and I wouldn't change a thing!
- Some resource boxes were pretty good, but could benefit from some simple tweaks to take them from good to great.
- Some resource boxes were passable, but could definitely be made better with a moderate overhaul.
- Some resource boxes were on life support and in need of attention NOW!
We'll cover a variety of resource boxes and different types of challenges in upcoming posts, but for now in true "triage" fashion, we're going to attend to the resource boxes that are the most needy.
You may be wondering, "What constitutes a resource box that's on life support?" Read more…
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Posted by Steve Shaw at September 11th, 2008 | Comments (9)
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Do you have a resource box that you need help with?
Want some feedback on your resource box?
Want pointers for how to make it better?
Want to harness the power of article marketing TO THE MAX by luring readers into your website with an enticing author bio (resource box)?
So, go ahead and toss us your resource box below in the comments if you want some free advice and some simple makeover suggestions.
Seriously, we want to help you get the most bang for your article marketing buck, and if you want to do that you need a strong resource box.
Don't be shy–even the best article marketers are always trying to improve that powerful little bio box that sits at the end of their article. Believe me, it really helps to get objective feedback, and that's what we're doing.
We don't know how many folks are going to respond to this, so I cannot promise that we'll get to every single person, but we will look through the entries and pick out one or two a week to discuss in a post on Creative Article Marketing and brainstorm ways it can improve.
We can't wait to see your "before" resource boxes!
P.S. Oh, and some of you might be saying, "You're asking for my one resource box, but aren't I supposed to make a new one each time?"
Yes, ideally you would customize each resource box to each article, even when the articles are on the same topic, but we're doing a rehab here–let's start with the basics and be sure you at least have one really strong resource box.
Then, as you learn how to craft a really powerful resource box you can certainly take things up a notch by customizing each one to suit your particular article.
For now though–just give us your basic one, and we'll try to help make sure you've at least got one resource box that packs a punch!
Related Resources
Resource Box Rehab: Making Your Author Bio Short And Sweet
Resource Box Rehab: How To Turn Your Business Card Into A Resource Box
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Posted by Steve Shaw at September 8th, 2008 | Comments (74)
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We've been talking about the perks of doing an article series and how to do one correctly (don't put Part 1, Part 2, ect in your titles!), but today I'd like to share with you a little trick I stumbled upon when I was trying to figure out how to get more marketing mileage out of my blog posts.
As I told you previously, here is one of the ways I morph one piece of content into multiple articles:
"What I do lots of times is I take one aspect of a post and elaborate on it in an article. For example, let's say my post is about how to do a successful article marketing campaign, and I have listed several brief steps.
I can take each one of those steps and turn them into a stand-alone article by elaborating on them. I can have one article about how to craft a strong resource box, another about how to craft a great article title, and another about how to locate a great article submission service (you know that there's one that I highly recommend! 
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You get the idea–you can elaborate on ideas that you first broach in a blog post, fleshing them out so that they are article-worthy. Depending on the post, you may get several articles out of one post."
Well, in the same way you can turn one blog post into multiple articles, you can also use one article as a launching pad for an article series.
Here's how:
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Posted by Steve Shaw at September 4th, 2008 | Comments (0)
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Every once in a while when you're doing article marketing you may feel extra inspired and get it into your head that you'd like to do an article series.
What's an article series?
An article series is a group of articles on a related specific theme. All the articles in the grouping compliment each other, but each article can also stand alone and make complete sense if viewed by itself.
If you're doing an article series, the natural inclination is to break it into parts, indicating Part 1, Part 2, etc in the title, but as I told you previously, breaking your articles into "parts" is a definite no-no .
Remember, when you're doing article marketing, it's not a given that a publisher will pick up every single one of your articles, so you have to make each article be able to stand on it's own.
Having your articles listed as Part 1, Part 2, etc, decreases the chances of your article getting picked up for publication, and it also may decrease the likelihood of someone reading one of your parts that they find separate from the others.
It's sort of like going to the movies–if you see a movie that says "Part 4", and you haven't even seen movies 1-3, chances are you'll want to watch the original movie before watching any of the sequels. This is just human nature–if there is an obvious sequence in place, we like to do things in order.
So if readers find your Part 7 article all by its lonesome self, and they haven't read parts 1-6, they may pass on Part 7 thinking that they will be coming into the middle of the movie and won't understand.
Also, what if an ezine editor liked your Part 7 and wanted to show just that articles to her subscribers?
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article marketing, free reprint article, submit article, submit articles
Posted by Steve Shaw at August 27th, 2008 | Comments (11)
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Sometimes folks will send in an email like this:
"I want to write a 7 part article series. How can I get viewers to read all 7 parts of my series and not just one article? Should I put "Part 1", "Part 2", etc in the title? Should I put a note in my resource box telling the reader to look for my other articles in the series? Should I put a note in my article telling them that there are other parts they should go and find?"
These are all excellent questions, and I think it's natural for anyone who has a lot of information to convey on a particular topic to get the urge to write an article series now and then.
It's just fine to do a series of articles, but you have to do it in a strategic way (which we'll go over later).
For now, I just want to make clear…
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Posted by Steve Shaw at August 27th, 2008 | Comments (0)
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