5 Creative Ways To Get Multiple Marketing Uses Out Of Your Articles

my swiss army knife
Originally uploaded by Alesist

You're doing article marketing, and on top of that you have a blog, a newsletter, and also participate in various social media activities.

You start to wonder–

"How in the world can I write enough to keep all of these marketing activities going? I feel like I'm writing all the time–articles, blog posts, newsletter articles, e-books, Squidoo lenses. Something's gotta give!" 

I hear you–I've been there before, and there was a time when I was writing, writing, writing and felt like I would never catch up with all the worthy projects I wanted to do. 

I can't explain what happened, but gradually over time things just started to fall into place.

I was creating lots of quality content, and then I started to see how the various types of online content could play off of each other. I started to get multiple uses out of one burst of effort, reaching different people in my target market, and all the while getting customers and potential customers saying, "Thank you for all the free information you offer! It's a big help–keep it comin'!"

I discovered that the real trick is seeing how one bit of writing for one online tool can be used as a marketing multi-tasker. 

I'm happy to share how I get double (and sometimes triple and quadruple) duty out of one piece of content, such as articles:

Read more… | Article Submission Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)

How To Customize Your Resource Box In 3 Steps

Roberto Clemente Bridge
Originally uploaded by michaelrighi

Lately we've been going backwards and forwards over how to craft a really strong resource box.

We've established that first off, you need to have a really great basic text resource box.

Once you have a strong text resource box, you can create an HTML resource box that is just as effective pretty easily. 

But what about customizing your resource box? 

If your article is what lures reader's in, why not capitalize on the momentum you create in your article and tailor your resource box to perfectly suit the subject matter you've just been sharing with the reader?

Customizing your resource box is the final stage of Resource Box Evolution.

The trick is to create a bridge between your article (which is educational) and your resource box (which has some info about yourself, your website, and a call to action to visit your website).

Let's take a look how it's done…

Read more… | Article Submission Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)

5 Essential Ways To Build Credibility On The Web Through Your Articles

Believe, Love, Fly, Watch
Originally uploaded by *BlueMoon

When you start an article marketing campaign you'll often hear advice on ways to improve the technical SEO oriented side of article marketing, but there is one very powerful aspect of article marketing that folks commonly overlook:

Building credibility with readers

What is credibility? 

According to Dictionary.com, credibility means:

1. capable of being believed

2. worthy of belief or confidence; trustworthy

Remember, as respectable business owners we're not just trying to "drive traffic to a website"–we also want to form relationships with our readers where trust and confidence will grow over time and where the reader/potential customer would eventually say,

"I believe him/her. I think I can trust him/her. I have confidence in his/her abilities to provide me with what I need." 

But how do you build credibility, trust, and reader confidence through your articles?

I think there are 5 crucial make-or-break areas where an author has the chance to start building a healthy relationship with a reader:

Read more… | Article Submission Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)

How To Write A Killer HTML Resource Box…The Easy Way

Easy Button
Originally uploaded by Bravo213

 I see this more times than I'd like to admit:

An author has an absolutely gorgeous text resource box, but their HTML resource box is just a skeleton of what it should be with just their keywords hyperlinked. 

I think that the thing that trips most folks up is they know that the perk of the HTML resource box is getting to hyperlink their keywords, and it seems like they think that if their keywords are hyperlinked that that's all they need to do.

Wrong!

Your HTML resource box should be every bit as descriptive and informative as your text resource box. Your resource box is a piece of marketing content for your website, so you need to take special care when putting it together. 

Doing the HTML resource box can seem a little tricky because you may think you can't say "for more info, go to => www.mysite.com" You may think that you need to totally rephrase things so that the HTML resource box makes sense with the link appearing as hyperlinked keywords rather than as an action statement ("go to my site here =>").

I'd like to share with your a little trick I have for making a stellar HTML resource box the EASY way:

Read more… | Article Submission Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)

How to Drive Traffic to Multiple Sites with One Article!

Photo Fireworks of nature

Alright, so we all know that by submitting articles you can drive traffic back to your website.

Here's how that works:

For every article you submit, you will include a resource box that has a link to your website. Each time that article is picked up for publication, you receive a precious one-way backlink to your site.

But what do you do if you have more than one site associated with your main site? 

Let's say you have a main website, a blog, a Squidoo lens, and you also want to deep link to specific pages on your website and blog–what do you do? 

You know I recommend having a single link in your resource box, so does that mean you have to write a different article for each web page you want to drive traffic to? 

Definitely not, if you get a little clever and take advantage of the free ArticleLeverage™ tool we offer our members at SubmitYOURArticle.com. 

Let me walk you through how I use this tool for my own article submissions:

Read more… | Article Submission Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)

Resource Box Rehab: Why You Should Always Include Your Name In Your Author Resource Box…

Photo Hello, my name is…

Imagine this: 

You've just slaved away writing an extremely eloquent, insightful, helpful article that you've proofread backwards and forwards and have polished to a high sheen.

You submit your article and eagerly await all the publishers who will see it and republish it on their websites.

Remember–this is what you want: You submit your article to publishers, and then the idea is that folks will find your article and republish your article with your resource box on many, many websites.

Everything goes as planned–your article is a hit with the publishers, and it's getting picked up right and left!

There is only one problem–you forgot to include your name in your resource box, eek!

Why is this a problem? 

Read more… | Article Submission Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)

Resource Box Rehab: Why Should I Go To Your Site?

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:

Read more… | Article Submission Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)

Resource Box Rehab: Making Your Author Bio Short And Sweet

Photo by ncarroll

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.

Read more… | Article Submission Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)

Is There Any Benefit to Having Your Article Published on a Smaller Website?

Shakespeare & Co.
Originally uploaded by Glynnis Ritchie

We've talked about the purpose of article directories and how when you get your article published on a directory that the chances of your article being re-published compound.

Now, who are these websites that are picking up your article for publication at the article directories?

Well, sometimes they're ezine editors, sometimes they're blog owners, sometimes they're folks with websites who want to have a good article waiting for their target readers when they arrive at their site.

You don't get to pick and choose which sites pick up your article for publication any more than the author of a book in the library gets to choose who checks it out.

But what if someone from an smaller or brand new website reprints your article on their site? That isn't a high ranking website that can bolster your rankings in Google–what's the purpose of that? 

There are a few key things you need to know:

Read more… | Article Submission Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)

Resource Box Rehab: How To Turn Your Business Card Into An Author Resource Box

Photo by mikeg626

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:

Read more… | Article Submission Service (SubmitYOURArticle.com)