The Last Minute Resource Box: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #4

This is Part 4 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

I think it's safe to say that we've all been there–

You've just finished writing your article.

You're excited to get it submitted and out to the publishers.

You login to your account at SubmitYOURArticle.com and start entering your article into the article submission page (or you go to an article directory to manually submit your article there), and lo and behold you're asked to fill in the Resource Box field.  At this point many folks think:

"Doh! I forgot about that part. It's just a little author bio–no biggie. I can just come up with a Resource Box on the spot and get that part out of the way so I can finally submit my article."

Then, as I have done in the past, and as many others have done and are still doing, you throw together a Last Minute Resource Box and proceed on your merry way toward the "submit" button.

HALT!!!!

STOP!

Wait a sec!

Little do you know that you've just sashayed over perhaps THE most important part of your article submission–and it's not even part of your article!

Let's look back at the 3 main reasons why you started article marketing in the first place:

• To build inbound links to your website

• To get the word out about your website, bringing widespread exposure and an increase in long term targeted traffic.

• To establish yourself as experts in your niche.

All of these goals are intricately tied to your resource box, that little 450 character "author bio" that folks often throw together at the last minute.

Let's put this in perspective–that is like designing a high performance car, one that is a work of art on the outside, with all the upgrades on the inside. You are going to be so proud to be seen in this car–you're imaging everyone "ooo-ing" and "ahhh-ing" over it and looking at you as you drive past!

You've only forgotten one thing.

The engine.

You see, it can be the most gorgeous, luxurious car in the world, but if you forget to add an engine it will just sit in your garage gathering dust.

It's the same with your articles–they can be well-written, articulate, clever and informative, but if you don't take the time to craft a really powerful resource box your article will just be sitting in your garage, and the effect will not be what you were hoping for.

So, how are you supposed to craft your resource box to get the most bang for your buck with your articles?

Great question! Here are a 7 Simple Resource Box Guidelines that'll take you from "What?" to "Wow!" in no time…

1) Give a little bio info.

In it's heart, your Resource Box is really an "author bio". This means that in your resource box you should include at least a teensy bit of info about yourself and not make your entire resource box a commercial for your website.

Don't forget to include your name–first and last name if you want your name to be associated with your article. 

Why include name and bio info?

Some publishers are super sensitive to authors using their resource boxes for strictly promotional, link-oriented information. For some publishers, when they encounter a resource box that appears does not have any info about the author, they trash it in a heartbeat! So, let's oblige them and our readers–do include a little info about yourself in your resource box.

Also, there are some publishers who will have a separate area that says "Author: Steve Shaw" or "By: Steve Shaw" (or whatever your author name is), but publishers are not required to do that.

They are required to print your resource box, so please be sure to include your name in your resource box so that if a publisher doesn't have a separate spot where an author name can be included, readers will still know you wrote the article.  

2) Give a single link.

Yes, I know it's oh-so-tempting to put a link in your resource box to every site you own, but please exercise some restraint! You have very limited space in your resource box, and you'll see much greater click-through success if you include one link and spend the rest of your space convincing the reader to click that link. Pick one site to drive traffic to, and include a link to that website in your resource box.

For more info about using a single link in your resource box, see this article Making Your Resource Box…Work!

3) Test out your link!

Seriously, after your enter your article and your resource box, go to the Preview page and actually test out your link. This is one area where you don't want to fall victim to an unfortunate typo!

4) Ask readers to click and tell them why.

What have you got to offer them?  Why should they go to your website? You must lure them in!

Tell them to click and give them a reason why, and you will improve your chances of getting more traffic coming to your site through your article readers!

5) Customize your resource box to your article.

The idea is to capture a reader's interest in your article, give them excellent educational info, and then build on that momentum in your resource box.

What were you telling them about in your article? How can you build on that info to tweak the reader's curiosity even more?

For more detailed info on how to customize your resource box see these posts:

3 Secret Tricks To Luring Readers Back To Your Website

How To Make Your Resource Box Sticky (And Get Those Click-Throughs!)

6) Remove punctuation after your URL.

Did you know that adding punctuation immediately after the URL, such as a comma or a full stop, can create problems on certain web sites when they automatically convert the URL into an active link?

Yes, it's true! 

So, rather than doing something like:

For more information on how to submit your articles automatically to thousands of potential publishers, go to:http://www.submityourarticle.com.

Remove the final full stop, as follows:

For more information on how to submit your articles automatically to thousands of potential publishers, go to:http://www.submityourarticle.com

7) Try putting your text URL on a separate line.

I do this for all my text resource boxes because lots of times it's preferable to put your URL by itself on a new line, so that it stands out better to increase click-throughs, and to avoid any possible problems with individual publishers if the article is wrapped incorrectly when published.

Here's an example:

Find out more about how to publish articles for profit online with the popular free ecourse, available at: => http://www.takanomi.com/publish-articles.php

These tips are very simple, and considering that your resource box is only 450 characters (with spaces) max, formatting your resource box to accommodate all of these guidelines should be a snap.

I've actually found that it's much easier to craft resource boxes by sticking to these guidelines–it makes it so I'm not tempted to go off on a tangent or to overlook one of these crucial areas.  I also write my resource boxes before getting to the "Enter Your New Article" page–I write my resource boxes at the same time that I write my article.

I use Article Leverage, so I create 5-10 resource box variations before even getting to the "Enter Your New Article" page. It helps big time! That means that when I'm finally on the page where I'm submitting my article, all I have to do it copy and paste, and PRESTO–I've got a killer resource box! 

If you're not a member of SubmitYOURArticle.com yet and would like to join, we'd be happy to welcome you–you can sign up here.  

Photo credit: Blue & Red Ferrari