Here’s the deal: People want answers when they visit an Article Directory. Deliver fully and completely what you promise about your one point – the topic of your article. Then give them the option of learning more about the broader subject by visiting the link in your Resource Box.
Resource Boxes
While a catchy title is the most important part of getting people to click through and read your article, your Resource Box is the most important part of your article body. It has to fulfill a highly specific function and do so in a manner that provides the only logical “next step” for your reader.
It doesn’t just give your name and website link: It asks the reader to perform an action. (Most articles fail because writers remember to include their name and the link, but forget the call to action… or else provide one that doesn’t feel like a natural step.)
You can be quite up front about your call to action – no need to wrack your brain trying to be “original”. The more straight-forward, the better! Just try something like this…
Download it for free here: Low Fat French Cooking for Beginners
Do you know the singular dog training technique celebrity trainers use?
Download our secret report, revealing how to train the most unruly dog successfully! http://www.yoursite.com/secretreport
You might write seven or seventy articles on “low fat French cooking”or “dog training” – each one dealing with a completely different aspect of that subject… but you could use the same Resource Box formula in the example above for the end paragraph all of these articles.
Best Practices for Your Resource Box
Notice the author’s name isn’t even in the particular example above. That’s because the Resource Boxes have a highly specific function and focus:
- They’re all about your reader and his needs and desires
- They’re not about you
If your reader has gobbled up your article and is eager to learn more, he really doesn’t care if you’ve got a Ph.D. in Nutrition. He might be mildly amused to learn that you practiced French cooking on your poodle, Fifi. But that won’t make him “click”.
He just wants to impress and please his girlfriend by feeding her wonderful French cooking – then admitting his recipes are low fat!
If you’ve understood that and reflected it in your Resource Box call-to-action, you’ve mastered the most crucial part of Article Marketing.