Just writing an article, as you would have probably guessed by now, is not enough. You will need to add the final touches, like incorporating a good bio box and submitting it to article directories.
The great majority of the article directories will allow you to place a resource box, in which you can say something about yourself and your line of work. This is maybe the most powerful tool you have at your disposal, because a properly formulated resource bio box is able to bring visitors to your website and even transform them into customers.
This is why you need to think about what you are going to say in that bio box. You will be usually restricted to 250 characters, so use the wisely. Make sure that the sentence in the bio box is intriguing enough that will make readers click through.
So let’s assume that your article is about dog food (although it’s probably better if you make it more specific, if you want to have high search engine placements for the particular keyword). Anyway, what would in this case be a good resource box that is going to transform a reader into a visitor or even buyer?
“Get the best dog food for your pet”
Well, this is the first version, and it’s not even close. Why isn’t it? To put it simply, it’s boring, and it doesn’t have anything interesting to say really. This is the kind of advertisement that people like you and me are “programmed” to ignore. This is definitely not going to produce many clicks, or what’s worse, any interest. However, you would be surprised about the great number of people that use this type of formula in their resource boxes. Now let’s try a little bit harder.
“Your dog deserves the best treatment, including the best dog food. We provide it for you.”
We got a little bit closer. This formula is way better than the first one, however, there’s still something missing. It has a strong point because it addresses people’s sensitivity towards their own dogs’ happiness. We need to keep that into our bio box and take it one more step further. Now let’s try it again.
“We know how much you love your dog and that you want the best dog products, including the best dog food. Find out how we’ve managed to make thousands of dogs happy in our 8 years of experience”.
Now this is a very good bio box, and it could be even better if I knew a bit more about dogs and how to make them happy J. However, since you are in the field you are writing about, you will know best how to touch a sensitive string in the reader’s mind. What makes this last bio box better than the previous ones?
- it touches a delicate matter of the subject, it has a sentimental approach if you will;
- it is a call to action, and it is very subtle in the way in which it makes the reader want to know more;
- it points out the professionalism of the respective individual/company.
Make sure you identify with the reader, with your niche’s needs, and also make sure that you incorporate the above three points into your resource box and you will be fine.
However, the article is still not ready for submitting. There’s just one more little thing that you need to think about: the links. Remember, articles are not only for quality targeted traffic to your website, they are also meant to increase your link popularity.
Depending on the article directory you are submitting to, it may or may not allow you to place links in the body of your article. However, almost all of them allow you to place links in your bio box, so that’s a given. The conclusion? You will need to place 2 or 3 keywords in your resource box and link them back to your site.
For instance, in the case of the hypothetical dog food article, you would have the resource box as mentioned earlier. From that resource box, the related niche keywords that can be linked back to your website would be: “dog products” and “dog food”. How can you link them? Well, this is where some basic HTML is needed.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.xyz.com">dog food</a>
Make sure you write it like that in your bio box, and this will make the keyword “dog food” link back to your site. So, overall, you will want to submit the resource box this way:
We know how much you love your dog and that you want the best dog products, including the best <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.xyz.com">dog food</a>. Find out how we’ve managed to make thousands of dogs happy in our 8 years of experience.
This will link a single keyword, “dog food”, back to your own site. If you want to make more keywords link back, you simply apply this line of code to them in the same manner.
Now, there’s one more thing that needs to be pointed out. Some article directories will also allow you to place links in the body of the article. You should take advantage of that, and link three more keywords from the body of the article back to your site. However, make sure that you check out each article directory’s policies, or they will not accept your articles.