Here’s the 8th part of our series on making article marketing work for you, I call it, Resource Box Secrets.

Article marketing is a great way to use simple little articles to drive traffic to your web site. If you’re new to the concept, this is how it works (nutshell version):

Write an article of 300-700 words that deals with a topic your target market is interested in. For example, if your target market is new parents, an article on getting babies to sleep through the night, or an article on store-bought diaper alternatives would be things new parents might care about.

At the end of the article is a paragraph that’s known as the bio box, or resource box. Many people use that to tell about the author of the article.

That’s fine for stroking your ego, but it’s the kiss of death for making sales.

Articles used for marketing purposes are a bit of a different animal than articles you might find in a magazine. They both need to be well-written, but when someone is done reading an article you’re using for marketing, you want them to take another action…

…and click through to your web site.

You know the old show business adage, “Always leave them wanting more!” — that’s how you should write your articles. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think you should just tease people in an article and then offer the real solution on your web page — you should give good value in your article.

But in a few hundred words you obviously can’t go into too much detail. And that’s where your resource box comes into play.

If your article was well-written and provided value to the reader, they will already be primed to want more information. A good resource box will give them a reason to click the link.

A bio box that says, “Jane Doe has been a parent for 14 years and is the president of Moms and Kids Play Group blah blah blah…” may build some credibility for the author, but doesn’t do anything toward the ultimate goal — getting a click to your web site.

On the other hand, if an article on getting a baby to sleep through the night ended with something like this…

“Click here to get a free copy of ’21 Tips To Keep Your New Baby From Driving You Insane’ at Jane Doe’s New Baby Tips web site. Download your copy right away and put the tips to work for you immediately!”

…don’t you think the reader is very likely to click on that link? You bet!

Sure, as an author it’s nice to put something in there about how great you are, but do you want status or do you want sales? An article for marketing purposes is a “direct response” type of ad which means we want the reader to RESPOND after reading the article.

And that means making sure there’s a great reason for the reader to click that link and get to the web site where we can then go for the sale.

As Christopher Knight, CEO of EzineArticles.com puts it, the body of the article is your “give,” and the bio box is your “take.”

Make sure what you’ve given to the reader has enough value that they’re chomping at the bit to click on the link in your take.

Using a resource box that gets the click is the difference between just writing articles, and real article marketing.