All Entries in the "Author Resource Box" Category

Focusing On Keyword Density Won’t Produce
Good Articles

Some folks are still under the false impression that keyword density is important. It’s not and it never has been.

The Definition Of Keyword Density
Keyword density is defined as the percentage of targeted keywords to your total number of words in content. So if your targeted keyword is “bacon bits” and you write a 1,000-word article using the targeted keyword 20 times, your keyword density will be 2%. Many gurus say the optimal keyword density is somewhere between 1% and 7%, the optimal varying depending on which guru you speak to, but 1% is the low and 7% is the high end of the advice given.

There are several problems with this approach to article writing:

• No. 1, if you write naturally then any well-written article will fall within that range of keyword use
• The focus on keywords seems wise because search engines rank pages for keywords
• Note that search engines rank pages for keywords, not according to keywords – not a semantic delineation
• Search engines give weight to a number of factors on a page and off-page and the weight given to each of the factors is different and could fluctuate from one day, week, or month to the next
• No one knows the weight given to all the factors on any given day

In short, search engine ranking factors are a mystery. No one knows what they are completely. We can guess what they are based on past experience, but since the search engines are always changing their ranking algorithms we can never fully know the complete picture.

On ranking pages for keywords vs. according to them, when you type “bacon bits” into the search field at your favorite search engine and get a list of web pages for that keyword, you will likely get results that are close, somewhat close, and not even close to what you are looking for. Even a web page about interstellar space travel could show up on the results page if the keyword is used on the page. Inbound link anchor text is as important a ranking factor as actual keyword usage and all you have to do is Google “About Us” to see this in action.

Click on the search results for PCWorld’s About Us page. There are 279 words in the body content of that page. Exactly 0 of those words are the phrase “about us”, yet the result is the fourth from the top on the Google search results page. If I use the browser find function for the phrase then I’ll find only one usage of that phrase on the page and it’s on the bottom menu bar, which means it will appear on every page of the PCWorld website. This page’s keyword density is – drumroll – 0. Pretty important, huh?

So How Does Keyword Density Apply To Article Marketing?
So how does this relate to articles that likely won’t appear on your own website. First, you have to understand the goal and importance of article marketing. The goal is to promote your website, building inbound links, and drive traffic to your site. You are not building on-page SEO benefits. Furthermore, your link building benefits do not exist within the article itself, but in the author resource box at the end of the article. This is where you’ll put your inbound links.

Let’s assume you write a bang-up author resource box with one good anchor text link to the page that you want to benefit. Does that mean the rest of your article is not important? No, not all.

You want your article to be well-written and reader-friendly. That is, you want readers to be able to get some benefit out of it. Otherwise, it’s a pretty useless article. It can be SEOd to the hilt and have perfect keyword density, but if readers within your niche don’t find the article of any value then it’s a perfectly useless article. The article, above all, must have value. Even an article with sub-optimal keyword density can drive traffic to your website and build you solid inbound links if it provides real value to readers within your niche.

Any article that is deemed a quality article by e-zine publishers, bloggers, and webmasters within your niche may be used by them. Every time a publisher uses your article you’ll get a new inbound link. If your article is SEOd well then the publisher will get the benefits of on-page SEO. You, however, as the writer, will get the benefit of off-page SEO. Neither on-page nor off-page SEO is more important; they must work together to achieve the same benefit for your website. Obviously, on-page SEO must come first or any off-page SEO you strive for will be in vain. Article marketing uses the age-old principle: Help yourself by helping others first.

That said, you should write articles that provide publishers with the best on-page SEO benefits as possible. If you do that then they’ll use more of your articles. You’ll get more links to your website, their readers will get the benefit of your knowledge, and the publishers will get the benefit of highly optimized web content. But what does that mean?

What Highly Optimized Article Content Means
Remember those ranking factors? You aren’t trying to build inbound links to your articles so forget about link building for a moment. A highly optimized article is good “on-page” SEO. That means keywords are important – very important – but not the most important thing. You also need to think about your article title – which is critically more important than keyword density – as well as subheadings within the article, ordered and unordered lists, and font characteristics (bold, italics, etc.).

You don’t want to bold or italicize your keywords just for the sake of adding characteristics that you think the search engines will love. You want to do so when it’s important to the reader. For instance, I like to bold the first sentence of long bullet points in my lists. Or, if I list bullet points followed by an explanation of each point, I like to bold the list item before the explanation to make it stand out to the reader more. While doing that I like to see if I can squeeze a keyword into a couple of those bullet points. Just a strategy that I’ve found that works.

Bottom line: Keyword density is a fake panacea for article optimization illnesses. It is infinitely more important to write an article that is beneficial to the reader, but while doing that it is important to look for ways that you can increase your on-page (ie. internal article) SEO. Density is a small measure for that goal and one that won’t give an accurate telling.

How Many Times Should You Write Your Resource Box?

You’ve got some great articles, but you find yourself writing your resource box every time you want to submit one to an article directory. It’s really getting old. So why do it?

You really only need to write your resource box once. In fact, why not write three author resource boxes, with slightly different information in each one and with different links? Then each time you write an article that you want to submit to an article directory, you simply choose with author resource box to use. Save your resources boxes in a text file on your hard drive and whenever you’re ready to submit your articles to an article directory you just copy/paste the one you want to use onto the bottom of your article. Simple.

Here’s what you should include in your resource boxes:

• Your name
• Name of your company
• One sentence that sums up the service you want to promote
• A link to your landing page
• (Optional) A second link
• A closing sentence that serves as a call to action (this should have a link in it; preferably your one link or the alternate, and this sentence can be the same sentence as the summary mentioned above)

You really want to use that author resource box to drive traffic to your landing pages. But don’t promote more than one landing page per article. Focus on one landing page per article and use your articles to drive traffic to that landing page.

5 Ways You Can Go Wrong With Your Article Resource Box

By Hendry Lee

Article resource box is a vital part of every article. The same article could get none to hundreds or thousands of visitors just because of a resource box. You can’t just write a few lines without a strategy and expect it to work. It doesn’t work that way.

Here are 5 ways you can go wrong with your article resource box:

1. Blatant self-promotion

Although you’re allowed to promote yourself in the resource box doesn’t mean that you should do so. The readers never care about you but how could you help them. Think of ways on how you can move the credibility you’ve built so far to the next level. Give them even more information or value.

2. Award showcase

The resource box is not the place for show all your accomplishments. You may use one or two that is very relevant to boost your credibility, but much of the credibility is earned by demonstrating your expertise within the article body. If you give them valuable information, they will know it.

3. No call to action

People may think they’re smart enough to take action without being told about what to do. The fact is exactly the opposite though. People are confused about what to do next unless you tell them what to do, although they may not admit it.

If you want them to visit your site to get more information or subscribe to your e-newsletter, say it. Give a reason why they should do it, perhaps give them a special report for download when they subscribe.

4. No links
Giving the readers at least a link to click and a strong reason for them to do so is the key to getting traffic from your articles.

Don’t waste the virtual real estate. You want to include at least one link to your web site.

5. No keyword targeted anchor text

Don’t include just a link. Use keyword focused anchor text (the text used as a live link) because search engines think the page that is linked using the anchor text must be relevant for that keyword.

You may want to diversify the anchor text links to make it appear as natural links, but still such links are important. The best way is to use anchor text but still keep the full live URL in the resource box so web site owners who decide to copy and paste your articles still have the link of your site in the resource box.

Do you want to learn the secrets about article marketing? I drive 5,238 unique visitors to my site each month, and I’ll teach you how to do it.

Download your free article marketing strategy guide plus 2 free article templates and other goodies in the “Net Marketing Start-Up Kit” from http://successloop.com/templates.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hendry_Lee

Hendry Lee makes some good points. No. 3, 4, and 5 are the most important of these. Get that anchor text link to speak with a call to action and your article marketing efforts will really shine!

3 Ways To Make Money Through Article Marketing

Article marketing is a powerful way to market your products or services. But even if you don’t have a website you can make money through article marketing. There are countless ways to make it work for you. Here are three ways that you can make money through article marketing:

1. Sell a digital product - All you really have to do to make money through article marketing is offer something for sale. An e-book, a podcast, a video, computer software, anything that people can download online. Write articles and distribute them to article directories and drive traffic to your product’s sales page. If your sales page converts, article marketing can get the traffic to your page and you’ll be earning income as a result. Be patient and write a lot of articles.
2. Affiliate marketing – Even if you don’t have a product of your own to sell, you can make money selling someone else’s product. It’s called affiliate marketing. Find a product that you think you can promote and write articles about that topic. Don’t write articles that promote the product directly. Write helpful informational products about the niche or subject specialty and in your author resource box have a link that points to a landing page. Make your landing page about your affiliate product and drive traffic to your affiliate’s sales page. Any sales you make will earn you a commission.
3. Sell advertising – Write articles on a particular topic and put them on a website. All of your articles should be related to a particular niche. Use articles to drive traffic to this website and sell advertising to companies in this niche. These companies will pay you for putting an ad on your website if you can show them that you have traffic to your web pages.

There is more than just one way to make money online. Think about your business plan and find a way to include article marketing in the plan. It pays to have a plan and follow through.

Is Article Marketing A Waste Of Time?

Every now and then I run across someone who says, “I tried article marketing and it didn’t make me any sales. It’s just a waste of time.”

But is it?

Like anything else, if you don’t do it right, article marketing can be a waste of time. You spend time writing an article. You spend time distributing the article. Few people respond. You make no sales. It’s a waste of time, right?

Seemingly. But if you do ti right, article marketing can be a big boon to your business. So that begs the question, “What is the right way to do article marketing?”

Well, there is no one right way. There are a lot of ways that work and a lot of ways that don’t. But there are principles that you can adhere to that will make your article marketing more effective in the long run. Here are some principles that I’ve found work best:

• Write a lot of articles – Don’t just write one article and stop there. One article here and there isn’t going to do you any good. To make article marketing work for you it is important that you spend some time each week on some aspect of your article marketing plan. First, write at least two articles per week. One article per day is better if you can.
• Don’t make every article about yourself - Self-promotional articles don’t work. People don’t care about your achievements. They want to know what’s in it for them. Write articles that are heavy on information and provide value for the reader.
• Link to your website in the author resource box - This is very important. I can’t tell you how many people write articles and post them in article directories without links in the author resource box. If you don’t link back to your website then no one is going to visit your website. Article marketing will be a waste of time.
• Spell your URL out once - Not everyone who republishes articles will activate your links. They’re supposed to, but some people don’t. Spell out the URL you want to promote so that people can always see your website address even if the link isn’t activated.
• Include a call to action - Give a compelling reason for people to visit your website. Offer a free download or a huge discount. Make your offer compelling enough that people won’t be able to refuse, then ask for the action (click, subscription, etc.).

Article marketing isn’t hard. It can be time consuming. But if you do it right it’s not a waste of time. It can drive traffic to your website and help you close sales.