When preparing your resource box, you are generally allowed two links that you can direct as you choose.  It’s important to use anchor text for these links based on the keyword you want your destination site(s) to rank for.

Particularly if your goal is to build your search engine standing as well as generate traffic.

Anchor text is simple html code that creates a hyper link to the web site you want people to go, while displaying your anchor text. Your anchor text should be the keyword you want your site to rank for.

One of my newest clients is a home stager in Tampa Florida. The keyword she wants to rank high on for her business is “Home Staging” and “Tampa” or “Home staging in Tampa”

So to maximize the value of her resource box I advised her to use the following statement:

Ann Alderson is an expert at <a href=<”http://stagingsouthtampa.com”>Home Staging in the South Tampa</a> region.  You can get more information on home staging on her blog about <a href=”http://blog.stagingsouthtampa.com”>house staging tips.</a>

When placed in html code it reads as follows:
Ann Alderson is an expert at Home Staging in the South Tampa region. You can get more information on home staging on her blog about house staging tips.

In this case, we used the second anchor text to use an alternate keyword, “house staging” and sent traffic to her blog.  This creates a backlink to an internal part of her site which improves its standing in Google’s eyes.  Google likes links to internal pages as it shows there is interest in more that the front page of the site.

As we’ve discussed before, the three main reasons to do article marketing is to establish yourself as an expert in your field, drive traffic to your site and build backlinks to raise your standing in the search engines.

In Ann’s case, the articles may help establish her credentials and even send a few people from Tampa to her web site.  But most people who see her articles will be far from her marketplace.

More important to her it the knowledge that the Google bots and other search bots will find her site and rank it for the keywords she wants her site known for: home staging and house staging and Tampa.

Most of her competitors are not doing this, and as a result in the relatively near term, she should rise from her current obscurity in a highly competitive local market to the first page of the listings.  In time with additional articles and other postings she may even win the coveted top spot.

That is the power of Article Marketing and the proper use of anchor text and keywords in your resource box.

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Business Article Marketing Works

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Business Article Marketing is an effective, but underutilized tool by main street businesses. While it is widely practiced by internet marketers, the technique can work as well, if not better, for main street businesses.

Your potential customer is looking for several things when they go shopping. For most higher price items, they need and want information to help make a wiser purchase decision. They also want to be confident in the vendor they end up buying from. Business article marketing is the perfect approach to deal with both of these customer needs.

What makes it even more attractive, is that it is virtually free, and ultimately the customer comes to you rather than you needing to search for the customer.

Here’s how it works. First choose a single product you want to sell. Then brainstorm with your sales staff on the key questions prospective customers have when they consider buying. Your approach will vary depending on whether there are many key questions or just a few.

Assuming there are just a few, you will do two things. One is to write a simple web page to be tacked on to your corporate web site specifically dedicated to this one product. It will be written in such a manner as to answer all the likely questions and objections a buyer may have. This page need not be fancy and is probably more effective the less fancy it is.

The information used to create the web page is then rewritten into a variety of articles of 400-600 words or so. These articles are titled with specific information the customer might be likely to use on a computer search engine. Such as: “Brand Name Chainsaw QR23″, or “Chainsaws for Professionals” or “Chainsaws for Women.”

The purpose of the titles is to get your article found. They need not be attention grabbing.

You want to write a specific article for every major keyword phrase your customers are likely to do a computer search on.  You can reuse much of the material from one article to the next, but try to vary them enough so that they appear different. If you are selling a chainsaw to women, make sure you explain why women will like the lightweight but powerful chainsaw, etc.

These articles are then going to be posted on as many of the thousands of article directories as possible. There are inexpensive services that will post these to the directories for you.

The article directories exist to provide useful articles for blog writers, ezine editors and others to use. All of these people will be allowed to reprint your article on their sites for free, as long as they include a live link to a resource box that you will add to the bottom of each article.

Your resource box will include a link to the specific page on your website dedicated to your product.  People will read about it, and then click through to your page. Many will then read much the same information on your page and make their decision to buy.

If you have a complicated product you will not put much information on the product page. Instead you will display the product and offer a free report that the visitor can download in exchange for their email information.  Once they provide that to you, you will send them a well written informative report outlining the merits of the product and the information they will need on the options and any considerations they need to keep in mind.

Rather than leaving it at that, you will follow-up with them periodically with additional informational emails. These are designed to offer more information, establish a positive relationship with the prospect and to keep you in front of your prospect during their decision making process.

The reason business article marketing works, is that people are increasing searching for information online prior to making a buying decision. They tend to resist sales pressure, but will eat up useful information. This is particularly true if they first find that information on an apparently neutral third party location.

By provide the information they need, you will be giving them what they want,  It also helps build their respect for you as a vendor.  You are now seen as a resource and not a seller.

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You’ve researched and written a terrific article that will captivate and educate your readers. Congratulations.

Now make sure you get a return on your investment.

At the end of your article you want to include your name, a brief description of who you are, and a brief description of your website and a link.

If a reader likes what they read, they may well choose to seek out more information on the topic or about you.  You want to encourage this behavior as much as possible with an eye catching and intriguing resource box.

It is also a good idea to include anchor text around your primary keyword as well. Most article directories limit the number of links to two, and also restrict the length of the resource box.  So you need to learn how to maximize the value of the limited space.

Be fun and creative and at the same time show that you have a great deal more to offer the reader.  It’s generally a good idea to have the opening statement of your resource box read as though it is a continuation of the article, to draw people into the article and lead them right to a call for action.

When you capture the readers interest with your article, and lead them to a powerful call to action you will get ample reward for your efforts. Make sure you pause and give your resource box as much attention as it deserves.

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Article Writing: 3 Motives Do Not Equal One Objective.

You’re an internet marketer or main street business person striving to use article marketing to build your business.

You have three motivations.
•    Brand Yourself as an Expert in Your Field.
•    Drive Traffic to Your Web Site, Store or Blog.
•    Create Back Links to Raise Your Standing in the Search Engines.

Article writing can help you accomplish all three.

However, when you sit down to write that article, your focus needs to be elsewhere first and foremost. You need to concentrate not on your motives, but the needs of your reader.

Your prospective reader is looking for information, and your job as an article writer is to provide them with good information they can use. Ideally, you want to do that in an entertaining manner.

It’s only when you accomplish that goal, that you can expect your article to satisfy your motivations.

A well written useful article will be accepted by the article directories. So will many less well written ones. But far fewer poorly written articles will get republished by eZine editors. And that threshold is critical.

•    Be aware and adhere to standard article guidelines.
•    Do a careful spell and grammar check.
•    Spend a moment to research your topic and offer good advice.
•    If need be, hire a writer to produce good content for you.

While you may be able to get a back link through a directory that accepts a so-so article, imagine the positive impact when one of your articles is republished by an ezine with 100,000 readers.

If you are going to do the work, spend a few extra minutes and do it well.

Spend more time delivering quality content, and less worrying about keyword density. A well written article that provides value is more likely to encourage the reader to follow the lead in your resource box to your desired destination.

Article writing can be a powerful tool to build your reputation, drive traffic and improve your search engine standing. But to achieve these objectives you must meet the needs of the reader. When you focus on the reader’s needs, you will accomplish yours.

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