Copyright 2005 Steve ShawAs a follow up to my previous article on WRONG way to write articles (see link at end), this article shows you RIGHT way to write articles.
As you no doubt already know, writing articles is probably most effective way to promote your web site - by writing your article in RIGHT way, you maximize results you can achieve from your article submissions. With your article published on heaps of web sites, and in several ezines, it's enough to set your traffic counter spinning.
So, presuming you have read previous article, and that you don't give publishers something they do not want, you are on right track - they will look at your article, and they may publish it. But how can you further maximize both your chances of publication, and results you can then achieve once it is published?
1. Provide A Link To Your Web Site In Your Resource Box
This point is, for some reason, strangely missed by some article writers - without a link to your site in your resource box, you are unlikely to get much benefit from your published article.
Just writing your name, or your company name, in your resource box may bring some name or brand recognition over time, but you will be missing out on major benefits that article submissions can bring you.
What you need is to provide a full link to your web site that interested readers of article can click on - this will bring targeted traffic direct to your web site. It doesn't mean you need to include any HTML (generally, never include HTML in your articles), you just need URL, or web address, of your web site, starting with 'http://' - publishers will turn that into a proper link when your article is published on web sites, and in text-based emails, it will automatically turn into a clickable link in vast majority of email-reading software such as Outlook.
It's also a good idea not to add a full stop to end of your link - occasionally this can make URL inactive if your article is sent via email, or it is published on a web site that auto-publishes articles.
I've also found it is best just to include one link in your resource box. Many publishers don't like more than one, and if you do get published, more than one link can confuse readership simply by giving them too many choices - and so diminish amount of targeted traffic you can then receive.
2. Use The Resource Box To Promote Your Site
This doesn't mean you should overly-hype your resource box, or laden it with advert-speak, but you do want people to click through, don't you? Tell them clearly and succinctly, and without hype, how your site will benefit them if they click through, and then tell them to click through.