How many times have you seen a resource box that basically explained why the author was the right person to write that article? I’m sure it was a lot … in fact, when I first started out with article marketing, I thought that was what the bio/resource box was for!

But I’m here to tell you today that this is a very harmful fallacy to your article marketing efforts.

The reason why you are writing and posting articles is to drive traffic to certain web pages. So, I ask you, how does including a short bio about your credentials accomplish that? It doesn’t!

Your resource box needs to drive people to a web page, and in order to do that you need to make them an offer. Give them a reason to click on your link and visit your web page. Entice them with a free report, an e-course or audio download that is related to the topic of the article.

Also, you need to be mindful of the transition readers will experience when they reach the end of your article and start reading your resource box. Most article directories just append the resource box to the end of the article without making a clear declaration. So, the reader very well will not know they are reading a resource box. So, you can start your resource box with something like this:

“If you are ready to take this to the next step, you should download this free report that outlines five ways to …”

To make sure that your link remains live regardless of how your article gets shared, make sure you have both URL and anchor links. For example, the words “free report” in the example above could be anchor text for a link to your site. Then you could end your resource box with, “be sure to visit http://www.yourdomain.com to download your free report.”

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NOTE: I know the image doesn’t follow the advice in this post. that’s how fresh this info is for me! And I just had to share it with you.