The Web Marketing Blog

I don’t usually use Ezine Articles for this blog. However, this post on Article Marketing was actually too good not to share.
~Kat~

By Jeff Herring

Article Marketing is the number one source of free traffic on the Internet if you get your Resource Box right. Get this one wrong and you have wasted all your time. Get this one right and you have got it made!

What a Resource Box really is

Call it a Resource Box, Author Bio, etc., what it really is is your opportunity to create a compelling call to action for your reader. Even though it is called an Author Bio, it is not the time for you to tell the reader all about you and convince them you are an expert. In fact, if you have not demonstrated that you are an expert in your article, it is way to late too try to do it now.

Even though it is an official Call to Action, I like to teach my students and members to use what I call “invitational language” in their Resource Box. Invitational language can be something as simple as “and now I would like to invite you to…” and then name the next action you would like them to take. This is as opposed to something like “get this great new product now and all your problems will be solved by morning and if you don’t you will be broke forever!”

Sure I’ve exaggerated a bit, but not by much.

Here’s how to do it

You want the Resource Box to flow right out of your article, since it is the next paragraph in the article. Starting off with “Jim Smith is blah blah blah” is like announcing to the reader that the article is over and they can stop reading now. Not the result you want at all, right?

Instead you can start off with a nice transitional phrase beginning with the word “and.” For example, “And now I would like to…” or “And now you can…” is a great way to begin.

Then, back to my notion of invitational language, you simply invite the reader to take the next action you want them to take. For example, you can say “And now you can claim your free instant access to…” whatever it is you are going to offer them. The invitational language brings them in instead of chasing them off.

Then and only then do I ever mention my name, and then only so that the good information they are about to get is linked in their mind to my name and brand.

Here is a complete example:

And now I would like to invite you to claim your FREE Instant Access to 2 of my Instant Article Creation Templates when you visit http://www.TheArticleGuyBonus.com

Click here to get two “plug-n-play” article templates – just plug in your info! And you will also get a 30 minute Audio Replay of a teleseminar about writing more articles in less time than you ever thought possible.

From Jeff Herring – The Article Marketing Guy and The Great Article Marketing Network.

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

http://EzineArticles.com/?Your-Article-Resource-Box—The-Secret-to-Getting-the-Most-Traffic-From-Each-and-Every-Article&id=3624961

I love creating a new site. I like setting up the themes, adding new content, starting something fresh and new. All my old blogs suffer when I get the idea for something new. But then, I am in such a hurry to get the new site launched, that I skip some really basic checks.

I just read Smashing Magazine’s “15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Website”, and it was a good reminder to me of all the really basic items you should check before doing a full launch of your website.

Sure some of the checks are pretty basic, like making sure that all your links work. Checking all your links can be a tedious, but necessary chore. You don’t want to frustrate your readers with links that go to nowhere, or worse, to an offensive site.

Another basic, and often overlooked check is proofreading for spelling and grammar. This one gets me all the time! Even though I have my spell checker on at all times… (there’s that squiggly red line again!) many mistakes still get by. Try reading your text backwards, or having someone else proofread for you.

Be sure to read the comments section on the article. There are more good suggestions there.

I know I am a little late to the party, but I have finally joined Twitter. I do think it will be a good way to promote my blogs. So of course the very first thing I wanted to get was a “follow me” badge for my blogs.
If you look over there on the right hand side of the blog I found a great one.
It is from GOTOWEB20 and it is a simple script that is very easy to customize. It took me all of two minutes to set up the badge and install it on my blog.

Now do me a favor and click that button so you can follow me on twitter, and then go to gotoweb20 and get your own!

Update: In the comments Brian pointed out you can code the button yourself without going to an outside source. You can get the code here at the BlogEngage Forum.

I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. I never intended to infringe on anyone’s trademark. I am not sure that I have. But just last week I received a letter demanding that I stop using a domain that I own, (not this one) because the first five letters of my 12 letter domain name are trademarked.

The company is not a large company that anyone would have known about, the characters they claim as theirs alone are a common word and a common acronym. Most people would assume they are in the public domain, much the same as I am assuming that “Webmaster” and “Blog” are in the public domain. (If not I am going to get them trademarked as soon as I finish writing this.)

It just so happens that this is one of my most successful domains, and not because of the 5 trademarked characters. In fact, I had recently changed the name of the blog for better SEO. The blog name contains none of the trademarked characters, it is just the domain.

If I had the money to hire a lawyer I might have a decent chance of defending my claim to the domain. I mean seriously, 5 letters our of 12? The company claims that their customers have been confused and have thought that my blog is related to the company. I find that hard to believe.

Searching the internet I have found that generally there are two things you should do when you receive a cease and desist letter. The first is to take it seriously, the second is to hire an attorney.

But the reality is, I have no money to fight this. I will try and appeal to the company’s sense of fairness. Maybe I can receive some small compensation for the loss of income and hard work. But I doubt it. Because I lack the resources to defend my rights, they will be trampled.

I bring this up here, not because I am asking for money, but because I think there is a problem with the system, and I am not sure how it can be fixed. It does not seem right to me, that just because someone else is bigger and has more money than me, they can take what is mine and there is nothing I can do about it. I know this has happened to many people in much bigger ways. It is not like I am losing a major source of income, or my life’s work. Just my very first domain that made a little money from adsense and other ad sales.

So bloggers everywhere beware. And if you have any ideas about what can be done please let me know in the comments.