The Affiliate Review 1-16 03/15/08
March 15th, 2008 Len Thurmond Posted in The Affiliate Review Archives |
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IN THIS WEEK’S REVIEW
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• Just Something to Think About
• This Week’s Editorial: Thinking Inside the (Resource) Box
• Editor’s Note
• Now That’s Funny!
• The Androgynous Stone: Chapter 6
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JUST SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
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If you wait until all the lights are “green” before you leave home, you’ll never get started on your trip to the top.
Zig Ziglar
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THIS WEEK’S EDITORIAL: THINKING INSIDE THE (RESOURCE) BOX
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Hello folks!
You know how everyone loves to say that annoying little phrase “We’ve got to think outside of the box!” Well, this week we’ve got to get ourselves INSIDE the box–the one at the end of your articles–because that is what will make your article marketing effective.
Unless you just are writing articles because you have nothing better to do on a Saturday night, the whole point is to use them to get more traffic. The way to do that is by having a link in your article that leads people back to you. This is customary and encouraged by places you submit your article.
Try going to any article directory such as goarticles.com and aaarticles.com and look at a few articles. You will notice something at the bottom of just about every one of them. There will be a little blurb about the author and usually about his or her website or newsletter. This is called the author bio or “resource box”. This is to emphasize to your reader that you know what you are talking about so he will want to learn more. It is a sort of “soft sell” to get someone to come to your web site where you can then show them that you have even MORE good information for them. (Oh, and maybe even an affiliate product to sell them!)
The key to having a GOOD resource box is making the link enticing for someone to click on, not just “This is me and this is my web site.” Don’t make it too long and rambling–just short and sweet and include a call to action of some sort. Tempt the reader with something free or perhaps at a discount for visiting your site.
More tips:
-Be careful about putting live links in the BODY of your article because many article directories prohibit this even if the links might make sense. You can put more than one link in your resource box, but again be careful and don’t send to exactly the same link or it looks like you are trying to trick the search engines.
-Don’t be TOO self promoting or sales-y in your article or the directories might think you are too spammy and drop you out. The resource box is the place to promote yourself, but even here you should be somewhat subtle.
-Remember that most directories have a 500 character limit for your resource box.
Unless I am trying to get my OWN name out there, sometimes I write articles under a made up “pen name”. I pick an unusual name and then test it in the search engines to make sure that nothing else comes up under that name. I pick something odd like “Grenelda Thudpucker”. Then later, when I do a search for that name, I can see all of the places my article has ended up. In fact, articles I have written years ago are still being picked up and used by other web sites. It’s really fun to see where they end up!
Here is a sample resource box:
“About the Author: Grenelda Thudpucker is an expert at Left-Handed Underwater Basket Weaving and loves to share her knowledge. To see some photos of her work and download a free sample basket pattern visit www.BasketsByGrendelda.com.”
If you don’t know how to insert links into your resource box, there is a very handy little HTML editor built in to the Article Innovator software that Len is going to release in the next week or so. Take a look at this four minute video I made to see how it works.
http://www.articleinnovator.com/AIVideos/03_addarticles/
Until the next ‘review,
Sandy Swain
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EDITOR’S NOTE
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I’m afraid we will all have to do without Len’s article this week since he has been traveling and begged me for a break. I’ll let him off this time but he’d better not get used to it. 
So just to keep you busy until Len’s next article, I just uploaded a new chapter of Len’s novel “The Androgynous Stone” today. We are on chapter six.
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NOW THAT’S FUNNY!
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A businessman walked into a New York City bank and asked for the loan officer. He said he was going to Europe on business for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000.
The loan officer said the bank would need some security for such a loan. The business man then handed over the keys to a Rolls Royce that was parked on the street in front of the bank. Everything checked out and the loan officer accepted the car as collateral for the loan. An employee then drove the Rolls into the bank’s underground garage and parked it there.
Two weeks later the businessman returned, repaid the $5,000 and the interest which came to $15.41. The loan officer said, “We do appreciate your business and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a bit puzzled. While you were away we checked and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is why you would bother to borrow $5,000?”
The business man replied: “Where else in New York City can I park my car for 2 weeks for 15 bucks?”
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THE ANDROGYNOUS STONE: CHAPTER SIX
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After narrowly escaping with their lives, Sam and Sara await the beginning of what promises to be a grand adventure. Can Sam really save the earth and what is so familiar about the beautiful sword and dagger with the strange writing on them?
Go here to read the sixth chapter of The Androgynous Stone, a novel written by Len Thurmond.
The Androgynous Stone
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A FINAL WORD
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A Few Last Notes…
The Affiliate Review presents opinions of many of the thousands of online programs available on the net today. We emphasize the word opinion for obvious legal reasons. And that is just what the content of The Affiliate Review is…Our Opinion. Nothing More…Nothing Less !
If you have comments or suggestions, Please feel free to post them here on our blog
Here’s To Your Success,
Len Thurmond, Founder of The Affiliate Review
Len@TheAffiliateReview.com
and
Sandy Swain, Editor of The Affiliate Review
Sandy@TheAffiliateReview.com
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