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Resource Box Mistake To Avoid
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EzineArticles expert author Jinger Jarrett offers an important resource box tip in her recent article: 4 Article Writing Mistakes Every Writer Makes
Jinger advises against “Long Winded Resource Boxes” and I couldn’t agree more. Here’s her funny example of a poorly worded resource box:
I have children. Now I have grandchildren. I don’t have any pets, but one day I may just buy a couple of Rottweilers as pets because I love them.
Are you bored yet? Although you may find these facts about your life interesting, readers don’t. When I read a resource box about a 34 year old car enthusiast who owns her own auto parts shop, I yawn and then click away.
The bottom line is: readers don’t care about the details of your life. They want to know what you have to offer, and what you offer in your resource box had better be the next logical step in your article. Your article gives readers a taste; your resource box had better contain the next course. If it doesn’t, readers will click away and you’ve lost them.
Related: Article Marketing 101: The Perfect Author Resource Box
The main clue that most newbies miss is that the reason it’s called the RESOURCE BOX is because it’s suppose to be a resource for the reader to get more information that BENEFITS them. Therefore, be “benefit-oriented” when writing your resource box.
 Posted by Christopher M. Knight on November 8, 2006 at 8:07 am | 1,215 views |
8 Comments »
Dina,
My point was a newbie needs to be directed to such from the author’s area after signing up to post an article. We give a site a once over, decide to publish on it and learn the valuable details after the fact. Why would I know tips on resource boxes or bios are in the writing tips, except someone tells me to check it out in the author’s area?
[Reply]
Ed,
We’re solving that need very shortly with a sequential email mailing that all new authors will automatically receive when they become a member.
Over a period of 6-12 weeks, we’ll educate them on the basics. :-)
The sequence of text emails are done already and just waiting for me to review and add my input before we make them live.
[Reply]
Chris,
Thanks so much for the mention. I know how frustrating and time consuming it is when you get bad articles to your directory.
Article writers need to respect article directory owners. You are doing us a huge favor. We at least owe you good content.
I passed this along to readers of my blog.
Regards,
Jinger Jarrett
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When I first came to Ezine Articles about a year ago, I had just gone online a few weeks prior. I did not know resource boxes from author biographies and would have welcomed a tip sheet link to assist me. I guessed and did not guess too badly, making changes later as I came across information. I imagine this happens to many of us and other content providers use different names for these things and it can be a chore to figure out what we do on those sites as well. Links to categories with articles about these things would allow a quick and thorough education on these things which can affect traffic back to the writer’s web site.
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