|
|||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||
Resource Box Review DayRate This Post:
Here’s an offer to the first 10 that post a comment on this blog entry: FREE RESOURCE BOX REVIEWS/CRITIQUES 1) Participate by posting a comment to this blog entry. 2) Copy and paste the resource box of yours that you’d like me to critique. 3) Tell us a one sentence desired end-outcome that you want your resource box to achieve for you, your business, your website, whatever. 4) Have thick skin and know that I’m critiquing your resource box and not you personally — I care very much about helping you succeed with your article writing & marketing strategy. 5) Free Resource Box Critiques Offer ends when we reach the first 10 or midnight Thursday Aug 16th, whichever comes first. This is the first time we’re doing something like this. It’s a test. There are over 800 members on the EzineArticles blog notify list that were notified of this limited time resource box critique offer. Who will be first?
45 Comments »2
Here I am, Chris! Prevent Depression and Craziness through the scientific method of Dream Interpretation discovered by Carl Jung and simplified by Christina Sponias, a writer who continued Jung’s research in the unknown region of the human psychic sphere. Learn more at: http://www.booksirecommend.com I have to add to my resource box my Free Report “Craziness and Logic” and also my Free audio ebook Courage for those that have suicidal thoughts. The words Prevent Depression and Craziness and Dream Interpretation will be anchored when my provider will finish… What do you think, Chris? [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:19 AM
3
Hi Chris Great Offer – thanks Here’s my resource box, please let me know what you think and don’t hold back – I can take it. “Hi, my name is Andrew Grant. I hope you enjoyed this article. My desired outcome is that I want people to visit my site and sign up for my newsletter. Thanks Andrew Grant [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:20 AM
4
Hi Chris! Wow I wonder if people realize how valuable this is! And how SMART! to be able to get this kind of advise from someone who has already mastered the process. RESOURCE BOX: Sandi Krakowski is a woman who went from failure online to success in under 2 short years. Going from foreclosure to earning over $ 500k working part time and becoming completely debt free, including her mortgage, she knows what it takes to not only get online but to succeed once you are there. For real results in your online marketing go to http://www.arealchangemarketing.com and receive your NO COST 30 minute consultation. Desired outcome: I desire more clients who want to get some real results in their business and are committed to a long term relationship. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:24 AM
5
1. Chris, here’s my post – thx for the help! 2. Joe Shaw helps families learn how to work from home with free articles, special reports, and live tele-seminars at http://www.familybusinesstips.com 3.What I really want is people to OPT-IN at my website by downloading a new ebook I have. 4.Thx for the help – I can tell my resource box needs help and welcome your comments. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:25 AM
6
Greetings Chris, Thumbs Up for this review! Here’s my resource box: Alex Yeo is a leading Internet Network Marketer who can help you grow your business and offers consultation. Visit his website http://www.GettingPassiveIncome.com and discover the fool-proof way to generate passive income online. Further recommended resource at http://www.SuccessHotSpot.com and download your free “Internet MLM Success” special report. For the outcome, I would like readers to click on my URLs and opt-in to my opt-in page. Thanks man… :) [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:29 AM
7
Hi Chris – thanks for the offer, I think I’ll take you up on it. The resource bot is critcally important and I want to get the best out of it that I can. Chris Ralph 1) Participate by posting a comment to this blog entry. For more detailed information on building a gold dredge, including photographs of how to do it and the author’s finished home crafted dredge, check out the authors web page on building your own dredge at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/design_plans/DIY_dredge/Homemade_dredge.htm For more basic information on how to operate a gold dredge, with photos, check out the authors web page on gold dredging at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/basic_prospecting/Dredging.htm Chris Ralph writes on small scale mining and prospecting for the ICMJ Mining Journal. He has a degree in Mining Engineering from the Mackay School of Mines in Reno. He has continued his interest in mining as an individual prospector. His information page on prospecting for gold can be viewed at: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/prospect/chris_prospect.htm 4) Have thick skin and know that I’m critiquing your resource box and not you personally  I care very much about helping you succeed with your article writing & marketing strategy. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:44 AM
8
Warren L. Adams is a preacher, teacher and mentor. He is concerned about the lost and the Christian that is not living their life to the fullest for the glory of God. He is the author of “Its Ok To Be Rich but Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God”. For your free copy of the first chapter of his book go to http://www.ItsOkToBeRich.com I want to build a list [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:45 AM
9
Hi again Chris… I forgot to tell you that I intend to convince people to acquire my ebooks Craziness Prevention and Wisdom, besides wanting to keep them interested on my frequent articles. I want them to follow the free psychotherapy I provide through my articles so that they’ll be helped and trust me. I intend to write many ebooks and I want to have regular clients. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:47 AM
10
Please review we recently updated to this format to drive traffic to our site. And with your permission, I’d also like to offer you free access to ten podcasts on commercial investment property. You can download them by going to: http://www.investortours.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5 [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:49 AM
11
I’m in. What I want? A click through to my site and business, what else! :) © Copyright James Chartrand 2007 All Rights Reserved Are you ready for quality content? Do you need cutting-edge content? Hire only the best pro freelance writers from JCM Enterprises and rise above the rest! [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:59 AM
12
Chris… May you’ll be the rules a bit and stretch your offer to accomodate 11. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Many thanks…Ramon To subscribe to Ramon Greenwood’s f*ee semi-monthly newsletter and blog please go to http://www.commonsenseatwork.com/getitnow> His advice comes from a world of experience, including serving as Senior Vice President of American Express, an entrepreneur, professional director, career coach and author. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 11:20 AM
13
Hey Chris, Here’s one of my resource boxes. As a national speaker on health and wellness, Dave Saunders has been helping people discover the amazing truth about how the body is able to restore, defend and protect itself against the effects of injury and disease. Make optimal health a reality: Discover vital truths about health and wellness at http://www.glycowellness.com. My desire is for people to visit the site and opt-in to the mailing list. -Dave [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 12:04 PM
14
Many of the comments I make below are rhetorical questions designed to give you my answers in the form of more questions to ask yourself. RESOURCE BOX REVIEW #1: Chris Smith Where’s your full http:// URL? Everyone should always include one full http:// URL in their resource box. Do not rely on anchored text links alone. Also, when you do use anchored text links, I recommend that you link up things that make it look more natural. When I look at some of your resource boxes, you look like you care more about the keywords “Cheap Web Design” SEO thing than you care about what the user wants. Lastly, I’m not sure you’ve communicated the direct benefit that you’re firm aims to deliver. You made a benefit statement, but I’m not sure you communicated what the business owner or employee decision maker wants from what you provide. RESOURCE BOX REVIEW #2: Christina Sponias Your end outcome appears to be information product sales on your website…therefore, the focus should be on driving them to your website — where it’s then your job to convert them into clients. Until they reach your website, you can’t engage them. Since you can have a total of 3 self-serving links in your article including resource box, why not include 2 links in your resource box… one being your current full http:// URL and then another could be either an anchored text link or another full http:// URL that links to your free report if they sign up for your ezine/email newsletter. RESOURCE BOX REVIEW #3: Andrew Grant Here’s a copywriting rewrite of one of your sentences: Instead of:
Do something like this:
Alternatively, you could give them a reason why they should subscribe to your newsletter beyond the features of it… ie: What tangible or intangible benefit does it deliver? RESOURCE BOX REVIEW #4: Sandi Krakowski Ok, you desire more clients; but to get more clients, they have to VISIT YOUR WEBSITE. One tweak to your copy that I’d make: Instead of saying, “receive your NO COST 30 minute consultation” –> Say, “receive your FREE 30 minute consultation” Reason: We know from watching tens of thousands of resource box clicks recently that the word FREE is more powerful than any other word. As long as it’s not abused, you should test this with your next 20-100 articles to see how it performs. RESOURCE BOX REVIEW #5: Joe Shaw Joe, Ok, this is tough because you have a new ebook now, but that new ebook won’t be new in the future… thinking about the timelessness of article marketing. You may want to integrate a free report into your long-term marketing strategy (think multi-year) and include that with your resource box. Example: For my Ezine-Tips newsletter, I offer my top 16 ways to build a list and I intend to offer that free bonus for many years into the future. Find some tips that are timeless to offer, yet are unique, valuable and specific to your niche. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 12:35 PM
15
16
RESOURCE BOX REVIEW #6: Alex Yeo I think you already have an excellent resource box! In fact, I have no advice for you because I don’t see anything to change about it. RESOURCE BOX REVIEW #7: Chris Ralph Wow, do you have some very long URL’s there! One small style change recommended: Re-iterate your author name and title or expertise immediately at the START of your resource box. You put yours in the middle…and I’m not sure why. Overall I like that you’re using regular full http:// URL’s and since your domain name is wide to start with, I’d encourage you to find a way to significantly short up the URL so that your resource box doesn’t line wrap when ASCII PLAIN TEXT ezine publishers send it to their list…causing the lines to wrap and break the URL. One easy way to short up your deep links is to link to a directory rather than a specific web page… this frees up .htm. Also, have you checked out your website in the FireFox browser? Yikes! Also, one of the dangers of deep linking is that websites change and it’s not always easy to change articles in the future to reflect the changes. You don’t have a 404 rewrite policy in place. Get one. Meaning, find a way to redirect lost traffic on your website instead of a vDeck generic lame 404 page. RESOURCE BOX REVIEW #8: Warren Adams I like how you quickly identified who you are, who you serve, your free offer, and then a full http:// URL. Nice job! One copywriting style change you could try is to change the tone of your copy to be benefit oriented more bluntly. Instead of:
You could have:
RESOURCE BOX REVIEW #9: Monte Lee-Wen Uhm, you don’t need your readers permission to offer them free stuff. :o) You have a long URL and same problem as stated earlier: Missing 404 redirect page! You’re losing sales, traffic and referrals. Ask your webmaster or web design folks to make certain that all traffic coming to pages that don’t exist, get captured rather than a blunt kick to the head 404 error page. The rest of your copy is great. RESOURCE BOX REVIEW #10: James Chartrand James…dude. :) You’re missing some basics: First, restate your author name at the start of your resource box so they know that they are dealing with a human and not some faceless “JCM Enterprises” (whatever that is). Also; you’re only doing anchored text links? I think this is a huge gigantanormous mistake. Flip one to a full http://URL immediately. Ever wonder why our article source link is not an anchored text link? There’s a reason for the format: Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Chartrand Because it works! I can see your copy is trapped by your thinking that you’re a writer and not a sales & marketing person… hence the copyright protectionism to start your resource box off with. *smirk* :) You can keep your lovely copyright statement in the resource box; just move it to the bottom. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 1:01 PM
17
The worst part is, I had a URL link yesterday and thought to myself, hm, better change that to a text link. And… and… I *am* a copywriter! If I was in sales and marketing, I’d make a hell of a lot more money! Thanks for the opinion, Chris. Do we get a review when we’ve made changes based on your feedback? (Why not, eh?) [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 1:06 PM
18
James, I thought ALL copy is salesmanship in print. In fact, I think your clients should only hire you if you are skilled in sales & marketing basics in addition to the usual psychological word triggers and you’re split A/B or multivariate tester like a madman. …unless your copywriting is not designed to sell anything. :) [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 1:16 PM
19
20
If you do it right James, you can make 5x more in copywriting than you could ever make in sales. AND you can write copy that makes a salesman lose sleep at night wondering how to fill all his orders! ;) Check out http://www.awaionline.com sometime- learn from Millionaire and BILLIONAIRE copywriters. I earn nothing from telling you that other than a good wish to your future! [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 1:25 PM
21
22
Hi Chris, Thanks for the review… and I am indeed a little surprised that I don’t need to amend my resource box at all. :) I guess reading your articles help! I read through all your articles and gain a lot of tips. Thank again once more for helping us… [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 1:59 PM
23
24
Thank you very much for your comments, Chris! However, I wrote my free report as an article. Everybody can just copy it without giving me their email. I didn’t think about asking for emails because I don’t like it. In the case of the free report Craziness and Logic I could ask for emails, but I can’t do that for the ebook Courage that gives support to suicidal people. However, now the report is already a free article in the Ezine… What do you suggest? I don’t like to ask for anything when I’m giving something free, but nobody signs up to receive my articles as I ask them to… The email list is still a problem for me. My work is based on human help for desperate people, so I have to give more than to sell. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 2:39 PM
25
26
Something I have noticed about EzineArticles vrs the other ezines, some only show links under your articles. The resource box is available but the reader must make the effort and go there. After checking my stats for my website? The ezine that brings me traffic? EzineArticles hands down… because of the resource box. On other ezines I have had just as many readers.. one even more, BUT, I don’t get the traffic to my website. I missed this blog, waa.. too late. I mostly use my #3 resource box just in case you find yourself with nothing to do Chris. ha ha. Resource boxes wow.. they sure do pay off. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 3:03 PM
27
28
Sandi K, I guess you found a client: me! I already visited your site and left there my email. Christina [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 5:00 PM
29
Christina S., The reason for keeping the free report in a PDF or MP3 or non HTML article format is so that you can email list build. List building by exchanging a free report for new subscribers to your ezine is a logical 2nd step in the process of creating a relationship with your prospective future customers. People buy from people they trust and by producing an ezine, you build trust. Sales don’t happen without trust…usually. Kathy, Great news: I thought that no one would ever get a high CTR if their links were below the fold. I was wrong big time. My theory on why CTR is often higher than you might expect below the fold in the resource box: Because Internet marketers have trained the public to scroll to the bottom of the sales letter to get the prize, buy the product or get the free gift. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 9:45 PM
30
RESOURCE BOX REVIEW BONUS #11: Ramon Greenwood I’m not a fan of cloaking the word FREE with F*EE because I believe the trust you lose with the deception is more expensive than the few extra deliveries you get past the spam traps. I know you didn’t intend to deceive the user/prospective client, but you did intend to deceive their spam filter. One other non-related but related thing on your website: I noticed you had a “As Featured on BestEzines” button… but you have it linked up to the home page of BestEzines.com (a site that we own). Instead, link to this page: RESOURCE BOX REVIEW BONUS #12: Dave Saunders Ok, for the last resource box review of the day: :) First, get rid of the period at the end of your URL. This can be a serious traffic destroyer. Instead, say something like, visit the site at: http://Your-Company-Name.com/ If you want to build your list, you may want to tell them a benefit as to why they should sub to your free email list… or offer an evergreen report that would be of value to them. – Thanks to everyone who participated in today’s resource box review day test! :o) [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 10:58 PM
31
32
Hi Chris, Before you review my resource box, I think it is pretty ok already. But your opinion boost up my confidence even more. What I am thinking is a “split testing”. Use 2 author bio for different articles and see which has the higher CTR on the URLs. Do you think it’s necessary or feasible? Thank you. [Reply] Comment provided August 16, 2007 at 11:26 PM
33
Thank you for your time and your guidance, Chris! I guess I have to write another free report and make an ebook to collect emails. Yesterday I read a very good article at EzineArticles from one of my colleagues in the Summer Challenge that showed me other ways to build my email list, which I prefer. But I’m also going to write more free reports of course. Wish I didn’t need to build an email list… [Reply] Comment provided August 17, 2007 at 4:01 AM
34
Hi Chris. I am going to “break the rules” here and go way off-topic if I may. Reason being… your email caught my eye shortly after logging in to fix an article of mine that was given a “please fix” on the grounds of including an affiliate link. The only thing is… there was no affiliate link in it. What I did in my piece was… I linked to my blog site (without stating that I own the domain) and in that particular blog post I linked to another of my domains (also not identified as “I own this”). So there was no affiliate link. Your reviewer thought there was. It would be helpful in this & similar circumstances to have a small comments panel where we writers can explain things like this to the reviewer, ie. explain that we are within policy. Could you please consider such a thing to avoid “false negatives” like this. Currently there appears to be no way to communicate with reviewers. What I have in mind would only need to be a small text box on the article submission page. Even place a 100 character limit to limit the extra reading your staff must do. Cheers, [Reply] Comment provided August 17, 2007 at 6:33 AM
35
Alex, Testing is the name of the game when you’re building up an online enterprise (or empire). Test everything and compare which gives you the best results. You’d be amazed at how much difference just a few small changes can make. For example, I’m going to test a different resource box based on Chris’ opinions and review. If it isn’t getting results (and the first one isn’t either), then I have to figure out what’s wrong and continue to test until I hit the mark. Think of it as coming up with a new recipe. You test different ingredients until your guests rave about your meal. Chris, I hate writing my own sales copy. Here’s a tweak of my resource box; wanna give it another look over? Are you tired of struggling to write your own articles? Are you throwing away good money on cheap ones that fall flat? Get serious about your business, free yourself from the chore of writing, and get great content for your website from James Chartrand. Visit James’ website at http://www.JCME.ca and get a great writer for online success today! *groan* I need more coffee…. [Reply] Comment provided August 17, 2007 at 7:39 AM
36
37
38
39
Marcia Merrill, known as the Transition Chick, is a Life Transitions/Career Coach with 20 years experience. She specializes in boomer/midlife women in transition-separation/divorce, career change & more! She has many local, regional & international clients-coaching by phone or in person, if local. Her two Masters Degrees, Counseling Psychology & Education, as well as her coaching training–Job & Career Transitions Coach & Career Management Coach–make her an expert in this field! To learn more about the benefits of coaching-get a FREE 25 minute consultation, visit http://www.eCareerCorner.com Sign up for her FREE newsletter & several BONUSES, call (410) 467-0811, email marcia@ecareercorner.com. [Reply] Comment provided August 18, 2007 at 12:21 PM
40
Wow…what a great thread!!! One item not discussed, maybe Chris will write a post about it, is when authors write on more than one topic. What do you suggest for resource boxes? I use all 3 of my preset ones that ezine articles offers. They are all similiar but they have a different first line depending on the topic I’m writing about. What a super education this has been. [Reply] Comment provided August 18, 2007 at 7:15 PM
41
42
RESOURCE BOX REVIEW BONUS #13: Marcia Merrill First, you didn’t tell me what your end-outcome is for what you want your RESOURCE BOX to do for you? I assume that you want people to spam you first and visit your website 2nd. Second, putting your email in your resource box is a very risky thing to do… as you’ll be spammed to death to the point where you will shut down or change your email address in the future… only to disappoint your future readers who will think you went out of business when their email to you bounces. Instead, put a CONTACT US page on your website and list that if being contacted is most important to you. Next, what if you re-wrote your resource box to be benefit oriented to your ideal customer or web visitor? Who cares if you have two masters degrees if I can’t understand what that means to me as a buyer of your products & services? Another example: Let’s take this: “She specializes in boomer/midlife women in transition-separation/divorce, career change & more!” Here’s my rewrite: If you are a boomer/midlife woman in transition-separation, divorce or want to make a career change now, I can help you! Lastly, giving a free bonus to encourage subscribers is a great idea. An even better idea is to make a very specific offer of a specific bonus that your ideal customer would want. :) Cheers. [Reply] Comment provided August 29, 2007 at 11:55 AM
43
Please review as you said you would – Thank you. I do not have anything to SELL – only wish to write strong positive Christian articles – and want to do the best I can – this technical stuff is ALL NEW to me. Sandy. Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children’s Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled “Word from Scotland” on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column. His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness. Sandy Shaw [Reply] Comment provided August 30, 2007 at 8:18 AM
44
NOTE: This thread will be closing after this post. RESOURCE BOX REVIEW BONUS #14: Sandy Shaw If you don’t have a traffic motive and you don’t have a profit motive… then we look at whether or not your resource box builds credibility for you as a writer/expert. In your case, I think it does. Like many of our members, you could flip your resource box to be more benefit oriented by changing the voice. Example: You have: “He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled “Word from Scotland†on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.” Here’s my rewrite: “You can hear me regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans and read my free weekly commentary at: http://www.studylight.org -> entitled “Word from Scotland†on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.” This last thing is just a style thing, but I’d put your last sentence that stands alone into the first paragraph as the last sentence in that paragraph. Some argue that who cares about the fact that you run or exercise regularly, but I know your purpose is to connect with your reader or find some common grounds for them to relate to you. Best wishes to you and everyone else in this thread. [Reply] Comment provided August 30, 2007 at 9:02 AM
45
A follow up from Gary’s suggestion in comment #34: We have added a 100 character text box to communicate with our members when an editor believes that a link is an affiliate link or if they believe your content is suspect by allowing us to provide you with the URL that is suspect. Hopefully this will save a round trip of communication and make our rejections easier to identify if they were right or if we’ve mis-understood something. Thanks for the suggestion Gary! [Reply] Comment provided September 10, 2007 at 10:55 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||
BLOG COMMENT POLICY |
|||||||||||||||
Thanks, Chris, for taking the time to provide some feedback on our resource boxes. I’ve copied and pasted mine below:
“Chris Smith is a pioneer in applying “coaching” principles to technology planning for small & medium-sized enterprises. He is founder and owner of TeknoCoachâ„¢, a company which is committed to helping small businesses “make Technology their #1 employee”.
Click on the Services or Solutions buttons on our website to find out what TeknoCoach can do for you.”
I would like to re-engineer this resource box so that it does a better job of driving traffic to my website (http://www.teknocoach.com).
[Reply]