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Part 4e - Article Marketing - Create Your Author's Note

So you've chosen a topic, created a great title and completed your article. But what's the point of all that labor? What do you do next to make your article-writing efforts worthwhile?

You create your author's note, with a call-to-action and hyperlinks.

The author's note — also known as the author's bio or "resource box" — tells the reader about the author and points them to additional resources. Your additional resources will be your business website and/or blog.

Specifically, your author's note will have two links in it:

1. A keyword-rich hyperlink to your website or blog.
2. A regular URL link to your website or blog.

Each of these links serves a purpose, as described below:

1. The Keyword Link to Your Website

This link helps you increase your website's search engine visibility for the key phrase / topic you've chosen. For example, if my company sold email marketing software, I could put that key phrase into a hyperlink within my author's note. This would increase my website's search engine visibility for the phrase.

It might look like this:

• "For more tips on email marketing visit..."
• "To learn more about email marketing programs check out our..."
• "Learn more about creating email newsletters with our free tutorial..."

Remember to mix up your link text (the phrase found within the hyperlink). You don't want 100 articles using the same link text — you want to mix it up, as I've done above, so your website will rank well for a broad range of related phrases / topics.

2. The Regular URL Link to Your Website

This is just a basic link using the full web address (URL) of your business website or blog. This link is mainly a backup so people can still find your website, even if your links get "deactivated" during the republishing process. If somebody finds your article through an article directory and republishes it, there's a chance the hyperlinks will get broken. If this happens, the web address will still allow readers to find your blog. They can simply copy and paste the URL / web address into their web browser.

The example below will make all of this easier to understand!

Include a Call to Action

A mistake many article marketers make is to simply point the reader to a website where they can "learn more about the author." Don't take this personally, but nobody cares about the author — at least not at first. They care about the helpful information the author can provide. They care about solutions to their problems. They care about learning how to save money, save time, accomplish a task, or avoid something terrible.

In short, they care about themselves.

So within your author's note, you should give people a reason to follow the link. You can do this simply by mentioning the products, resources or information you have available there. Here's an example of how to combine the linking strategies listed above with an effective call to action:

This author's note is short and sweet, while accomplishing all of the goals listed above. It takes advantage of the hyperlinks we are allowed to have in the article. It has a keyword-rich hyperlink for search engine visibility, and it has a regular URL / web address link for backup purposes, in case the hyperlinks get deactivated during republishing.

This is the essence of article marketing done well!

Reviewing Your Article Before Publishing

This is an important step, but there's no need to belabor the point here. Just put your article aside for a day after you write it, and then come back at it with fresh eyes for proofreading.

• Check your article for spelling. Don't rely on spell check — it won't catch properly spelled words that are used improperly.
• Make sure your article has a logical flow.
• Make sure the author's note and call-to-action give readers a reason to take further action (by visiting your website).
• Make sure the article is helpful. If it's too general or vague, dig up some more specifics. Give people information they can actually use.
• Make sure you've included hyperlinks within the author's note.
• Use the checklist at the end of this guide to give your article a thorough review.

This concludes the steps for article preparation. Now we're ready to distribute the article online.