Article Surfing Archive

I've heard all kinds of responses to this question. Some people say use the maximum number of links possible in your author resource box. Others say use just one. I think it really depends.

The first rule of thumb with article author resource boxes is to only include information that is relevant to your article. For instance, if you run a dog kennel, an IRS tax preparation service, and a day spa and you write an article about how to save money on your taxes then you want to include the fact that you are the owner of an IRS tax preparation service.

You don't want to mention that you own a dog kennel or a day spa. On the other hand, if your article is about how to groom your poodle for show then you would want to mention that you own a dog kennel but you should leave out the IRS tax preparation service and the day spa.

I think the reason for this is obvious. People interested in one service won't necessarily be interested in the other and it could actually ruin your credibility with your target audience to mention non-relevant interests. But that tells us nothing about links.

Based on the above principle, of course, you can reason that unrelated links should be left out of your author resource box. Don't link to your dog kennel website in an author resource box attached to an article about the health benefits of a day spa. But what if you own a day spa and a massage parlor, two related businesses?

You could provide a link to both business websites in an article about general health and wellness tips. But should you? I'd say you shouldn't IF the two businesses are separate businesses and not related to each other by legal status.

On the other hand, if you have a business website and a blog that represents the same business entity then you probably do want to include a link to both websites.

The reason is because some people will be threatened by the website, which they know will have a strong sales pitch, but they might be interested in reading what you have to say on your blog because it is viewed as less threatening.

Ultimately, the decision is yours. But the principles that I use in determining how many links should go into my article author resource box are these:

' Are the links related to the article content?
' Are the links related to each other?
' How much space is alloted for the author resource box at the directory or website it is being submitted to?
' Which website am I more interested in driving traffic to?
' What is my target audience and how will they perceive each link?

These are all important considerations and very important when deciding what links to put into your author resource box.

Generally speaking, though, fewer links is better because people are less likely to click through to any website if they have trouble deciding which link is most attractive.