There are 3 basic components to an article - the headline, the content and the resource box. Two of these are more important than the third - any guesses which two?

If you guessed the headline and the resource box, congratulations - you can go to the head of the class!

The headline serves two purposes...

First, it has to grab the attention of other webmasters when they're looking for content for their websites. One of the goals of article marketing is to have your article posted on other websites, not just the article directory.

Most webmasters will simply scan the latest articles for something that catches their eye. That means they're probably only going to read your headline initially - it has to grab their attention out of a list of 20 or more articles.

Secondly, the headline has to grab the readers' attention as well. Whether they find it on another website, in the Google results or on the article directory itself, your headline has to stop them in their tracks and convince them to read it - all in a matter of a second or two.

The resource box is the other critical part of your article.

If you read through a lot of the resource boxes of articles on Ezinearticles.com, you'd think that it was a place to brag about your experience or your credentials.

It's not. I hate to disappoint you, but your readers don't really care if you have 20 years of experience or what letters come after your name.

They want the solution to their problem and that's it. That's right, it's all about them!

And that's where you (and your resource box) come in. Offer them the solution to their problem in a way that's impossible for them to ignore. In most cases, you're going to want them to click a link in your article's resource box to visit your website.

But why would they do that? Because you make them an offer they can't refuse.

A free special report...
A free ebook...
The specific solution to their problem...

What you offer isn't as important as what it will do for them. Tell them what you're going to do to help them solve their problem.

That leaves the third part of the article - the content.

Sure, the content isn't as important as the other two components, but that doesn't mean you can just throw a bunch of junk together into an article and you're going to have people beating down the door to your website.

One of the keys to successful article marketing is to offer enough information in your article that it tells the reader something they didn't already know. You want them to believe that you do in fact know what you're talking about so they will trust you enough to visit your website for more information.

One of the lesser known keys is to do the opposite - tell them something they did already know. People are more likely to trust you when they have something in common with you. Telling them something they already know will help to build a rapport with them and help establish the trust you need for them to click through to your website.

So in your article marketing efforts, you want to write your article so it has some information that is commonly known about the subject, some information that the average reader wouldn't already know, and not enough information to fully solve their problem.

That last part is important. If you tell them everything about the topic in your article, why would they visit your website? They already have their answer.

No, you need to give them just enough that they will want to know the rest - and that's what you offer them in the resource box. The entire solution.

If you follow these steps in writing your articles, you'll start to see more traffic coming to your website, more webmasters posting your article on their sites, and over time higher results in the search engines.

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