Article marketing is an excellent affiliate marketing strategy. It is a source of free advertising that is relatively painless. Almost anyone can do it. With a good article marketing campaign, you can enjoy almost a limitless source of free website traffic.

The number one tip for good article marketing is to write an excellent resource box. The resource box is where you give your name and other information about yourself as the author of the article. This box is the second most important part of article marketing, with the most important being the content of the article itself.

What constitutes an excellent resource box? It must include the information to allow the potential customer know who you are, where to click to get your product or find out more information, and, most importantly, the call to click on that link. Using all your marketing skills at this point will insure you get clicks to your site, and ultimately sales, based on your selling of yourself as an expert in the field about which you are writing.

Okay, there are resource boxes and there are resource boxes. What are some dos and don ts in writing resource boxes? What should you include and what should you leave out?

Some things you need to include to write the perfect resource box are:

You should include your name. This doesn t mean just your business name. You want people to identify you personally as an expert in the field. You do this by giving them an individual name. You can include your business name, but be sure and include your own name as well.

Include you website address. Write it in the form with http:// before it. That makes it clickable to potential customers as well as their being able to copy and paste if necessary. Be sure to include links to internal pages on your site some of the time. That increases your search engine ranking.

Be sure to include a two to three line sales pitch. This is your unique selling proposition (USP). If you are writing multiple versions of the same article, be sure to vary your resource box by using a different take on your USP.

A call to action will encourage your reader to click on the provided link. This should be specifically indicated that this link is where to click. Encourage them by offering more information or a free report.

What should you not include in the perfect resource box?

Don t include a listing of every website you own and/or manage. You will weaken the appeal of the website you are wanting to promote by listing multiple sites. It is best to focus on only one site. That helps you appear as an expert in the area you are writing about and linking to.

The second thing not to include is a website that doesn t relate to the article content. Nothing will destroy your credibility quicker. In addition, in most article directories, you will be banned from submission for such an act.

No reader wants to read about all the accomplishments you have ever enjoyed, even if they apply to the subject at hand. Pick your most impressive accomplishment that relates to what you are writing about and feature that. You will gain more credibility with one or two very impressive accomplishments than you will with a long laundry list of every accomplishment you can think of.

Never include advertisements for products that do not relate to the topic of your article. This can also get you banned.

Don t include so much information in your resource box that is becomes more of a focus than your article. Good content, written well, is what will gain you sales. Recommendations are that the resource box should not be more than 20 of your total article. Even less, if at all possible, is better.

Article marketing is an excellent advertising source. Written well, with good content, you can claim your corner of the market. Yet, the resource box can make or break your credibility here. Don t mess it up. Do as well in writing it as you do writing the article and you should obtain those valued customers.