Some people write articles for the shear fun of it. They include no links or contact information. Most us, though, write for different reasons. We write with a specific purpose in mind. Some write to increase traffic to a website and others write to generate income. In both of these cases, writers want to generate as many URL clicks as possible. Some of my articles generate as many as twenty-five clicks on one site over the course of a week. If you multiply that times thirty or forty submission sites, it really adds up!



What are the characteristics that can increase an article’s click through rate? After doing a lot of research, I found that the following seven steps appear to be significant factors:

1) Do not use html code. Always use links with plain text starting with http. Even if the submission site accepts html code, use plain text links. This is important because some of the ezines that re-publish your article do not support html. In these cases, your code looks sloppy and will receive fewer clicks.

2) Place your first link in the first sentence of your resource box.

3) Do not place your links at the end of a sentence. Your links should appear in the first half of the sentence.

4) Fewer links appear to work better. Most of my best performing articles had just two links, while my worst performers contained four links.

5) Always give away a free report or something of value. Everybody likes free stuff.

6) After each link, provide a sentence or two on how the reader will benefit. Stress how the download (or your website) will benefit the reader and how it can solve their problems. This can be particularly effective if the article discusses the problem your link (or website) solves.

7) If you are using two or more links, skip a space between each one. Separate paragraphs in your resource box look much nicer than a jumble of links all crammed in together.

Follow the seven steps above to maximize your article’s click through rate and increase traffic, income, or both.