The resource box is what you find at the end of an article and usually contains the name of the author with a brief description, in addition to a link (or links) to a website that the author is promoting. The links provided here need to be related to the content of the article, but for one reason or another this is often not the case. I believe this to be somewhat of a flaw in an author's article marketing skills.

Let's take an example where an author wants to promote a website about fishing. If the author decides that they are aiming to only benefit from the article directory links then they might submit articles totally unrelated to fishing, such as carpet upholstery or tire manufacturing. This is fairly common, yet the author is missing a huge market of readers. Someone who searches for articles around a niche that they are interested in is searching for a reason - they want information on that topic. By providing unrelated links in the resource box the author is missing a major part of the article marketing jigsaw.

The reason that articles and the links at the end of those articles are sometimes unrelated may partly be down to the increasing number of PLR article membership sites that are available. Authors see this as a prime opportunity to use a PLR article of any niche, add a resource box on the end with a couple of links and submit to article directories, solely for the link building benefit.

Article marketing is not only about gaining links back to a website, but also to inform a reader and gain direct traffic from article directories.

One of the most advantageous aspects of this method of marketing is also the ability for publishers to use an article on their own website or in their ezine. For the article author this holds unlimited potential - there are thousands of websites that could POTENTIALLY publish your article and directly send you traffic. This can benefit the article author for years down the line.

Article marketing when done correctly is one of the most powerful forms of marketing that website owners possess. There are several to successful article marketing, and providing a relevant resource box is just one of them.