Link Development as it pertains to article writing is basically very simple.
Since most article directories and submission services do not allow live hyper links within the content of the article your best linking comes in the author resource box.
Importance of Link Building - Search engines evaluate incoming links on various parameters to determine the value of each site linking to you.
They evaluate the page rank of the linking website, the theme and relevance of the linking webpage to your theme, and page relevance based on keywords in the document and anchor text.
What does that mean to you? There are four points of interest in the previous statement.
Theme of the linking webpage, relevance of the linking webpage to your theme, page relevance based on keywords in the document, and anchor text.
For the purpose of this article I will use a generic "outdoor article website" as an example.
Theme of the linking webpage The basic theme of the website is obvious but what is more important is the theme of the linking page, the actual article itself.
This theme takes into account the whole package; Title, Article, Resource box, Keywords.
Relevance of the linking webpage to your theme First, try to choose the best "anchor text" and "landing Page" in the authors resource box.
Don't write an article promoting "Deer Hunting the Appalachia Mountains" then link to the Home Page of the directory.
It would be much better to link to a page within that website that is about Deer Hunting.
The key is "relevance of the linking webpage to your theme" Keywords in the document and anchor text As stated above, page relevance based on keywords in the document and anchor text are of the greatest importance.
Here is an example of a good "anchor text" link in your article.

Example: Within your article, you link the word "shot gun" to an article that you wrote about selecting the proper shot gun for phesant hunting.
This is a good example of an anchored text link vs.
linking the same text to your home page as it doesn't really add any value.

For your second link in the resource box try sending the reader to a special landing page for your mailing list.
Use your best keyword phrase such as..

Sign up for our "Fishing and Hunting Newsletter" and receive a free ebook on Dove hunting in Arizona...

"Fishing and Hunting Newsletter" would be your anchor text.
NOW, create a special landing page with a paragraph or two mimicking your article theme with the keywords Fishing and Hunting newsletter and Dove hunting in Arizona and you have a relevant anchor text with a truly relevant landing page, Great spider Food! Importance of the Article Summary This section is often over looked by many authors who get in a hurry to post there articles.
Instead of just cut/paste a snippet of the article why not create a few keyword rich sentences that are relevant to hook the reader and the spiders.
Since the summary appears only on the category pages and must compete with the other articles in that category, it only makes sense to make the title and summary the best they can be.
Lastly! But of great importance.
Don't forget to list as many quality keywords as possible From the Article to list in the "Keyword section" of the article submission form.
These words are usually inserted into the Meta Keyword Tag automatically when the article is displayed.
These are the keywords the Spiders are feed, so pick good ones.
In conclusion, it is important to put as much thought as possible into your articles.
From the article Title and article Summary to the Author Resource box and Keywords.
Using as many keywords and keyword phrases as possible WITHOUT making it feel unnatural.
Don't make the mistake of throwing together an article and slapping on a resource box and expect the search engines to treat it as relevant.
Search spiders are smarter than you think