Today we’re going to start our series on Authority Blogging. I’m excited to start this topic as it is my favorite internet marketing strategy. Before we jump in I want to talk a little about what it’s going to take to make this strategy work. I know most of you may be familiar with internet marketing. You’ve probably read a million ebooks. Your head is filled with all the things you MUST do to make internet marketing work. And now… I’m going to tell you to forget it ALL.
Forget everything you’ve read … go ahead. Let it go.
Now is your brain a blank slate? Ok.. good.
What is the purpose of an authority blog?
We’ve built lots of different types of sites on our journey thus far. We’ve built one page Squidoo lenses, we’ve built niche sites and the main purpose in these sites was to push people to an affiliate product and get them to buy.
In those sites you needed to do a lot of keyword research, you had to do a lot of thinking and figuring before you started writing so you could easily place yourself in the buyers stream and divert him to buy what he was looking for from you.
Nothing wrong with that at all, but that’s NOT what we’re doing with our authority sites.
Our purpose with our authority sites (and this is going to be tough to grok for some of you I’m sure) is to create a relationship with your reader, and give them what they need.
Now depending on your topic what they are looking for, what they need may be completely different. It could be a million different things, but YOUR primary job as an authority blogger is to get into the mind of your reader, figure out what they are looking for, what they need, and give it to them.
This means we are not pandering to Google ~ we are not building a list of keywords to write about before we get started, we’re not trying to determine what the “best” keywords to have in our domain name are. We are going out there to build relationships, and interact with people who love to talk about our topic or need some help in our topic area.
Yeah, but… Yeah, but… Yeah, but…
I can hear you from here!
It’s ok. Think about it though. Do you think Darren Rowse of Problogger found 40,500 monthly search volume for the term “problogger” when he decided to put his site up? No, my guess there was a big fat 0 ~ but as of this morning there are in fact, over 40 THOUSAND people every month searching for the term problogger.
Darren created that search volume by creating a blog that is an absolute authority resource on becoming an authority blogger or a “pro blogger”.
Do you think there was a ton of search volume for No time for flash cards (my favorite kids craft site) when she started her site only a year or so ago? Nope, and there still isn’t much ~ only 590 monthly search volume ~ however, she has almost 3000 facebook fans ~ believe me she’s got a readership.
What about simple mom? Do you think there was a ton of search volume for that term before the simplemom.net blog got so big? Well she’s got over 21 THOUSAND RSS subscribers and has recently expanded her blog to an entire media network that includes 4 other blogs.
This is what authority blogging is all about. It’s about CREATING your readership. Being the BEST resource on any given topic so when people find your site they bookmark it, they subscribe in RSS and they come back every single day to read what you have to say.
What does it take to be an Authority Blogger?
Here’s what I think it takes.
1. Courage. You have to be willing to be yourself and put yourself out there. The more authentically YOU you are, the more you will connect with your readers and the better your blog will be.This can take a lot of courage, because many times our inner critic is yelling at us that we’re not “good enough” or not “smart” enough, or whatever enough to do this. But you are. Step into your courage and go out there and be yourself. You’ll find people don’t “buy in” to your information they buy YOU!! YOU are the one thing that makes your blog different than any other blog on the internet. You can write a blog on the exact same subject as 5 million other people, and it will never be the same as theirs because it has YOU, and that’s what will keep YOUR readers coming back day after day. 
2. Persistence. This is not going to happen overnight. You’re not going to have 20K subscribers in the next month or two. It’s going to take time. This doesn’t mean your blog won’t grow in the next month or two, it will. You may even make some money in the next month or two, but you will have to be persistent to make this endeavor work. This is a long term business, not a shot in the pan set it forget it deal.
3. Consistency. You must be consistent. You must publish new content regularly and frequently. You will have to participate in your chosen marketing channels consistently and frequently. Consistency probably should have been #1 if you can’t be consistent you will not be successful with this internet marketing strategy.
4. Passion. If you’re going to still be talking about this topic 3, 5, 8 years from now you had BETTER love what you’re talking about. Seriously. LOVE IT.
5. Motivation. If you are not motivated by something about this you’re not going to succeed. The money can NOT be the motivation. It may take too long to happen and if that’s all you’ve got for motivation you’re going to lose it and quick blogging. Something else has got to motivate you. Helping people, working through something, I don’t know what it is, but it’s got to be something that will keep you coming back to your computer every single day… no matter what.
What does it take to be an expert?
You might be concerned you aren’t an “expert” on anything. Well please, don’t let that stop you. It’s just a matter of how you define “expert”. On the internet an expert is defined as someone who knows more than most other people on any given topic.
Now think about that. Do you think most people have read a book on the topic you’re interested in? Have you read a book on the topic? Do you think most people have read more than 2 books on your topic? My guess is not many people have read more than 2 books on anything in this day and age. Have you read more than 2 books on your favorite topic?
I bet you have. You’ve probably also done a lot of research online, read some magazines on the topic, and heck, you’re probably even DOING your topic. This experience and information makes you a very knowledgeable source on this topic, in fact, it makes you an expert.
Don’t think because you don’t have a phd in basket weaving you can’t be an expert, because you can be, in fact, if you’ve made baskets ~ you probably already are.
What can I do an authority blog about?
We’re going to delve into choosing a topic tomorrow, but for right now realize you can do an authority blog on ANY topic. Really, seriously just about any topic will work. You may not want to do underwater basket weaving as your topic, because there may not be enough people interested to build a big enough audience to make it worth it for you.
So today think about the things in your life you love to talk about. Brainstorm, don’t limit yourself to what you think might be “good enough” or “right”. Just think about what you’re passionate about. Write things down.
Keep in mind though… (this one comes from personal experience) the topic you pick will be a long term investment. You’ll be writing about it for a long time to come so make sure it’s not a “fad” passion. You may know I have a natural pregnancy site. I was very passionate about natural pregnancy and childbirth a few years back. I could talk about it all day. Of course I was pregnant and having a baby. It lost it’s luster a couple years after having Hanna ~ so just keep that in mind. (oh if anyone’s interested in buying an authority site on natural pregnancy ~ or you know someone who is…)
Also keep in mind we’re looking for more general topics for this type of site ~ again we’ll go into this more tomorrow. But you don’t want to choose a really narrow focus ~ because you’re going to be talking about it forever, you want a topic that’s wide enough you can find something to talk about for a long time to come.
What if my topic won’t make me money?
Now is not the time to think about making money. Really… think about how much and for how long you can write about a topic. How many other people are interested in your topic. How you can write about the topic in different ways month after month. (don’t worry, I’ll be helping you with that one!)
Every niche can be monetized, somehow. That’s why I say don’t worry about it right now. You can use affiliate products, create your own products, or even create a big enough audience to get sponsors who pay you to advertise on your site. The money will come if you have the passion and the awesome content. So seriously, don’t sweat the monetization at this point. OK?
With all these things it may seem like it’s going to be tough to be an authority blogger ~ actually it’s quite the opposite. Authority blogging has less “rules” to follow, it takes less time to complete your daily actions (you could do this easily in 2 or 3 hours a day), and if you choose a topic you love it will be fun and you won’t even realize you’re “working”. (which is my favorite part!)
If you have general questions about authority blogging feel free to ask, just remember… this is a series and I’ll probably be doing a whole post on your questions ~ but ask them anyway to make sure I cover what you want to know.
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What a wonderful post on being an authority blogger. Apart from the awesome ideas I have learned form this post. I am also aware that becoming successful in the blogging world, you need a lot of patience. It is very rare for your site to pick up immediately you start it up but with time, hard work and dedication you will make it.
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