How to Start an Authority Website
April 16th, 2009 | 50 comments
I’m sure you’ve realized by now that there are more than a just a few ways to make money online. Just like the offline world, you’ll find many, many different Internet Marketing Business Models (techniques to make money!) One of those models is niche marketing, which I talk alot about and offer a free niche marketing guide that has become very popular.
But one of the most obvious is starting a site that is well-known in the market in which it covers… an “Authority Site.”
So what is an Authority site?
Very simply put, an authority site is any type of Website (blog, static site, forum, etc.) that the average person goes to for advice, tips, information etc. on the topic in which the site covers.
A few examples of authority sites would be:
Craigslist: Online Classified Ads
Amazon: Online Shopping
TechCrunch: Technology
These are examples of EXTREMELY popular sites and many people wouldn’t even dream of running a site that big, but it’s important to understand that a site doesn’t have to be at the level of Amazon etc. to be considered authoritative!
For example, I run a Germany Travel site that currently has a Google Toolbar Pagerank of 0, an Alexa Traffic Rank of 728,000 and you’ve probably never heard of it unless you heard me mention it in the past. But if you ever plan a trip to Germany and start searching for germany tourism information, chances are you’ll come across my site!
Important Things to Consider
One of the biggest differences between running a “niche” site (targeting long-tail phrases) and an authority site is the requirement of passion and to a certain extent, knowledge. If you want to start an authority site in the Credit Card niche simply because it’s a high paying market, but you don’t have a passion or much knowledge on that niche, chances are you’ll never get an authority site on that niche off the ground!
You simply MUST either have a passion for that niche, have a great deal of knowledge for that niche or both! Notice I said “either” one, the other or both. Read this very carefully because many people quit before they realize this important piece of advice: You DON’T have to be an expert on the subject to run an authority site! If you have a passion for the niche you’ll come up with stuff to write about that others with the same passion will love to hear! You can always research topics that you’re not sure about and write about your findings. Chances are many of your readers wondered the same thing!
PASSION is the most important factor! Although someone with a great deal of knowledge on a subject, but little or no passion, could also develop an authoritative site on the subject, someone with lots of passion on the subject, but maybe less knowledge, will almost always win the respect and readership of people over the person with no passion, but alot of knowledge! If you have both, you have the ingredients of a SUPER authoritative site, but one or the other will get you where you want to be!
How to Actually Get an Authoritative Site Going
There isn’t anything too difficult about starting an authority site. It’s really no different than starting a niche site or anything else. BUT there are a few things that are very important (in no particular order!)
1. You want a good, professional appearance! Sure, an ugly site can certainly still be authoritative, but a professional, “clean” looking site will get you credibility much quicker! Don’t be afraid to make a small, initial investment in a professional site design!
2. Allow user interaction in some way. The best way is by allowing viewers to comment on your content. This is one of the reasons Blogging software is so great! (I recommend WordPress.org)
3. Get something set up to retain your visitors! The best way to do this is by offering a free report, or something similar, in exchange for the viewers name and email! Email marketing is VERY, VERY, VERY profitable! If your site is a blog, make it easy for users to subscribe to your RSS feed. If you’re not retaining your visitors you’re making a HUGE mistake!
So, if you’ve ever considered starting your own authoritative site, but didn’t do it because you just didn’t think you had it in you, I hope this post gives you the confidence you needed to get it going! ANYONE can start a successful, authoritative site because we all have different interests and whether you realize it or not, I’m SURE you have a passion for something that others would love to hear you talk about!
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16th April, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Great advice, I like the tips about allowing user comments and giving them something for free. With the popularity of social media sites.
I think it is also true about start the site about something you love or the interest will quickly fade and you will move onto something else.
16th April, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Hi Josh,
Nice post again – I have quite a few different sites that I would like to expand into authority sites and only recently did it hit me that I CAN do it.
I’ve recently outsourced an expert for one of my niche sites and he will be adding content on a regular basis (as I don’t have the knowledge, BUT I have the passion!).
I got this idea from Ryan Deiss and his recent product launch.
Nice article – thanks.
16th April, 2009 at 4:20 pm
@ author of first and second comment – Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. When you get a minute you may want to read my comment policy too. Feel free to use keywords, but please let me know who you are too… it’s all in the comment policy
16th April, 2009 at 4:23 pm
hey…good thoughts. thanks. btw, is that you in a suit man? Cool
16th April, 2009 at 4:24 pm
@ Anthony – lol no, you won’t catch me in a suit!
16th April, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Great post Josh. I agree with getting the look and feel correct as well.
I believe the first impression sets such a large tone for the visitor, that it must be a top priority.
How often do you suggest that emails be sent to visitors?
16th April, 2009 at 4:30 pm
@ Mark – Yep, many people disagree, but I’ll keep doing what works for me and let them disagree all day long
I email approximately every 6 days. Can learn more about my email marketing technique at http://www.NewAgeEmailMarketing.com/
16th April, 2009 at 4:30 pm
authority sites kinda hard to do, too much outsource = more expense, lol
im more into minisites
16th April, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Good advice Josh. I have had an idea for a site that I have a passion for. I have owned the URL for a long time, but have not created a site yet. This is a nice push to get me into gear.
First time here, will be back.
16th April, 2009 at 4:53 pm
@ Flat – Just a hunch here: 1. You didn’t read the blog post 2. You commented to try to get a free link? Am I close?
Please read my comment policy.
@ Mark – Glad to hear this gave you the push you needed and thanks for the support!
16th April, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Hi Josh,
I agree regarding the need for some extent of “passion” as an authority site needs a continuous momentum by adding content on a regular basis. I think that a site in a niche where there are many product launches and a lot of buzz, keeps the momentum going, as you get JV invites to promote new products so you always get new fresh content (not just PLR stuff). I have had success launching Forex site and actually manage to do nicely as there are so many product launches and so much buzz around this niche (even though its also highly competitive).
16th April, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Oh man do I agree with you. Putting up a site for credit cards and such is fine but no way to make yourself look like an authority if you don’t have the passion for it.
I put those sites up but use my expertise on my top sites. Nice pointers you have here. thanks!
16th April, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Hey Josh,
Great post…. I’m thinking of starting a Cairo travel site when I move there and your Germany site is a great thing for me to see so I can see what kind of thing works.
Thanks.
16th April, 2009 at 5:49 pm
You actually have gotten me motivated. You posted about Geocaching a while back. My kids and I are now starting to get interested in that hobby. Also, your Germany site makes me want to do one on Ireland. I lived and worked there for a few years and love it.
Enjoyable post.
16th April, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I would be so much more inclined to act on something (whether it’s to subscribe to a newsletter or RSS, or even believe someone) if their site has some form of thought behind it. I don’t like “judging a book by its cover”, but there needs to be some sign of a well-kept house to establish credibility.
I guess that’s why I spend so much time on getting things “just right” on my blog’s. Probably to much because I’m my own worst critic.
16th April, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Hey Josh,
Thanks for the interesting post.
Too often we think that we need to have this super expert knowledge before we can be considered experts or authoritative in nature.
Your post reminds us again that it doesn’t have to be that way.
Thanks!
Welly Mulia
16th April, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Josh,
Great post! I have an authority site in the fitness niche (gets about 5,000 uniques per day).
It takes a lot of work to get to a point of high-traffic, but that is actually good news. I don’t lose sleep wondering if someone is going to replicate my site overnight. It simply can’t happen. An authority site has to earn that title over a period of years.
My site hits the 2 year mark in June. This past March, I was able walk away from my job from the income my site produces.
Like you said…getting RSS Subscribers and building a list is key.
Rusty
16th April, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Hi Josh,
I have an intention of setting up one of those actually in a niche for which I have both qualities to about 90% built over more than 20 years
The catch at the moment is time and other half way projects that I am still working on. This post has further confirmed to me that I can actually get to that goal as I have the said pre-requisites.
I hopeful that it’ll bethis year when I make the plunge.
A great motivational & informative post thanks
William
16th April, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Great post – I have just started working on my first authority site in a niche that I absolutely love (where plenty of money is being spent too!), and it is a fantastic experience. Before now I just focused on building small sites on topics that I had some interest in, but mostly I was just chasing the money. I made sales, but just ended up feeling bored and burned out – it was like working a job in some ways, just writing for money. Yet I’m working for myself and don’t *have* to write about anything – so I decided life is too short & it’s silly to waste time doing anything purely for the money, when I can just as easily (more easily in fact) make money in a niche that I’m passionate about. Now I wake up in the morning & can’t wait to get started, and am having fun increasing my own knowledge of the topic too. I just wish I’d started doing this before now!
16th April, 2009 at 8:19 pm
What about someone who already has a good authority type site. How does someone really monetize it without adding numerous affliate links and adsense ads all over the place.
Paul
16th April, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Good post Josh. One of the sites I’ve been working on recently was started because of a skin condition that I developed over the last few years. I have no doubt it will eventually become an authority site because of my interest in the subject. I sincerely want to help others and want others to help me through the site. I have no problem coming up with material for it! More of a lack of time than anything!
I need to work on collecting names and emails for a list. Might actually monetize it someday?
Chris
16th April, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I am applying article marketing along your 5 dollar formula and have generated some traffic, but always looking for other good information.
I am also using my blog (easyhomecooking.wordpress.com) as a companion authority site to establish cross links. I am using Wordpress.org as you mentioned as it seemed to be was the best suited and most flexible.
Always interested in your ideas. Thanks a Bunch
16th April, 2009 at 9:12 pm
If most of use had only concentrated on 1 website or niche for the last couple of years, we all would have had an authority site by now!!
Keyword research is such a time killer. I find myself pulled in so many different directions while performing this research.
16th April, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Anybody who knows more than you do about a subject is an authority in my eyes. It is a bit like these quiz shows on TV – The questions are only easy if you know the answers!
I have a quite a number of niche sites on subjects I knew very little about when I first started them. Most of my sites are either something I have been interested in or based on life experiences (much the same as your Germany site Josh).
When my grand daughter was born, I took on the responsibility of looking after her when her mother went back to work. However, during the three years that I took care of her near full time (she is 7 now), I learnt or had to find out about various things. For instance, when she was 10 months old, she was rushed into hospital with what we found out after was a feberal convulsion. I had never heard of such a thing but now if you ask me, I can probably tell you all there is to know about them. Why, because I researched the subject and became a bit of an authority, although I never set up a site about it. I do however have a general childrens health site the motivation of which was my grand daughter.
One night, when she was two, I noticed that she was seemingly stopping breathing for a few seconds (scary I can tell you) in her sleep and then sort of spluttering back to life again. It transpired that she was suffering from childhood sleep apnea due to enlarged adenoids and tonsils which were removed in hospital and she is fine now. Again, I wanted to know more about this, did a lot of research and as a result, ended up setting up a site all about sleep and sleep disorders which prior to my grand daughter, I knew very little about.
The point is that you do not have to have a full blown passion for a subject but on the other hand, we all have to live life and you cannot help but learn new things as you go along. You can become an authority in many subjects without even realising, even if you do not consider yourself to be one.
Of course, how computer bots and algorithms can tell the difference, I have no idea.
You certainly do not need a thousand pages on a subject just to be an authority if you can cover the same subject in ten, which ultimately is what a niche site is – you can still be an authority in that niche.
Alan
16th April, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Hi Josh,
Nice post, thanks for giving clear and useful steps for building authority sites.
It looks a lot tougher than it actually it is.
16th April, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Glad to see you touch on this subject Josh. I started out building an authority site because the first thing I came across that sounded legit when I was looking for a way to earn money online was SiteBuildIt (SBI).
I didn’t know how to do ANYTHING so I just followed their step by step instructions and ended up building my chocolate-candy-mall.com site. I definitely have a passion for chocolate!
Once I had that site established I went on to build a few more authority sites in different niches. One has definitely started to bore me (not the best choice) but the other one is something that I do have to research continually – but that interests me.
I’ve thought a few times about creating a couple of mini-sites when I read about what some of you others are doing, but somehow I’ve just kept plugging away at the others. I’m feeling that will probably serve me the best in the long run.
17th April, 2009 at 2:31 am
I get bored easily so I didn’t think Authority sites were for me.
But, I have found that I can build authority sites based on seasonal topics. I can work on them for a few months and then take a break without losing too much.
I set up a calender so I don’t forget to get back to them a few months before the seasonal rush starts back up again.
17th April, 2009 at 7:20 am
Great post, Josh. I am building an authority site about juicing for health, but I also have smaller niche sites. Don’t like to have all those eggs in one basket! A free report is crucial for list building. It really speeds things up. It made a huge difference in my subscription rate. Thanks for all your common sense, doable advice and tips.
17th April, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Appreciate the advice Josh. I am just starting an authority site and have a passion for the subject so hopefully this gets me through those times when I may get bored or find it hard to come up with something to write about.
Linda
17th April, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Building an authority site won’t happen overnight. One must be persistently adding quality information in his niche so that eventually a whole range of valuable content is created and made available for the readers to use.
17th April, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Josh, thanks for this inspirational post. I went to the Everything About Germany site and was impressed about the targeted information I found there. Very useful stuff…too bad I’m not going to Germany anytime soon!
As a copyeditor, though, I have to say the site could use a good proofread. I hope I don’t sound too snarky.
Rusty, I checked out your site too. Very nice-looking site.
17th April, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Hi Josh!
i’ve been working on an idea for a new authority site and when I read your post, I was wondering what you think of the idea of a “mashup” site?
There was an incredible article in Issue 145 of Web Designer magazine on creating “mashup” authority sites. do you think it’s worth the effort or do you think that a “mashup” is just a re-hash of other authority sources and can’t be monetized? Seems like a simple way to get an authority site whipped together fast.
18th April, 2009 at 6:56 am
Thanks Josh you make a lot of sense and also thanks for assisting me with some other questions that I have every now and then. You never said no to me and I value this very much.
Kind regards
Michael.
Sydney Australia
19th April, 2009 at 1:16 am
Josh,
Great post, I agree with your comment about passion, because you could always research stuff, however, if you are really into your topic and are doing it, or reading forum posts on it anyway, writing about it will not seem like work.
Even more importantly you will not mind doing it, so you will continue with it.
One question, do you think doing the static site, with a blog linking to it is a good idea, where you could be more general stuff on the static site and then more day-to-day stuff on the blog.
Thanks,
Len
19th April, 2009 at 4:40 am
That’s right, however I recommend to my clients to start with a niche site ( actually often with a simple blog or squeeze page) while they are learning the process.
When they start understanding how to make this works, they can decide if they want to expand into an authority site.
Franck
20th April, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Great article! I was fortunate enough to pick an area that had some great demand and between my wife (a cerified E.C.E) and myself ( love of kids, mind like a child, artistic and creative, web design experience etc) we have made an awesome authority website which has definitely paid off!
I etain email addresses and offer games etc for helping to bring visitors back again and again!
It took me a lot of dedication and hard work..but has paid off! I wish I started my websites 10 years ago!
21st April, 2009 at 7:40 am
I think you make some good points and agree that passion is really important you need to want to make this work and have an interest in succeeding otherwise you will find that you lose steam and miss opportunities
21st April, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Great post – again!
Many marketers concentrate too much on marketing and not so much on their sites or blogs, I mean contents now.
Your idea about an authority site is also a great marketing idea, because the site like that draws visitors again and again. The challence for the webmaster is, that it takes lots of time and expertise to reach that level and to be active all the time.
But strategically it is very wise to add content to your blog or site and not to use so much time for writing articles, for instance. The site or blog is in all cases the heart of our marketing efforts.
Take care,
Juhani
22nd April, 2009 at 11:50 am
Excellent post Josh. I agree that you would want the site to look professional but with Craigslist as an example it isn’t a requirement
As or passion vs. knowledge I think that they are nicely tied together. Without passion is will be difficult to acquire enough knowledge (you would get bored ling before) and with passion you’ll almost always be looking for new things in that topic and thereby acquire the knowledge over time.
26th April, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Hi Josh
Great post as always.
Creating an authority site might be hard work, but ultimately it is more interesting that just churning out lots of content in different areas that perhaps don’t really hold your interest.
Neil
28th April, 2009 at 9:37 am
I appreciate for your effort made and you had given a clear and useful tips in building authority sites.The article gives me more strength in developing a professional sites.Thanks for your input and sure i will implement in future.
28th April, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Great advice about starting an authority site! I like your points about passion or knowledge because it’s so true. Good luck with your Germany travel site!
5th May, 2009 at 8:08 am
Quite frankly, building authority site is a big undertaking. I prefer to develop niche sites and try to raise them to authority level thru SEO.
5th May, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Great post on building an Authority site. In time almost any site you build can become an authority site. How do you know when you are there?
When you put a keyword into Google and your site comes up number one and several of your pages come up with direct links directly under your listing. Put “Josh Spaulding” into Google and your ezmoneyonline comes up. So German Travel is not your only Authority site…
Rick
5th May, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I was having a conversation with my son about Consultants. Where he works hires consultants occasionally. The difference between a consultant and you usually is they have one days more knowledge.
An authority site will have more than one days more knowledge.
Rick
8th May, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I had a question about the free report. I was thinking about putting the free report on my site and not having any links to it in the site.
Is this a simpler way than making it a PDF. I think a lot of newbies have trouble opening PDFs. I know I hated them a couple of years ago.
Rick
8th May, 2009 at 7:22 pm
@ Rick – What free report are you talking about?
10th May, 2009 at 5:06 pm
With a free report given away for signing up for an email opt in list. Instead of sending them a PDF, just send them the address to a page on your website. For a long time I had trouble downloading a free PDF. Lame I know but true.
Another thought about making your site pretty. A couple of extremely popular Authority sites are always sited as UGLY. I am referring to Craigslist and Plenty of Fish. Both of which are head and shoulders above a lot of their Pretty competition.
Rick
12th May, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Thanks for the tips, Josh! After reading them I have confidence that the website I’m planning will turn out to be an authority site in its niche.
13th May, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I started my first site last August – it is a niche site about mortgages in Tenerife. I have added a lot of info to it, explaining everything I can about the process, whats available etc.
There is a lot of info there so I think it is now an authority site. It ranks between 1 – 3 in google for all the keywords I targeted
– that took some time! Now I have to decide if I should also try and rank it for Spanish mortgage keywords – mortgages in Spain etc or start a new site for that category…
Whilst there is a lot of info, my site is definitely not pretty! I will maybe ask around to see if someone can go over it with a pretty brush! – Any offers?