How to Create an Authority Site And Start Making Money – 8 Steps

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Passion gas fuels an authority site. Nothing else can do an equally good job as passion gas.

An authority site grows from your desire to share your passion with the world. An authority site grows with you.

For instance, if you love dogs the way Cesar Milan loves dogs, you have an authority site.

Recently, I started another site about Maths. I love Maths and have coached numerous students in this subject.

I had my very own special way of engaging the children and getting them to grasp “hard” Maths concepts within minutes. Something that most parents are not able to do. I have BIG dreams of holding my Maths workshops for parents and children too.

So, a month ago, after a discussion with my friend, David who runs iPhotoCourse Digital Photography, I have decided to embark on another journey to build another authority site.  (My other authority site is a wedding planning blog)

The result: A month later (today), my site has started making money.

Here is the process to start earning your first dollar:

1. Deciding your niche

As mentioned, this niche must be a niche which you love alot. If you love it alot, most likely you know alot about it too and this will help you to have a great start because you know what your readers want. For instance, if you love cooking, start a cooking blog. As a stay at home dad, I have started to pick up cooking recently. This is a great recipe site I love to visit – MunchMinistry.com and they hold cooking classes for its community. Thus, charging for cooking classes is their way of making money by blogging about food.

2. Getting a brandable domain name

For niche blogging, we are always on the lookout for low competition keywords which are easy to rank. However, since I am building an authority site, the domain name must be brandable. It means it should not be something like “studyingprimaryschoolmaths.com” No one will want to type such a long name. A better name might be “MathsExcel.com”

3. Keyword research

Now, this keyword research is for finding suitable keywords to rank the pages in your website. For example, if “how to excel in Maths” is a suitable keyword, you can record it down and use it as one of the titles for your blog post/ article. After your keyword research, you should have a list of 10 to 15 keywords. Choose a keyword for each article title.

4. Blog set up

Here are the rules I follow:

– WordPress platform

– Clean white background

– 2 columns with right sidebar

– Basic pages to have: contact, about me and two more pages which matter to your readers

– Product/ service page (your money page which differs and is dependant on the niche you are in.)

– Opt in form/ page (for building your list) (I recommend GetResponse)

5. On-page and off-page Seo

Make sure you optimised all your pages and your entire site. One plugin which you must use is “All in one SEO” plugin. You can do manual backlinking by finding other sites/ blogs in the same niche. Do not miss out the social bookmarking too. In addition, you can choose to engage Warriors who provide reliable SEO services in Warrior Forum.

6. Content Creation

There is only one rule to follow: provide quality content. An authority site is very different from niche site. It is not set-and-forget blog. One of your goals should be to build a community around your site. So you must meet the needs of your readers. Build your site for your readers. If you don’t, someone else will.

One way of churning out quality content is to write yourself. The other way is to outsource some of the writing to good writers. You can train and guide your writers to write in the way you want.

7. Direct your content to pre-sell your product/ service

Your blog content should serve some purpose and one of them should be to provide great value to your readers and to show them how good you are. You must provide an impression that since your free content is good, your paid content is even better. So this will turn some of your readers into paying customers.

8. Choosing a payment processor

You can use PayPal.com. If you have an affiliate program which can get others to sell for you, you can use e-junkie

Problems (with solutions):

Niche research – Though the steps seemed simple, finding the right niche is the hardest step. When I asked my students in my coaching program what do they love, most gave me a blank look. Others need more time to think about what they are passionate about. So give yourself time to think about your niche.

Keyword research – This part can be difficult for most people. As this is an authority site, it is ok to find bigger keywords which have more competition.

Content creation – I know some of you do not love to write or prefer to outsource this part. Yes, you can do it. The next challenging part is to find good writers who you can trust and who can write in the style you like. So you may need to go through some firing and hiring of writers before finding the right one. Expect that even good writers won’t stay long as they have other commitments too. So always be on the look out for better writers.

Too overwhelming for newbies – Though there are only 8 steps, the learning curve for newbies can be very steep. So give yourself ample time to fully understand every step and execute it so that you can learn what works or does not work for you.

How do you find this process? Do you prefer building authority site or smaller niche site? I love to hear your thoughts.