Become an Authority Site in your Niche - 100+ Tips, Hat tip to Chris Garrett, more

Apr 15, 2008

Become an Authority Site in your Niche - 100+ Tips, Hat tip to Chris Garrett, more

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Morning! You really don’t appreciate the concept of "silence" until your 15 office Twitter Budgies decide to do their best to imitate a heavy metal concert minus earplugs at 4:28am in the morning. Such are the, ahem, joys, of having them reside in one’s office.

But I digress.

Are you on Twitter? I’m on Twitter! And so is Chris Garrett! While contemplating Paradise in a Brimming Cup (ie, my morning coffee), he tweeted:

chrisgarrett Reading:
100 Tips to Become an Authority Site in Your Niche

What a super super super post!! Hats off to Chris for mentioning that - it’s really worth sharing. Some of the insights include:

…Get listed in directories. Add your site as a listing in directories like DMOZ and Yahoo! to build authority.

Spread outbound links. Link to other authority sites in your niche, and you’ll gain authority while offering a service to your visitors.

Leave comments. Visit sites that are related to your niche and leave insightful comments that will have readers looking to your site for more.

Go big. Authority sites have hundreds — and possibly thousands — of different pages covering their subject matter. Start building, but always remain credible.

Update content often. Don’t make users wonder if your site is still around — keep things moving by updating often, using time stamps or dates. An easy way to do this is to maintain a blog.

Offer multiple types of content. Give your site a good mix of static, dynamic and multimedia content to cater to the masses.

Offer "expert pages." Create pages with content that focuses on a specific topic and offers links to hub pages about that topic.

Set up an online press room. Make it easy for journalists to learn more about your site and what you do by providing them with the information they seek. This is also a great way to get more mileage out of your press releases ….MORE….

Since coming online in 1998, I’ve constantly produced authority sites in my various niches and know how valuable such a concept really is. I’d add to the above tips:

Infuse your content with your personality. Anyone can go online to search out answers….but actively engaging your readers and allowing them to hear your voice in their imagination gives them more reasons to come back to your site. You’re teaching as well as entertaining.

Link to your competitors. Show you’re not afraid to let site visitors check out the competition…because you are confident they’ll return to your resources in the end.

Offer a 7 day eclass/ebook/etc. What’s child’s play to you in your niche is probably pretty difficult for the generic reader in your industry. Craft up a 7 day eclass or PDF downloadable book etc. and offer it for free.

Be humble. You might be acknowledged as the shining star in your industry; don’t let it go to your head. Thank people who help you often and publicly online.

Give yourself permission to excel. In any niche, there will be nay-sayers who derive great joy in taking down successful bloggers/entrepreneurs/etc. Accept the fact said individuals are, well, more pathetic than soaking wet puppy dogs in a howling downpour, and let them go. You know you possess the ability to vault over others in your niche - go forth and make it happen.

In closing, I’m always fond of saying you MUST sing your own song. Sure, you can pattern your work after the leaders in an industry….but you truly need to find your own specific angle/twist/goodie that only you can bring to your visitors online. That way…people can imitate you…but never surpass you. And that, of course, can only be described as a Good Thing indeed.

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners blogging tips: Right now you’re probably linking TO authority sites….consider taking the leap to BECOMING an authority site.

Intermediate and/or Advanced blogging tips: Take a sheet of paper and write down all the authority site tips you find in the referenced article, and then create a schedule to implement them in a timely fashion.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

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Barbara Ling and Owlbert

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