Why Create an Authority Site?

In his recent e-Book, Authority Site 2.0 Blueprint,
Mike Paetzold identifies the search engine benefits of
an authority site.

Mike argues that an authority site will enable you to
gain top search engine rankings, attract free traffic
and boost your income accordingly. He suggests
that Web 2.0 with its social networking capabilities
makes it even easier today to create an authority
site that is attractive to Google and the other search
engines.

I could not agree more and this has been
confirmed by my own experience with my
Squidoo Marketing Strategies authority site
(Google PR4 ranking and no1. position for a
number of search term results on Google).

But how do you use Web 2.0 to gain recognition
by Google as an authority site?

Well that is the subject of Mike Paetzold's
comprehensive, 159 page e-Book
(that is going for a steal at the moment).

What I want to concentrate on is what I think
Mike underplays - the value of creating
an Authority Site.

Starting your own authority site is perhaps
the critical ingredient for success in Internet
marketing. Think of any successful marketer...
and what comes to mind?

You know them and buy from them because they
are recognized experts in blogging, social
marketing, AdSense, Google AdWords, SEO, list
building, affiliate marketing, article writing,
weight loss or Squidoo.

They have established their reputation
and gained recognition through their
authority sites.

An "authority" by definition is someone who
exerts influence, has credibility, gains followers,
leads by example and commands attention.

People are attracted to "authority figures",
respect their opinions, want to be associated
with them, quote them, talk and write about
them and voluntarily promote the authority's
expertise through buzz, blogging and social
networking.

Once you have established yourself as an authority,
people begin to trust you and follow your
recommendations. Your conversion rate soars
and daily income becomes a reality.

If you are recognized as an expert, people want
to associate with you and want to listen to
what you have to say. They will seek you out
for joint ventures, product development,
interviews and collaborative marketing.

When you think about it, the Internet would
not exist if people had not first created authority
sites to make it worthwhile for others to use the
Internet to search for information.

Those early pioneers offered information because
they were passionate about their topic. It was only
later that we learned to monetize this information
provision.

The sure road to success on the Internet is to become
established as an authority in your own right -
to create your own authority site.

Mike Paetzold has shown the way to create an
authority site within a Web 2.0 environment:
Authority Site 2.0 Blueprint

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo lens:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Squidoo Affiliate Marketing: Post, Publish, Ping

I recently received the following question from a subscriber:
"How do I get more consistent traffic without having to do
specific actions each and every day (pinging, bookmarking, etc)?"

The short answer is you need to do those daily tasks
- post, publish and ping.

Here's the long answer.

The amount of traffic you will get is a function of a number

of things:

• Level of interest in your keyword(s) and/or topic area
• Number of searches conducted for your keyword(s)
• The level of competition
• The value of your site to the reader
• The frequency with which you update

(Re competition: the keyword "internet marketing" brings

up 53 Million results on Google and is controlled by

long standing marketers, some of guru status).

The Law of Attraction works in this arena too.

Repeat visits will come if you offer free and substantial,

expertise relevant to the viewer's goals. They will not

return if your site does not offer value.

I have learnt this through my blog and my main lens.

I get enquiries everday from all over the world and offers
to promote other people's products.

People are starting to refer other people to my blog, my

lenses and my articles. Others are creating links on their

lenses and blogs to my lens/blog. Two top marketers

recently mentioned my blog/lens in their own newsletter/

blog. Still others are seeking me out on FaceBook.

So if you are offering something of value that is timely

and needed by a target market, they will eventually

come to you. But they have to know that you exist.

Both Google (and other search engines) and Squidoo

will naturally give priority to sites that are regularly

updated.

One of my Squidoo lenses had a bug in it

recently preventing me from editing it, and in four

days it dropped from 270 overall to 737!

However, it has now reached no 8 position on Google

(out of 400,000+ results) - by daily updating and

pinging (lens first published on 17/9/07).

The gurus tell us that the marketing power now lies

with the quality authority sites (Wikipedia is but one

major example). One of the top marketers refers to

these authority people as "Top Dogs" - in her words,

those who offer substantial, free expert advice on a

topic.

Jack Humphrey, who I referred to in a recent post
actually claims to have coined the term

"authority site" - he certainly pushes it and his site

is a great example of an authority site.

If you download his Authority Black Book, you gain

access to his special traffic blog and another service

he calls, Authority Site Center :
http://www.contentdesk.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Through the Authority Site Center he will create a
Wordpress blog for you and a header and host your site.
He uses special software to make your site a traffic generator.
Plus you get access to a mastermind group. All this for
around $97 a month.

I mention this mainly to make a point!

Despite doing all this (using software he developed at a

cost of $1Million), he insists that you post daily...and that

is how you become an authority and develop an

authority site. His software automates the pinging,

submission to social bookmarking sites, RSS feeds, etc.

As you know by now, if you want to post daily, you

have to learn a hell of a lot pretty fast.

So even the very top people with the most sophisticated

traffic generating software in the world insist on daily

updating.

The top bloggers post four or five times daily - that's how

they dominate the search engines and their niches.

You can also buy traffic but it won't be as targeted as

organic search engine or Squidoo traffic (unless you

use something like adwords - at considerable expense).

However, if you do not update daily you can

drop in ranking in both Google and Squidoo.

So the moral of the story is - Post, Publish, Ping...
on a daily basis.

If you find this a challenge, check out my Squidoo marketing
lens for ideas on what to add to your lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies/

****************************************************************
PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

Submitting your latest blog post to the various Web 2.0
news sites is a powerful method to generate immediate
targeted traffic to your blog or lens. This generates
high-quality traffic and links and builds your authority
status getting you into search engines faster and ranking higher.

The downside - it takes a lot of time to cut and paste your post
title, keywords and description into each site. Here's a way to
save time and get instant traffic - autosubmit to Web 2.0
news sites:
http://www.web2submitter.squidoomarketingstrategies.com

************************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
provides free resources for Squidoo affiliate marketing
on his Squidoo lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

Ron is the author of the ebook:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies


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