One of my favorite potential income streams is the Authority Blog. Most people who venture onto the internet by now have an idea that there is this thing called blogging.
What you are reading right now is an article on a blog. Some people simply blog for personal reasons. Just tonight I watched a documentary about movie critic Roger Ebert, who passed away in 2013. Unable to speak in his later years, he put a ton of energy into his blog to express his passion for film and life in general. He was not motivated to write for moneary reasons.
In the early days of blogging, most people simply wrote for the sake of writing, without thinking about the monetary side of blogging. Now, it is viewed as a potential opportunity to quit your regular job.
So, what is an Authority Blog? One great example is Investopedia. This is a blog that covers every aspect of investing. It is a go to resource, or authority, about the world of investing. That is basically how you define authority when it comes to blogging…a go to resource about a particular topic.
If you don’t think you may be an authority about anything, think again. You don’t need to cover a topic as broad as investing. Timothy Sykes covers a specific niche within the world of investing…day trading penny stocks.
I would venture to guess that he now makes far more money with his blog than he has in actual trading.
Developing an Authority Blog – Step One
One of the keys to success in blogging is that you must find a topic in which you have substantial passion. If you don’t have passion for a particular subject, you will run out of ideas to write about very quickly, and your blog will die off like so many others that started with such promise.
Before you set out trying to figure out what your blog should be about, write down a list of topics that you are passionate about.
Here is a list of topics in which I personally have a strong interest…
- the stock market
- futures trading
- day trading
- golf instruction
- travel
- commercial real estate
- classic rock music
- horse racing
- blues music
- fitness
- martial arts
These are all subjects and topics with which I have significant experience. However, over time I discovered that I am more of a generalist…I get bored with writing about the same general topic all the time.
That’s why I created this blog, since it deals with the broader topic of multiple income streams. I don’t need to write about one way to make money on this blog. Ultimately, my goal is to reach as many readers as possible. For me, it will be easier to write about a broad range of subjects, all of which circle back to developing multiple income streams.
Once you have your initial list, try to dig deeper into those topics to see if there is a more specific niche you may be able to write about regularly.
For instance, when I was teaching golf, I was most interested in developing competitive junior golfers. That’s a pretty narrow niche, but one that I could probably produce a good bit of content for. Try to think along those lines first, because it is easier to become an authority in a narrow topic area, rather than in a more general subject such as investing.
Step 2 – Setting up your blog
The first thing you’ll need to do is get yourself a domain name. Not long ago, if you wanted to compete well in the search engines for a particular topic, you would want to go out and get yourself what was known as an “exact domain name.”
For instance, when I first started my efforts to make some money online, I had a website with the domain www.bestdaytradingstocks.com. Yes, you guessed it, the basic topic was finding the best stocks for day trading.
However, that was not a blog…that was just a niche sales site with a long sales page. Back then, it was easy to rank sites like that at the top of the Google rankings. Google now hates those types of sites, and much prefers sites that offer good content.
Now, I originally had planned on using the domain name for this website as I ventured into the commercial real estate market as a licensed realtor. I ultimately decided that was not for me, but I like the idea of owning a website with my own name.
My goal is to become a strong authority in the area of developing multiple income streams, and I am happy to simply use my name.
However, if you are going to blog about a more specific topic, then you may want to choose a domain name that basically describes what the blog is about. Problogger.com is one of the blogs of Darren Rowse. I suspect you can guess that the blog is about.
That rule is not set in stone though, as I will again refer to Timothy Sykes blog…his name is the domain name…there is no indication that his blog is about day trading penny stocks.
You can search for the right domain and set up a hosting account at Bluehost which is the hosting service I use for this blog. I’ve been using them for about eight years and highly recommend them.
After you set your account, you will need to figure out how you want set up your blog. I use WordPress as my content management system, and Avada Theme is the theme I use for this blog. It is incredibly powerful to use, even for someone like me, who has very limited programming skills and creativity when it comes to developing websites.
The basic set up for your blog should then include a home page, an about page, a contact page, and the page where your blog posts can be found. There are other pages to include that Google likes, such as the legal pages you find on this site (privacy policy, terms of use, etc). These pages make your blog look more legitimate.
After that, it’s all about producing useful content for your readers. And, you don’t have to get too fancy. Check out Steve Pavlina’s blog…not fancy at all but he makes over $40,000 per month because he’s produced a ton of useful content over a long period of time.
Step 3 – Getting Your Authority Blog Content Found
The fact is you can write the best content in the world about your topic, but if no one is reading it, it is useless. This is definitely the tricky part.
The first thing is that you need to be sure that your content is set up well to attract the search engines to begin with (namely Google). This is known as search engine optimization, and I’ll cover that down the road.
You’ll want to share your content on social media…Facebook and Twitter come to mind.
You can post your content on social bookmarking sites like Reddit. If the topic is of interest there, and enough readers like it, they’ll help spread the word.
If you are able to produce videos, set up a Youtube channel, and every time you post a video, be sure to include a link back to your blog in the description of your video.
You can make informative comments on blogs in niches related to your blog. Perhaps you can write a guest post on one of those blogs as well, with a link back to your site.
The bottom line is that you’ll need to be proactive about getting your content found, otherwise, the process will take much much longer, and your earnings will suffer.
Speaking of earnings…how DO we earn money with an authority blog?
Step 4 – Monetizing Your Authority Blog
When I first started out, ebooks were the craze, and that was the product I offered on my first website. Nowadays, some people make some money with these, but it is hard to sell them for as much as we used to be able to.
Now, ebooks are typically used as a way to entice someone to provide their email address so you can market to them through email.
The way you monetize your authority blog really depends upon what you are writing about. You can sell a newsletter, an online course, consulting/coaching services, or sell affiliate products related to your niche. Some bloggers make decent money by offering products sold through Amazon on their blogs.
Then, of course, there is Google Adsense, which allows you post Google ads on your blog. Whenever someone clicks on an ad, you’ll receive anywhere from a penny to a few dollars, depending upon your niche. For instance, advertisers in the financial industry tend to pay quite a bit of money per click for ads that they have posted on websites related to their niche.
The bottom line is that there are any number of ways you can monetize your blog, and that is another topic I will cover in detail down the road.
Final Thoughts
Building an authority blog is probably one of the most attractive and personally enjoyable ways to develop an income stream away from your job. What better way to make a living than from the comfort of your own home, or wherever you may be aside from your regular workplace?
It can also be one of the most financially rewarding, but you may not reap those rewards for a considerable period of time.
Ultimately, the Authority Blog is one of my favorite potential streams of income.
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