The art of making money online comes in many forms.
Some people simply replace their job and boss with freelancing and clients... But this doesn't offer an improvement in lifestyle want to sign up as a contractor through sites like Upwork or decide to run an agency.
The other option is to build a lasting asset that continues to provide them wealth for years to come.
A website that draws in visitors from Google like bees to honey...
A blog that acts as a platform to grow your list and sell products when four hours a day, seven days a week… Whether you are sleeping, playing or working.
This is what is known as an authority site and the leveraged benefits of traffic, leads and sales beyond your effort is the appeal of creating an authority website.
What is an authority site?
From the guys who created the best authority site training out there…
Authority sites = large, content-driven sites, with multiple traffic channels and revenue streams.
Basically, they’re a business in the form of a website.
I'm so "all-in" on building authority sites, I've done it twice with two separate businesses...
And I've made over a million dollars in sales online.
It is POWERFUL.
Simple as that.
What is the real core essence of building an authority site?
Be of Service - At Scale
If you haven’t caught on yet… I’ll say it very clearly: I love the authority site model!
It is a business that when you build right you can go on a three month vacation like my wife and I did this past summer and watch your traffic grow while you’re on that vacation.
Her site increased by over 150,000 visits a month while we were traveling.
You don’t get those kind of results when you are depending on paid traffic alone. You have to keep paying to keep the traffic coming.
An authority site built on being of service at scale, with the ultimate success secret I will reveal at the end is your best chance for success online.
How to Be of Service At Scale
The only real way to make long term significant money online is to be of service to an audience.
Don’t try to figure out a niche based simply on what you can make money in.
Find something that comes from your life experiences, from your soul.
Start with your passion or what is unique about you and use that to bring value to other’s lives.
Everything about you is 100% unique and you have something that you can help people with.
You may not even realize what it is.
What is something that you’ve become really good at?
What is something that you’ve struggled through or worked really hard at or a specific passion that others may be looking for answers in?
This is the starting point for determining the audience you want to be of service to.
This Video Goes Deeper:
Then you create content for your audience.
Find out where your audience is and go there.
You can join facebook groups, or create a facebook group if there isn’t one.
Find the questions people are asking and give answers to those questions on your authority site.
Create helpful website content that speaks to their questions and to where they’re at.
Here's the 4 steps to crush your authority site...
First - Find Your Niche
For example, my mom just went through struggles with cancer and painful chemotherapy.
Now she wants to share her journey and the specific things that helped her, such as CBD oils, with other people who are going through the same challenge.
If you're a tenured professor who's been working in the university system for 20 years and you're looking for your escape hatch.
Or you're a 24 year old guy who's been dominating at a certain video game for years and years.
It's your talent...
Whatever it is that's inside of you, that you do on a regular basis, and that you're all about.
That is the starting point to look at what audience you want to be of service to.
If you do not know where you can be of service to people I published a free 'how to choose your niche' course on YouTube that will help you pin that choice down and start.
What if there are already dozens of people in the niche you’re interested in pursuing?
Don’t worry.
If you care more and put out more helpful content than the others you will win.
My wife entered an established niche and started a blog.
There were authors in her space who were backed by hundred million dollar publishing companies.
But guess what, eight years later she is gobbling up all the traffic because she has put out more content for FREE.
Her authority site is beating vast amounts of money resources.
Solve more problems, answer more questions, uplift more people, and inspire better.
Second - Start a Blog That Rocks
The next step to start an authority site on the best blogging platform in the online space to begin acting like other authority websites do - and that's to create content so you can begin getting traffic.
The authority site model requires you to build a blog that is engaging and does well. What sites do you spend countless hours on? You know... The ones where you read article after article and then like, share, and comment on each post?
The point is this - the authority site model requires that you have two inate things
- The desire to teach or entertain
- The ability to sniff out problems
These two elements are vital for any authority website to succeed. Let's dive into an example or two...
Teach or Entertain
You must develop skills in one (or hopefully both) of these areas in the authority site model. Your target audience is constantly going to google for solutions. If you can show up for their specific search term then you've got a chance to teach them something.
Be the teacher...
We all search for knowledge on topics that interest us. We naturally like to share something cool we found on social media for others to see. If you can be the teacher who's blog post gets shared then you're on to something.
The Flip Side Of This Is Entertaining...
When we're not learning (being taught) we want to be entertained. We constantly stop scrolling through social media just to watch a crazy entertaining video that caught our eye. We may not have done a search for it, but there we are, nonetheless watching something entertaining.
Be the entertainer...
Well groomed marketers know it's all a battle for attention. Your authority website must show up either on search engines or social media for you to stand a chance.
When you build authority by by building out a blog you are taking time out of your day to build a business model for the future.
However, traffic won't spend much time on your authority site unless you help them. You need to build trust with high quality content. Most sites out there will only get part way into topics and themes. However a true authority site will provide all the answers for the search phrase your visitors seek.
Find The Problems
Authority sites that solve problems are the ones that win.
Hopefully you are part of your own target audience. This also means you've already been through a lot of the problems you've had to face within your industry.
We all like finding cool unique solutions to our problems. This is how you'll hook people in who have been searching for content like yours and begin making money blogging.
Hook them in!
The second someone lands on your authority website you should hook them in by explaining what the potential problem is and HOW you are going to fix that for them.
Sites that build lasting businesses are ones who go deep into a niche with ultra helpful content. This is how you'll build trust with your visitors and traffic.
Give them the goods to make it easy to trust you.
Third - Start Building a List
The main purpose of doing anything online is to build a list.
However, there are a couple things to think about here...
Do SEO and Check Website Authority
Creating content and doing SEO will be vital for getting your site seen in the search engines. You'll want to do an overall domain authority check every week or so to keep track of how you are doing. Be sure to install DA Checker (domain authority checker) on any authority sites you create.
This is a long and arduous process, but well worth it. An authority site like this needs a lot of time to show up in search. Just keep in mind... If this were easy, then every site would do it.
Email List
Authority sites know that list building is the most vital aspect to this business model. Without a list to market to, you'll be wasting tons of time.
Because you have an authority site in your given niche, I'd suggest giving away something of value to your visitors. A simple eBook, works very nicely.
Be resourceful!
You can even put together a lot of articles you've written into one big book and offer that as your freebie give away in exchange for your visitors email addresses.
It's no secret that sites want your email address. We see things pop up all the time offering things like:
- Checklists
- eBooks
- Challenges
- Masterclasses
- and much more
Your site just has to be reliant and creative in your target arena.
Why The List Is Important
At first you will be upside down on your website. It's not going to make any money for many months. Therefore you should start measuring your success in the early stages by how many email addresses you collect.
Authority sites all have a massive goal in common - and that's to collect as much contact information as they possibly can. A well written blog post on your website could get a like or two, but unless you also capture their email then it's not good enough.
Granted... an opt in rate of only 3% or 4% is the best you can hope for, you still need to try.
Just think about it...
Imagine you spent 2 years building a massive email list of 10,000 engaged readers... What if you offered your list a simple product for only $30?
Naturally only a small percentage of people will want to buy it - let's say only 1%...
That offer would net you $3000!
Not bad for only having created one product and written a few emails! But obviously it took years of working with google search rankings, writing dozens of blog posts, and much more.
Fourth - Sell Something On Your Authority Site
Now that you've got your list growing from your site. It's time to cash in on that authority you've been cultivating.
Most amateurs think you can just manipulate the Google search engine results, and get people to buy from you on the first visit... However, it rarely works like this.
Very rarely...
Authority Sites who use email and Facebook marketing effectively typically win. When you build your authority and trust factor with customers first, you'll have an upper hand in getting people to buy.
Consider selling things such as:
- information products on your niche
- affiliate products related to your niche
- Other relevant goods or services.
Now that may all sound obvious... But it really is that simple. It's the hours, days, weeks and years of doing a lot of SEO and Google search engine optimization that's hard.
As we mentioned in step 3 above, this is why the email list is important.
Build your list...
Showing up in Google search just so offer someone a product will have a pretty low success rate. Unless you're selling highly consumable goods, customers aren't going to search for something to buy right off the bat on one of the first sites they visit.
Authority sites built trust - and your site shouldn't be any different. Once your site has created enough trust via email then sales become much easier.
How do YOU get Scale Behind Your Website?
This is really important.
This is where you get the leverage in your business to create the long-term results you truly desire.
The $10,000, $20,000, and $50,000 dollar months. The multimillion dollar years.
Scaling is the key...
You have the ability to go at scale with your communication.
You're able through the Internet, through your cell phone, through your laptop, to reach literally millions if not billions of people interested in what you're doing.
What I Did Wrong For Years
I was doing one on one coaching and I would spend all this time writing an email that went back to one coaching client.
They often wouldn't even take me up on the advice I was giving them, would balk at it or wouldn't do what I was recommending them to do.
There's no scale in that approach.
It's one to one...
Now my authority sites get about 20,000 visits per month.
I'm doing the same thing I was doing but I'm doing it in a way that allows me to get scale.
Through my website I have generated an email list of about 2,000 people.
When I write that single email I still write it to ONE person, my avatar, but when I hit send it goes to over 2,000 email addresses.
My wife’s website has created an email list of about 140,000 people.
Scale on a whole different level
Now, How do YOU get Scale Behind Your Website?
The trick is to become a content partner with google.
Google loves fresh relevant content they can serve to their customers.
They want to bring value to their audience as well.
That’s why they monitor bounce rate, session duration, quality of backlinks, etc.
Through your website posts you serve your audience but you help google serve theirs as well.
I want to share with you another mistake that I made here as well. It is one that so many people get wrong.
Blogging Is Not For Everyone
I thought that I should blog because my wife was having success blogging. If you go back and look at my posts on this blog they are inconsistent.
I tried blogging for six years and it never worked.
Blogging is not in my DNA.
Making videos is.
Now I serve my audience with consistent content making YouTube videos.
It’s the first step in my million dollar business blueprint called...
Knowing yourself
You have to know yourself and know how you can put out content consistently. Get the free blueprint and take the most time on step one “Knowing Yourself” to set yourself up for the best success.
If you already know you are a writer, know who you can be of service to, then you have everything you need to start and continue building your authority site.
Be of service at scale for success in your online business.
But there’s one more thing for REAL success.
The stuff up til now was the textbook foundations to not screw up.
To not lose yourself in the process of all of this content creation.
The REAL secret is…
Create More Content Than You Consume
With blinders on unsubscribe from every email list that you are on.
Stop following my YouTube channel.
Stop following Gary Vaynerchuk, Noah Kagan, and any other person that is “doing it”.
Delete your instagram app.
Do the work, do the work, do the work.
And Keep Going
It's so easy to give up early on.
After you post 15 or 20 blogs and you do not see the money or traffic you felt that you were promised by some success guru.
It's easy to give up at that stage.
If someone else comes along and says “Oh, do this podcasting thing, I’m making millions.”
For a beginner it can be very easy to jump ship and chase the shiny podcast object, different niche, or become a YouTube creator instead.
The fact is that if you had just continued on the route that you were on you would have made it.
Conclusion
More than likely if you persevere it will be successful by 100 percent.
How do I know?
I’ve done it twice!
Once with my wife’s blog, once with my YouTube channel, and I’ve witnessed and coached dozens of others doing the same thing.
Your first 90 days sucks!
When you look back at month six compared to your first 90 days and...
When you look back at month 13 compared to month 7, it’s astounding!
It takes Thomas Edison Tenacity.
He told the reporter interviewing him after his light bulb success that he “would not be talking to you (the reporter) right now if I did not finally create the light bulb.”
He would be in his workshop working on another prototype until he created the one that finally worked.
If it was prototype ten thousand and one hundred instead of prototype 10,000, he didn't care.
He had the vision for what he was bringing to the world and the perseverance to do everything it took to get there.
That is the ultimate success secret to creating an authority site.
Know your DNA
Produce more content than you consume.
Make your content an incredible service.
Persevere and you will get there.
