Authority website advice need...

[perian12]

I am planning to build an authority website on health niche. I wish to know which theme is best to use and the best structure for an authority site.

What topics can we include?

Do you suggest collecting emails through a squeeze page and building a list and also start a small newsletter or something on the topic?

What monetization options can we use?

This will be a long term project for me, maybe 2-3 years. How often do we need to update content? Sorry lots of questions.

 

thanks in advance...

[Nathan]

As far as themes I like to use Thesis. It's a nice plain focus on content site.

 

For topics you will need to do a lot of research on keywords to find something that will work for you, right searches, competition, ect...

 

Emails through a squeeze page? Why collect emails you traffic will come from the SERPS. For monetization I would go with Google Adsense.

 

You need to update the content almost daily if you are going to be an authority site.

[tetutato]

Just wondering, is anything .org an authority site?

[fakesky]

yes .org is ok, why not.

 

In my opinion best themes for an authority site is Thesis, or Catalyst, they are easy to customize, and look nice

For monetization adsense is great, also you can look up for related CPA offers or affiliate products on http://www.offervault.com

Update the content as often as you can, google surely loves it, but as already mentioned, be careful with the keyword research, or it might cost you.

Edited June 13, 2012 by fakesky

[Nathan]

Just wondering, is anything .org an authority site?

Any domain could be a Authority Site. All an authority site is a place people consider to be good information on a certain topic. Although I probably would stick with a .org/.com/.net if I was going to create on and I normally don't visit a .biz/.info/ect...

[Victor Leigh]

Here are some ideas from someone who has never created an authority site but has given it a little bit of thought.

 

I look at an authority site as a micro niche or a collection of micro niches. There are many sites which start off on a very broad spectrum. I am thinking of starting from the other way round which is start by concentrating on just one particular aspect of the niche. Then after that one particular aspect has been well established, go on to another particular aspect.

 

Since the OP said that he's thinking of building a health site, I would like to suggest picking just one aspect of health to begin with. Let's say we choose the obesity aspect of health. Actually that's still too broad. Let's narrow it down to, say, obesity in women. Still too broad. Narrow it down further. Let's try obesity in married women. Narrow is down another few more notches. How about obesity in married working women aged 30 to 45?

 

This is a very focussed niche. A micro niche, in fact. Is there any market in this micro niche? Of course. I have just googled for "statistics of obese working married women aged 30 to 45" and got a whole bunch of pdfs to download.

 

The next question is, what kind of content is interesting to such women? Plenty! Ranging from food to fashion to fads and frivolities. But this is supposed to be a health site, isn't it? Why do we want to put in content about shoes and shoulder sling bags? Because women who are concerned about their health are also interested in such things. The main content must naturally be about health but the fringe content is kind of like icing on the cake.

 

Would there be enough material to publish regularly on the site if the focus is so narrow, like just focussed on obese working married women aged 30 to 45? Why not? I think if the OP puts his mind to it, he can easily publish three 1000-word articles just for this micro niche. Every day. No kidding.

 

All these ideas, of course, are just figments of my imagination since, as I said right at the beginning, these are just ideas from someone who had never done it before.

[tetutato]

Any domain could be a Authority Site. All an authority site is a place people consider to be good information on a certain topic. Although I probably would stick with a .org/.com/.net if I was going to create on and I normally don't visit a .biz/.info/ect...

 

Oh... now I know why those SEO gurus emphasize on authority links :/ Because it's good content.

 

 

Here are some ideas from someone who has never created an authority site but has given it a little bit of thought.

 

I look at an authority site as a micro niche or a collection of micro niches. There are many sites which start off on a very broad spectrum. I am thinking of starting from the other way round which is start by concentrating on just one particular aspect of the niche. Then after that one particular aspect has been well established, go on to another particular aspect.

 

Since the OP said that he's thinking of building a health site, I would like to suggest picking just one aspect of health to begin with. Let's say we choose the obesity aspect of health. Actually that's still too broad. Let's narrow it down to, say, obesity in women. Still too broad. Narrow it down further. Let's try obesity in married women. Narrow is down another few more notches. How about obesity in married working women aged 30 to 45?

 

This is a very focussed niche. A micro niche, in fact. Is there any market in this micro niche? Of course. I have just googled for "statistics of obese working married women aged 30 to 45" and got a whole bunch of pdfs to download.

 

The next question is, what kind of content is interesting to such women? Plenty! Ranging from food to fashion to fads and frivolities. But this is supposed to be a health site, isn't it? Why do we want to put in content about shoes and shoulder sling bags? Because women who are concerned about their health are also interested in such things. The main content must naturally be about health but the fringe content is kind of like icing on the cake.

 

Would there be enough material to publish regularly on the site if the focus is so narrow, like just focussed on obese working married women aged 30 to 45? Why not? I think if the OP puts his mind to it, he can easily publish three 1000-word articles just for this micro niche. Every day. No kidding.

 

All these ideas, of course, are just figments of my imagination since, as I said right at the beginning, these are just ideas from someone who had never done it before.

 

Do you need to publish like that every day to keep it up going good? Or can you just get it started up by writing several articles and lay back?

[Victor Leigh]

Oh... now I know why those SEO gurus emphasize on authority links :/ Because it's good content.

 

 

 

 

Do you need to publish like that every day to keep it up going good? Or can you just get it started up by writing several articles and lay back?

 

I think if you want to be an ongoing authority you have to keep on publishing the latest developments in your niche. After you have built up a reputation with a good collection of articles in the beginning. I mean, would you visit a so-called authority site if the last article was published one year ago? And the information in the article is already out-of-date?

 

The hard work would be in the beginning. Then a weekly update should keep things current.

[bigbigfan]

There's some great advice in this thread!

 

To add to it I just want to remind you that to become a true authority requires a bit of differentiating yourself from all other sites. You can use whichever CMS and template you wish but you will want to put your own special finishing touches on it to truly stand apart.

 

I'm best known for minimal themes and a low clutter/noise ratio. If my forums could all look like news.ycombinator.com I'd be happy.

[stutin]

I think it is going to be an ongoing work for you...even I am learning the tactics and for the health niche, I think the wise thing will be to select one area that people crave to know about more...I hope this helps

[Sohani30]

On 6/14/2012 at 2:37 PM, Victor Leigh said:

Here are some ideas from someone who has never created an authority site but has given it a little bit of thought.

 

I look at an authority site as a micro niche or a collection of micro niches. There are many sites which start off on a very broad spectrum. I am thinking of starting from the other way round which is start by concentrating on just one particular aspect of the niche. Then after that one particular aspect has been well established, go on to another particular aspect.

 

Since the OP said that he's thinking of building a health site, I would like to suggest picking just one aspect of health to begin with. Let's say we choose the obesity aspect of health. Actually that's still too broad. Let's narrow it down to, say, obesity in women. Still too broad. Narrow it down further. Let's try obesity in married women. Narrow is down another few more notches. How about obesity in married working women aged 30 to 45?

 

This is a very focussed niche. A micro niche, in fact. Is there any market in this micro niche? Of course. I have just googled for "statistics of obese working married women aged 30 to 45" and got a whole bunch of pdfs to download.

 

The next question is, what kind of content is interesting to such women? Plenty! Ranging from food to fashion to fads and frivolities. But this is supposed to be a health site, isn't it? Why do we want to put in content about shoes and shoulder sling bags? Because women who are concerned about their health are also interested in such things. The main content must naturally be about health but the fringe content is kind of like icing on the cake.

 

Would there be enough material to publish regularly on the site if the focus is so narrow, like just focussed on obese working married women aged 30 to 45? Why not? I think if the OP puts his mind to it, he can easily publish three 1000-word articles just for this micro niche. Every day. No kidding.

 

All these ideas, of course, are just figments of my imagination since, as I said right at the beginning, these are just ideas from someone who had never done it before.

 

Sure this above answer will help you. I have also this issue and I solved through your answer. Thanks for sharing your valuable answer to us.