Blogussion » authority

How to Build a Booming Authority in 7 Steps

Onibalusi Bamidele — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:00:32 +0000

As a blogger, having authority is one of the most important things to have, and I consider it one of the most important investments a blogger will ever make.

If you learned anything from yesterday’s issue of From Planning to Earning, you will have found out that authority is a key factor to making money blogging.

It also has a lot to do with building your blogging community, which is even more important than making money. So how can you build authority and achieve these two great feats?

1. The Obvious: Write Great Content

The truth is, you alone can’t build your authority. You need support from others. As a matter of fact, they are the driving force towards you becoming an authority blogger. Writing great content is one of the best ways to draw people’s attention to your blog.

It is always important to give your best when trying to write for your blog (and other blogs) because your content is a reflection of who you are.

Another great reason why it is important for you to write great content is because high quality articles are going to go viral. The more the word spreads about your post and your blog, the more people will know about you and the more people can help contribute to your blog.

Another important reason you should always write great content is that it increases your perceived value. If you are always writing great content on your blog then people will always see you as someone who knows what you are talking about and you will be able to get great results.

2. Don’t Just Talk, Talk Value

One thing many bloggers do is they just talk out their time. What matters most is not whether you update your blog or not, but the impact your blog has on others.

Research is a key element to building your authority as a blogger. If you take a look at most of the top blogger’s in your niche, you will discover that people take them for what they say and a lot of people will readily believe anything these bloggers publish.

It is very important to research effectively before writing anything on your blog because a lot of your readers will take your word for it and if they discover what you said was not correct, you may pay dearly for it.

People don’t like to be deceived, they love to have the best and the most accurate information given right to them. As an authority blogger, they look up to you to give them this. Don’t let their belief in you sway to anything less than well-trusted.

3. Be a Professional

Another important thing that every blogger trying to build his/her authority must do is to be professional.

It is very important not to neglect some important aspects of your blog like your blog design, logo, eBook cover designs, etc. People love you being professional and the more professional you are the more respect you will earn.

Another reason why you should be professional is that people will tend to stick with your blog and they will also love to promote your work.

Most people who are new to the web can hardly differentiate between someone with a big audience and someone with a small audience. They believe having a great design and a great professional attitude means you are doing something right.

Another way you can look professional is in your content,. Many people fail to proofread their work and leave their posts filled with a lot of typos and grammatical errors. This will not attract the right type of people to your blog and it will also cause a lot of people to see you as someone who is not serious.

4. Influence Others

Another great characteristic of successful bloggers is that they are people of influence. If you see a lot of new bloggers they will tell you they were influenced by “so and so” blogger.

It is very important to try your best to influence everybody who comes across your work in the blogosphere. A guest post can score you some backlinks and do some wonders on your traffic.

But a reader you influence will keep talking about you as long as he/she is blogging. Do your best to influence as many people as you can!

5. Speak With Power & Authority

Another great way to build your authority as a blogger is by speaking with power and authority on your blog. You don’t need to be speaking subjectively on your blog, but speak like you know exactly what you’re talking about.

One thing many blogger’s do is go on speaking subjectively on their blogs, which will not help you. It will only reduce your perceived value.

Try to speak with authority and boldness on your blog. In any post you write, that persona will make your readers take you for someone who knows what he/she is saying and they will be able to cite and quote you outside your blog thereby helping you build your authority.

6. Build On Your Strengths

Another great way to build your authority as a blogger is by building on your strengths. There are various types of authority and respected bloggers and one thing I can notice from them is that they have built on their strengths.

If you take a look at Darren Rowse and Seth Godin, you will notice they update their blogs everyday mostly with short posts. And they remain highly respected.

If you take a look at Glen Allsopp you will notice he only updates when he likes with super long and high quality posts, and he is also respected.

What matters most is not taking the methods of others, but finding out what works best for you.

7. Network With Influencers

Who are the top bloggers in your niche? Why not network with them and use their influence to take your blog to the next level?

One thing I have noticed among many new bloggers who quickly became successful is that they networked with the influencers in their niche.

If you begin to network with the big bloggers like Darren Rowse, John Chow and other major names, you will begin to notice that a lot of their readers and people who see your work with them will begin to respect you and give more value to you.

There are several ways to network with the top bloggers in your niche and one of the best ways to do this is by writing guest posts for their blogs. This will increase your perceived value and authority and will also help skyrocket your blog to the next level.

Over To You!
Have you ever thought about what your authority and influence might be in your niche? Is it something that is really as important as I made it out to be, or are there more pertinent issues to address first?

Photo by Pulpolux !!!

The Cycle of Making Money Blogging Part I

Alex — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:00:02 +0000

Recently, I read an article over at ProBlogger that talked about making money blogging. David Risley, a successful 6-figure blogger talked about how bloggers need to find a product. As a blogger who has a product, I can vouch for the points David brought up in his article and can say that making money blogging is done through having a product, not through blogging articles.

Read Part II!

I highly recommend you read David’s article at ProBlogger, as a lot of the points I’m going to be making in this mini-series will be based on some of the points he made in that article.

In January, I launched a product of my own. This was the first product I have ever sold, and my first real attempt at making money from a blog. When I put the product up for sale, it occurred to me that this was the way I was going to make money through my blog.

If you read David’s article, he said that if you want to make money blogging – have a product. If you read this article, (and a past article on the subject), I will say the same thing. His exact words were:

Most bloggers today operate in a dream world of made-up business rules. They try to make money with their blogs when they have nothing to sell. They’ll try to monetize the eyeballs only by littering the blog up with banner ads to sell other people’s stuff. It doesn’t take long for most bloggers to realize what a freaking difficult way to monetize a blog that is!

So if developing a product “isn’t your thing” and making money through your blog isn’t your intention, then stop reading. Nothing I have to say will hold much value to you.

Oh yeah, and if you are impatient and don’t understand that success is achieved over time, click the “x” button at the top of your browser. Because what I have to say needs time to develop.

Now, I’m not a 6-figure blogger like David Risley is, or really earn enough online to support myself (I’m only 16, so whatever I make goes a long way). But, I have earned enough money from selling just one product in the past 4^1/2 months to tell you that there is hope for your very own product as well.

The Cycle of Making Money Blogging

I have created what I believe the process of making money through selling a product is. The good news is that because it’s a cycle, it repeats itself. So, once you go through the cycle once, you have the capability to go through it again and again and earn more and more each time you sell a new product.

This cycle will be explained over the course of two articles. The first 3 of the 6 steps will be explained in this article, and the other 3 will be explained in tomorrow’s post.

I’m going to go over with you the first three steps of the process, prepare, research, and choosing your product. These are the three planning parts of the cycle, where you generally do more of the thinking and analyzing than actually doing anything else.

1. Preparation

You can’t approach something like this without a plan. It took me one year exactly to get my product ready for sale. I know that sounds like a lot of time, but there’s more to planning something like a product than the actual product itself.

What’s the one thing you need to sell something? People. You need readership; an audience who trusts and respects you. Think of the last time you bought something. You either bought it because:

Someone you trust told you about it, and because you trust them so much and see value in the product, you bought it.
You have read that persons blog or website for a while now, and you trust them enough to be willing to give them your money in exchange for whatever they have to sell.

So, in short: you need to have built some authority and have created a reputation for yourself.

Blog posts are not your product. They won’t get you paid.

As David said (and I agree with heavily), the articles you publish on your blog aren’t the things that get you paid. So many bloggers find different ways to monetize their blog articles, and if they are lucky – they will earn a few bucks doing it. The articles you publish onto your blog are NOT what makes you money.

They build your reputation, your readership, and really reflect the kind of blogger you are. The community you have on your blog is a result of the articles you publish, and how much you are going to earn from your product reflects the kind of community you have built.

So it took me about a year of consistent blogging to be able to build an audience that would look at my product, and buy it. For some, it takes longer. Some, not as long. But the most important thing, even more important than planning the actual product, is to have an audience to sell to.

2. Market Research

This isn’t the most enjoyable task, but it’s important nonetheless.

You are in complete control of what product you want to develop and sell. You have as much freedom to choose what you want to sell as you did when it came time to choose what you wanted to blog about. But unlike choosing your niche, you have to look at more than just your passion.

Once you have a pretty decent community built up (I had about 1,300 subscribers when I launched my product), you will be able to figure out what kind of people they are.

I can’t stress enough the importance of blog content for this step. Not only does the content you write bring your potential customers to your blog, but it reveals the kind of buyers they are. When I established my product, I knew these three things about my customer base:

I know that many readers in this community are new bloggers without much to spend. I had to take that into account with the product I developed, and I have to remember that for the future. I found this out by actually talking to them in the blog comments, and seeing what their reactions were when I mentioned a paid blogging tool.
I also know that a lot of users in this community use the Thesis Framework, which is what my product was built on. My reputation in the Thesis community helped sell the theme, and that reputation was established through all the work I have done on this blog.
The theme that Blogussion uses has always been well-received by nearly anyone who has ever talked about it. I have been asked multiple times in the past to sell it, and have had offers thrown at me already.

It’s often the tiniest bit of information you can find out about your community that will help you decide what to sell, how much to sell it for, and when to sell it.

3. Find your product

Once you have your community and know what kind of buyers you have in it, it’s time to figure out what you want to sell.

The product you choose has to be something you are totally committed to. Finding a product to sell and choosing your blog topic are so closely related because they tie into your ability and willingness to actually do it.

So, with your market research in hand and the same process(es) you used to pick your original blogging topic, you can come up with the best product for your community.

Tomorrow: Part II
Tomorrow I will explain the other half of the cycle. How do you think it will tie into the first half? What are your thoughts about the first half of the cycle? See you tomorrow.

Why Content Is Still King

Janith — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:57:03 +0000

Almost every webmaster runs his/her website with one task in mind; to gain the more traffic. It’s not a surprise either because traffic means a lot to many; including the single-most contributory factor in the amount you earn through your site.

With this in mind, many webmasters strive or even dedicate whole blogs to produce new ways and techniques to generate traffic.

So, with so many new and different ways to get more traffic – Why is Content still the best way to do so?

In today’s online world – there are almost an unlimited number of ways for people to reach a targeted audience. Whether it is through social marketing, search engine optimization or even black-hat methods – there’s something for everyone. Yet, with all these methods available – you might wonder why writing unique and useful content is still king?

Why Content is King?

If you strip away all the promotional crap, the fancy designs, the strong communities of a website – you are left with one thing that laid the foundation for everything around it to be successful – that is; its CONTENT. In essence, the content of a blog is its ultimate tool to drive their users time and time again; back to the site.

Without a rich source of content that appeals to your targeted audience – no other promotion technique can be deemed successful. You could buy every visitor to your blog but the challenge lies on whether or not; you can make them come back.

That’s all there is. Personally; you could drive 20x the traffic to your blog in one day (either buying traffic or hit the front page of Digg) but the more important question is; how many of these visitors can you retain on your blog in the long run? The only way you can do that is by producing content or a source of information that is unique to the rest of the internet – and something your readers will want to read on your blog than on any others!

Ways in which “Content” can contribute to your blog;

Develops Your Community

Your content is your key weapon to spark discussion. People will come to your site in hope to read something useful, and if you are able to produce that content – they are most likely to spend a few seconds or minutes to leave a comment. This is the initial stage of gaining more readers and more followers in the long run.

Social Bookmarking

Many webmasters spend a lot of time investing in social-media networks such as Digg, Reddit, Stumble and etc. however, a single person’s efforts can only go so far. The key idea behind these networks is to connect with real people and make an impact. If you can create content that readers find favorable – you will succeed in the world of social-bookmarking.

Brings Authority To Your Twitter

With Direct Messaging and ReTweets; this benefit is pretty self-explanatory. If you are able to generate content that your followers find useful – they are more likely to tweet about it and perhaps even request a few retweet for it.

Word-Of-Mouth

If you content is worth reading, your readers are more likely to talk about it. They will tell their friends, discuss it with relatives or even send an email to someone who they might think is interested. This can be a powerful tool (depending on the background of your site), especially if your content is something everyone can relate to.

Conclusion

Many might still argue that you can run a blog without producing top quality content; I beg to differ due to the above reasons. No matter how well you market your site or throw money at it; your success will ultimately depend on the quality of your posts. It’s depicts whether your reader will return to your website or not – and also depict whether or not they will subscribe to your blog.

Success is defined differently by everyone, but I would say it’s in every webmaster’s interest to gain more subscribers – and not having unique and useful content – you won’t get far.