Building small Niche Sites Compared to Building Authority Sites
This is a question that plagues a lot of online marketers. What kind of site should I build? A small niche site that is only about ten pages long per site so that I can build a lot of them and would give me a greater chance at making money online, or build an authority site on my chosen niche that I put all my time and effort into to build out this one site, get it to rank and have some profit coming in before I move on to my next niche.
Now by far I am no expert nor do I claim to be, but in my opinion I would opt to build an authority site, or sites only two tops, so that I could really concentrate on this site buy adding great content that my readers can enjoy and hopefully keep coming back to the site because they will see you as an expert in that chosen niche because you keep adding to the site and building it out with good content.
Building a site this way you will be in good favor with Google and avoid all the Google slaps and penalties every time Google decides to come out with a panda or penguin or hummingbird update, in this way your sites by being an authority site will stand the test of time and over that time get it's own natural traffic.
Sure you could make good money with a lot of smaller niche sites that I know a lot of people will argue in favor of building a lot of sites all at one time one after another without making any profits just cranking out site after site.
To me doing it this way is so much harder, you have to keep track of all those sites and how about adding content to all those sights to keep it fresh. In my eyes I opt to build the Authority site in my niche that I think will bring me passive income over time for years to come, and I have more control over my sites.
If you have to deal with so many sites then it becomes to frustrating to making updates to the sites and so on,and in the end I might make a fast buck but in the long run my readers will suffer. This is just the way I see it, and we can all agree to disagree.
Thanks for reading. To every ones success!
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After you build one site and it is successful - whether niche or authority - then you can decide which way to go. I have a friend who has 58 sites and is not making money.
But it boils down to what you are good at, what comes more naturally to you.
One good authority site plus two niche sites is my long term goal.
I agree with Ken. Please re-edit your post and insert paragraphs. People will leave when they see that one long paragraph. Never do this on your website either.
The web requires lots of white space to be readable and comfortable.
Thank you for contributing your thoughts on this. I know many people are interested in the same question. So do what you can to improve your paragraphing, and you will get more feedback on your posts. ~ Jude
To build an authority site you better already be an authority on your subject or young enough and dedicated enough to research and learn. The trouble with research is, are you getting the facts right. I am an expert in my niche but a learning expert. I never stop researching.
When researching I find a lot of misleading information and just plain wrong information on my niche. When I read the wrong info I wonder where the hell they got their information, and if I didn't know better I might use their information and put it on my site. They certainly don't know from experience or they would know better, which means their research came from somebody else who didn't know what the heck they were talking about.
The other problem with an authority site is, there are usually a lot of previous authority sites in front of you. Professional sites with a lot of bells and whistles that will be hard to compete with. I have 20+ pages and still writing but still have a long way to go to compete against the big boys. I may never have all the bells and whistles but I will provide the better information because of actual hands on experience. I may never get to the top and thats OK, just the first page will be fine and I know in time I will make it. Although it may take another 20+ pages to do so.
I think you must pick a niche that you already know or are very interested in learning about that will hold your interest, hopefully forever. You have to pick which one is best for you. I don't think I could do anything other that an authority site. I'm sure some folks couldn't or would not like to do an authority site. Each to their own. I will never say one is better than another its all personal preference.
Yes I agree that you need to know about the niche that you are going into and also must love what you are writing about or you will get bored with the niche real fast if you do not know or learn what your niche is about. thanks and have a merry christmas.
Hi Tony, just one site can grow in to an authority by adding content on a regular basis. I've done that so I've had the best of both worlds.
yes bullet, and the point I was trying to convey was that authority sites tend to evade all the google updates like the newest hummingbird where as google wants sites with alot of real relevent content and those sites in googles eyes are authority sites. Good luck to you and all your succeses, have a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.
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If you are still trying to build those old school niche style websites, then there is about a 90% chance that you are failing with them. Chances are you are experiencing what every niche blogger experiences with those sites. You are seeing your sites under-perform, wither and die. The only reason you were having success with them in the first place was because you were slamming the sites with anchor text links from places you knew might someday get you into trouble.
When Penguin came out, you got slammed. So did everyone else following that business model; or at least 90% of them. Some of my old niche sites that weren’t authority sites got slammed too. That is the way things are going.
You can sense the way that the trend is going with sites and with Google rankings. It doesn’t matter if you agree with Google’s policies or not. You can hate them all you want and it isn’t going to change how much money you make.
What is an authority site?
An authority site is a very high quality website that is respected by knowledgeable people in its industry. It is a website that has content on it that is so good and makes the site so useful that people are actually glad they landed on it and want to share it with their friends. Authority sites publish trustworthy information and link to other trustworthy places on the web.
The style of authority sites that I recommend building are blog style, information based websites that exist to teach and inform website visitors. You have the ability to monetize the site, but when building out your website, your primary focus is on delivering exactly what the visitor is hoping for. These kinds of sites are centered around one core topic that is usually very focused and very specific. They cover their topic thoroughly.
Once I started building these kinds of websites, MY INCOME WENT UP DRASTICALLY.
I was getting more results with less work and my business became far more enjoyable.
:)