What is an Authority Site and How Does it Work?

Authority websites are the way to make money with affiliate marketing nowadays. They generate more traffic, and they generate more money.

If you want to make an income as an affiliate, this is the route to go down.

So, what is an authority site? What's in it for you and how do you build one?

Let me explain!

What is an Authority Website?

An authority website is a website built around a broad topic. It has a lot of trust when it comes to its viewership and also from the search engines.

It will then be split down into several different smaller pages that focus on specific topics. 

For example; your main topic for the site may be 'power tools'. The site will then be broken down into other pages. This means you may write content on:

You may even break these sections down into even more specific content e.g. how-to guides, reviews, buying guides, etc. The possibilities are endless.

The main benefit of an authority website is that you can write whatever content you like around a particular niche. It is a platform that will be ever-expanding too, which means that you really have the opportunity to build up a successful online website.

Authority Site VS Niche Site

Well, in theory, an authority website is a niche website. It is still a site that focuses on a specific topic, but it does it in a broader context.

A niche website really focuses on something small. Let me give you an example:

I am sure that you understand what I mean here. An authority website will focus on a topic as a whole, and a niche website will focus on a single, smaller topic.

Authority websites are made to grow over time. You can keep adding new content to them. There will be no limit to the number of pages that you can add to an authority website. It is a lifelong project.

A niche website, on the other hand, may only have a few dozen pages. Once it is built, you may not even add more content to it. You just wait for the hits to come and, hopefully, the money to roll in.

It is often a lot easier to rank an authority website in the search engines too. This is because Google absolutely loves authority websites. It wants to rank useful websites. Produce a ton of quality content, and link building will be an absolute breeze.

With a niche website, you will likely have countless competitors in your niche, and it can be difficult to make any headway, particularly if you have entered a competitive niche.

Due to the authority site being broader, it can often attract a lot more traffic than a niche website. This means that it can feasibly make a lot more money than a typical niche website.

Authority Website Income

It will also be dependent on the amount of effort you have put into gaining traffic for the website.

I am not going to lie to you. An authority website does have the potential to make a lot of money. Far more than your average fulltime income. However, it is not going to be an easy ride getting there. If you are not willing to put in the effort, then you may not make a single cent from your site.

Authority Site Examples

If the idea of an authority site still just doesn't click in your head, then here's some examples. I won't link to them but you can just Google them.

How to Build an Authority Website

If you are serious about building one, then there is no better training from the guys from Authority Hacker. Check out The Authority Site System review that I did to learn how this is done and start making some serious passive income!

However, here are some basics steps in building an Authority Site:

Selecting a Niche

My suggestion is to try and stick to niches that you have a bit of interest in, and a lot of knowledge. It is going to make producing your content a whole lot easier. Remember; this is a website that you are going to be sticking with for a long time, so make sure that you enjoy it.

Purchasing the Domain Name

The next step is to purchase a domain name. Pretty simple stuff, so I won't talk much about this. Just go for a domain name that is either descriptive or brandable.

I strongly suggest Namecheap as they have free 'whoisguard' included with your domain. This basically means that your personal information will remain private and not displayed if someone does a "whois" search on your site.

Loading Your Website with Content

I do want to point out that not all of the content you produce should be promotional. Some decent 'how-to' guides, buying guides etc. can go a long way towards gaining you traffic.

Over time, you may notice that some articles generate you more money than others. At this point, you may want to spend a bit more time focusing on those topics.

Generating Traffic

There are several ways that you can generate traffic for your authority website. I suggest that you focus on search engine optimization the second you launch the website. This means that you will need to focus on link building, and creating useful content.

In addition to this, you will need to focus on social media. At the very minimum, you should be on the 'big three' i.e. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Make sure that you are active so that you can start to benefit from that stream of traffic.

If you have more of a budget to play with, then I suggest that you invest in paid advertising, at least during the early days. This can give you a decent amount of traffic, and maybe some income before the other traffic generation methods start to kick off.

Making Money

However, you may also want to look into display advertising such as Google Adsense. A lot of authority websites will use a combination of both of them.

I won't lie to you. Building an authority website is not going to make you money overnight. It may take you months to see any cash roll in. However, I can promise you that if you work on it, and you have selected a decent niche, that money will eventually come in.

Best Authority Site Training Course

I mentioned earlier that the guys at Authority Hacker really know their stuff. It makes sense to learn from people that actually practice what they preach. The site I mentioned as an example earlier, Health Ambition, is one of their sites.

This site has made them millions. Wouldn't you like to learn from people that built this site and use the exact same strategies they teach?

It makes sense, doesn't it? Do as the successful people do. If you had a chance to learn how to throw a football from a quarterback in the NFL or some kid down your street, whom would you choose?

What I suggest is you set aside an hour and check out their free training. Even if you don't buy their course, you are still going to learn a lot - trust me.

Conclusion

Let me finish this off by discussing who is a good candidate to build their very own authority website.

The answer is simple - anyone really.

However, what will separate a successful site from a dud, is the mindet that you have. I don't care how much education you have, or think you know a lot in this space already, you aren't going to do as well as someone that knows jack but puts in 100% effort.

It's the ones that stick to it that succeed. If you are impatient and want to make money right away, then building an authority site is not for you. This takes effort and time.

If you have the patience and understand you aren't going to make money until a few months, (organically that is, you could make money right away if using ads) then this model is for you.

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