The internet has made it possible for anyone to have a voice or say in the world. There are many ways to get your message out there. Blogging is one of the most powerful.
Having a YouTube channel is great, but you don’t OWN the channel, YouTube does. What happens if YouTube decides to shutdown your account? You lose everything.
On the other hand, a blog is something that YOU own. Nobody can take it away from you. This is why I recommend that businesses create a blog.
Blogging is a powerful platform for attracting new potential customers to your business, and it requires very little capital. All that’s required is your time, assuming you’re creating the content yourself.
Having an authority blog in your niche is even better. An authority blog is a go-to blog for a niche or market. An authority blog ranks high in the search engines, gets lots of traffic and attention. As a result, a lot of opportunities open up.
Blogging has transformed my business. It’s allowed me to fulfill my mission in life, which is to grow and to give.
When you establish yourself as a credible source of information and knowledge, you gain trust and followers who may eventually become customers.
People do business with people they like and trust.
Blogging is a great way to help you build authority in your niche. Ask yourself, “Are you ready to be an authority on a topic that you are passionate about?"
Being seen as an authority is a big responsibility, and the rewards are can be big as well.
Every journey has a starting point. I would like to share with you my story of how I built my authority blog, Project Life Mastery.
Ever since I was 17 years old, I have been passionate about self-development. So much so that I built a brand around it.
When I launched my blog in January of 2012, I originally used it as a vehicle to share my knowledge, goals and aspirations. I was just doing it as a hobby. My intention was never to make profit from it, but I am proud to say that I have been able to transform my blog into an asset that has been able to provide a great lifestyle for myself.
My success didn’t happen overnight.
When you start a blog, you are building an asset. Something that is going to be sustainable long-term.
During the beginning stages, you wont see immediate results. You need to expect this and trust in the process. It took me about a year before I started seeing results in the form of traffic and engagement.
So adopting a long-term mindset is critical when creating a blog. Profit can’t be your driving force. I am passionate about what I do. That trumps everything.
Let’s go through the steps of building an authority blog.
#1 - Determine Your Blog Name
You want to pick a blog name that you can build a brand around. Make sure that the name is relevant to the specific niche or market that you want to build your blog around.
Ask yourself the following questions when you are deciding on a name:
“What kind of audience am I targeting?”
“Is the name of my blog in alignment with the content that I want to produce?”
“What is the goal of my blog?”
There are many companies that have names that don’t mean anything, for example Apple, but these companies also have endless marketing and branding budgets.
So it’s better to have a descriptive website name.
#2 - Register Domain Name
When creating an authority blog, the domain name you select is very important.
You need to make sure that it is attractive, compelling, and not too long.
You want people to remember your brand name. Keep your domain name short, and make sure that you own the .com version of it, which will help for SEO purposes.
Also, make sure that you aren’t violating someone else’s trademark. Once your website becomes an asset you will also want to trademark your name, in order to protect it.
#3 - Get Hosting
Now you need to find a home to host your blog on. You want to avoid free hosting.
At first you can just start out with a cheap shared hosting plan for like $5 - $9 per month with companies like BlueHost or HostGator. Once you start getting a lot of traffic you will need to use a more expensive plan. I use WP Engine for my authority blog and it’s great. WP Engine costs around $100/month.
#4 - Choose A Blog Platform
Blogging platforms provide you with the tools that you need in order to publish your content online.
WordPress is a free service and is one of the most popular online blogging platforms. That’s what I use.
Statistics show that 23.3% of the top 10 million blogs are powered by WordPress (Beebom, 2016).
One important thing to note is that you want to use the self-hosted WordPress (WordPress.org) and NOT the free hosted WordPress (WordPress.com). Very important.
#5 - Over Deliver In Your Content
In order for this to work your blog posts have to be awesome. The more you can over deliver the better.
There are likely many bloggers in your niche. Everyone is pretty much saying the same thing. You have to know what makes you unique from everyone else.
What void is in the marketplace that you can fill?
Why should anyone go to your blog versus your competitors’ blog?
The job of your blog is to presell you, and position you as an authority. None of this will happen if your blog posts don’t offer any value for your readers.
Linda Ong, CEO and Founder, TruthCo. says that, “… the consumer is the CEO of content”.
If your content is sub-par, then it doesn’t matter how much you try to market or promote it, nobody will come back to your blog. Nobody will buy your products and services.
In today’s digital world, the consumer is in the driver’s seat. If you don’t serve their needs and provide value, at the click of a mouse, they will go somewhere else.
A lot of people ask me how long a blog post should be, the longer your blogs posts the better. Longer posts are favored by Google and therefore your organic search rankings will go up. The longer your blog post the more long-tail keywords you will rank for and the more traffic you will get.
Longer blog posts tend to get shared on social media more, because it quality is usually better.
I’ve seen some bloggers write 4,000 to 8,000 word blog posts.
That’s a little excessive but it definitely works. You don’t need to write blog posts that long, I would say aim for at least 1,000 words minimum.
#6 - Create Lots Of Content
To be an authority blog you not only have to create quality content, but you have to generate lots of it.
In my business, I spend the majority of my time creating content. This is the fastest way to get traffic to your blog and build an audience.
To create an authority blog you need to generate post frequently. It’s not enough to post once a week. Ideally, you want to strive for at least three times per week.
The more content you create the faster your business will grow. Some authority blogs post three times per DAY!