Does it seem like niche site building will soon become an ancient Internet relic?

I’m starting to think the answer may be yes. This week, I noticed a little trend emerging in the Internet marketing blogosphere: debate over whether authority sites are a better business model than niche sites. There are ardent advocates on each side, and both have valid arguments.

Authority Sites: The Pros

On the AdSense Flippers website, the guys moderated an entire 4000+ word debate pitting authority sites against niche sites. Super affiliate and authority site owner Steve Scott argued for authority sites, and a niche site-builder named Mike Thomas argued in favor of niche websites.

To be clear, let’s look at the great definition of the two terms that Scott offered up during his portion of the debate:

Scott continued by pointing out the merits of an authority site. He explained that authority sites should be considered long-term investments. The idea is to build up a readership; a loyal following that will trust your recommendations, identify with your brand, and buy from you repeatedly for the long haul.

The biggest plus that Scott noted, however, was something we’ve been talking about here at Site-Reference for months now:

It’s better to build your online business in a way that you control completely. Diversifying your traffic sources and creating a brand will future-proof your website and protect it from Google’s changes.

When you create an authority site – a true authority site – it’s here to stay, with or without Google. New and returning visitors alike will continue typing your site’s address directly into their browsers, visiting your site through links, and finding it through shares on social networks. The long-term value of an authority site? Well, it’s incalculable.

The Cons of Authority Sites

It’s funny: it seems that ever since the last Google algo update, the talk has been non-stop authority sites. It’s become the buzzword in the Internet marketing world right now. But what webmasters are forgetting is that they can’t simply pay people to “make” an authority site. They can hire writers, SEO experts, etc., but they can’t buy the trust that comes from a solid foundation of long-term, repeated visitors. That kind of reputation takes years and heaps of value-add to achieve.

An authority site simply can’t be manufactured.

You can buy an authority site – sure – at a ridiculous premium. But the high price is justified due to the sheer longevity and power of such a site in a particular niche.

That’s the primary downside of an authority site. It could take months, and in most cases, years, to see any kind of real return on investment. That’s exactly what caused Spencer Haws of Niche Pursuits to throw in the towel after only a few short months. In his blog post this week – aptly titled I Can Only Handle 1 Authority Site, Back to Niche Sites – Haws lamented about the difficultly that comes with authority site building:

It’s a lot of work. Indeed. And it’s a time commitment. As in a working-on-it-for-the-next-decade time commitment.

Seriously.

That’s what it takes to become a true authority: loving your topic to tears and writing about it tirelessly, networking with others in the same arena, and committing to grow the site… forever. Or until you sell it. Haws himself summed up the biggest drawback of managing an authority site – the time suck.

Pros of Niche Websites

In his announcement post about the change in course, Haws enthusiastically discussed his reasoning for returning to niche website building – even after Google banned him from AdSense and closed his account.

“Niche sites have always been the core of my business, but the early part of this year really shook me up. I’ve looked at the damage and still see a pretty sweet business. I still earn a great passive income from my niche sites (yes it’s much less), even after Penguin and AdSense closure. I’m ready to emerge stronger after the storm,” says Haws.

“Who’s with me?” Haws asks, “I know the risks, and I’ve always bounced back after penalties, deindexing, and more.”

Interesting point-of-view. I’m against spamming the Internet, and I’m all for authority sites. But the perspective is interesting. His is similar to Thomas’ viewpoint supporting niche sites in the AdSense Flippers debate.

I’m thinking that a niche website does have its purpose. I read quite a few articles that outlined a strategy of creating niche websites in order to find out which areas would be profitable without wasting time building an authority site – only to find out there’s no money in the niche. I agree with that wholeheartedly, but there must be a better way to find this out.

(By the way: I’d love to hear your thoughts on that in the comments below!)

During the AdSense Flippers debate, Thomas noted, “It all depends on how you build your niche sites. I’ve seen supposed “authority” websites that have a ton of content but were spammy as heck with spun or poorly-written content, no images, and placed on a free commonly-used theme.

I’ve also seen niche sites that had only one page of content, but the content was well-written, included relevant images, and was placed on a theme with a unique header. If you were a Google reviewer which website would you penalize first?”

Niche Sites: The Cons

I almost agreed with the argument made by Thomas. Then I checked out the page where he sold his niche websites. Here’s an excerpt from one of the articles in which he discusses his backlinking methods of choice for the niche sites he creates:

“Unique Article Wizard- I use the spun article I get from EZArticleLink also here. In that way I can get even more links out of the spun article.

Article Marketing Robot- I use this to give my sites a blast of link juice. You need to run this in Windows as it’s not available for Mac.

Social Adr- This service lets you put your social bookmarking on autopilot. There’s a free account where you get credits in return for bookmarking other people’s links, or you can skip that and pay for the service. I have a paid subscription.”

Okay, but wait. His niche sites are not spammy?

See, that’s the biggest drawback of niche websites right there.

They’re created to rank quickly and by any means possible. Most of the time, they’re sites about such exciting topics as “push reel lawn mowers” or my personal fave, “red gym socks”. People won’t be excited to link to sites like these. You can’t really build an engaged community around socks. Therefore, spamming the web is pretty much the only way to get links to sites like these. It is what it is.

It is inherently risky to build your business upon something you have no control over. If you depend on Google AdSense for your sole source of income and you build hundreds of niche sites, your time is ultimately limited with the program.

So, should you build niche sites while creating an authority site? Build a portfolio of niche sites alone? Work on your beloved authority site for years and *hope* that it will be an earner?

The choice is up to you, but whatever route you choose is a roll of the dice.

Source: http://site-reference.com/articles/authority-sites-versus-niche-where-do-you-stand/

Every minute of the day, people are searching online for answers. If they need a new car, it is more than likely that they will first research it online before ever visiting a dealership. If they are looking for a restaurant in a particular area, chances are that they will “Google it” to find it. The internet serves as the perfect matchmaker between businesses and potential customers.

Once a potential customer has stumbled across your company’s website, you have about two seconds to capture their attention. If you haven’t captured their attention within those first couple of seconds, they simply click off of your website and onto the next one down the list. That is why it is crucial to have your website set up for optimal conversion. If your website doesn’t have these 15 elements, then it’s probably not bringing you business. Here are the 15 must haves and must not haves of an effective website:

1. A Bold Headline at the Top of Every Page

The headline should be short and it MUST depict what benefit the customer will get by reading further on. People today are busy and the internet includes millions of other websites that people can move onto if your site does not capture their attention immediately. Too many companies make the mistake of marketing about themselves rather than about the consumer. This is called “Ego Marketing.” To be effective, the headline message must always be about how your company can help the consumer or what you can offer to them.

2. “TMI” (Too Much Information)

No more than 2 paragraphs on a page. In this busy era, people don’t have the attention span to read any more than that. Plus, if you give them too much information, then they have no reason to contact you. The whole idea is to get the website visitor to call, stop in or contact you in some way, right?

3. Have a Call to Action on Every Page

… but have no more than two calls to action per page. Studies have shown that if you give people too many choices then it overwhelms them and that is when they will take no action at all. That’s the point where they will usually say “I have to think about it.” So put a clear call to action on every page and actually tell the website visitor what to do next on each page. Examples- “Click here now” or ” Call 1-800-555-5555 for more information.”

4. Have a User Friendly Navigational Bar

A prominently placed menu bar makes each page of your website easy to use. Keep it simple.

5. A Picture

A picture can easily replace a thousand words. A picture that depicts what the page or product/service is about can capture their attention much more effectively than paragraphs of text which will only send visitors clicking away.

6. Consistent Branding

It is important to have a consistent look and style throughout all of a company’s marketing pieces. This instills a reputable image of your company to the consumer. Avoid having a different style on your website than what you have on your other marketing pieces.

7. Name and Contact Info of the Company on Every Page of the Website

It seems simple, but if you search around, you would be surprised at how may companies overlook the basics.

8. Limit Color to No More than 3 Complementary Colors

More than that is too busy to the eye. It will distract the visitor’s attention away from what you want them to be focusing on.

9. White Space

White space is a breath of fresh air for the eyes. If a person can look at the web page for two seconds, and then look away and be able to tell you what the main subject was of the page, then you’ve got a winner. If not, then go back and eliminate items until the two second rule applies.

10. No Auto Load Music or Video

A sudden burst of noise when a visitor clicks onto your website typically will cause users to click right back off of the page. Let the website visitor click on the video or sound file to play it when they are ready to.

11. An Email Sign Up Form

… on at least one page of your website will provide leads that can be followed and nurtured for months. Even if the website visitor is not ready to make a purchase that day, they may be ready a couple of months later after they have received regular emails from your company.

12. An Interactive Link to Contact Your Company

Whether it be an email link or a form box, make it easy for the website visitor to contact your company with just a click of the mouse. An interactive, simple to use website produces more leads than a site that makes the visitor work for it.

13. An Interactive Map to the Company Location With Directions

With Mapquest and Google maps, this has become the common way for people to get directions. It can be added to a website in just a couple of clicks and it gives the visitor an easy way to find you.

14. Company Business Hours

Surprisingly this is quite often forgotten. It is also smart to add the time zone… remember, this is the world wide web. Visitors to your site are not necessarily in your same time zone.

15. Keep It Relevant

It’s nice to add a personal touch to your website, but remember, people who are looking for a company to do business with, may not have the same personal, religious or political beliefs as you do. So be certain to only include information relevant to the business. Don’t include personal pages on religion, politics or other non-relevant information. No one wants to lose a potential customer due to opposing personal beliefs. Remember, business is business. Leave your personal life at home.

Every year, statistics keep rising on the percentage of consumers that first search online in order to find information on new products or services. In 2011, it was upwards of 85% depending on the type of industry being searched. Don’t miss out on your opportunity to capture that potential business. Follow these 15 tips and then analyze the response that you get. If at first you
don’t succeed, tweak it until you start getting results.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2012/07/10/15-website-secrets-that-will-generate-revenue-for-your-business/

When the founding fathers started this country back in 1776, their idea of sending a quick communiqué involved dispatching a printed message on horseback. Even Ben Franklin, the colonial father of electricity, a talented inventor and printer in his own right, could not have foreseen the invention and proliferation of the Internet. In fact, had the Internet been available in the latter half of the eighteenth century, just think of the possibilities:

Would the “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” have morphed into the “Midnight Tweet of Paul Revere?” Would George Washington have consulted weather.com before attempting to cross the Delaware River on December 25, 1776? Imagine the galvanizing effect that the Boston Tea Party would have had if it had been rebroadcast on YouTube or shown live on Google Hangouts On Air. What do you suppose would have been the British response if the Declaration of Independence had made its debut to Facebook’s 900 million members?

The possibilities are endless and the outcome of the American Revolution could have been very different had the World Wide Web been in vogue back then. But one thing is certain. All those long dead patriots would have embraced the technological advantages represented by anunfettered worldwide communications system with both hands. Which is what makes it so difficult to understand why so many modern business owners still seem reluctant to exploit the obvious advantages of the Internet.

Even though the web has been around for more than 15 years, an Ad-ology survey reported that 46 percent of small business owners did not have a Web site in 2010. Even more startling is the fact that 95% of small businesses who do have a site have little or no presence on page one of the major search engines. Granted, with Google controlling up to 80% of the search market and 260 million websites currently online, it is getting harder to generate a page one result. Still, the single reason that most small businesses have such a poor showing online has more to do with poor habits than poor performance.

In my last two posts, How to Make Google-Ade and The Shortcut to Online Success, I pointed out the fact that not only was there more than one way to skin a search engine, but that there were a number of techniques that could propel most anyone to page one prominence without altering your website at all. Most of these “shortcuts” rely on Web 2.0 technology, such as blogging, social networks and video. Therein lies the rub. While most business people are involved in blogging and social networking to some extent, most do not understand how to properly employ these technologies to enhance their online marketing.

Revolutionary Marketing Technology at Your Fingertips

Take blogging, for instance. While many business owners have a blog, most do not blog on a weekly basis. They either can’t find the time to blog, or they can’t come up with anything to write about week in and week out.

What they don’t seem to understand is that blogging is one of the best ways to reach out and engage both prospects and customers alike. They also don’t realize that the average business owner literally trips over ideas, human interest stories and pearls of wisdom that would be of interest to the public on almost a daily basis.

The problem is that when they come upon these concepts they fail to make note of them by either writing or photographing these gems as soon as they occur, even when they have the perfect device to perform both these chores right on their hip.

That’s right, a smartphone is the easiest way to capture any moment for posterity that has ever been invented. Not only can you photograph an event, most smartphones are video capable. This means you can provide a running commentary that can be used as an electronic notebook which can later be reviewed in order to write your blog.

Better yet, you can cut out the middle man altogether and create a video blog that can then be distributed on your social networks, embedded on your website and blogs and even attached to any printed literature via QR code.

Keep in mind that Google actively searches for mixed media such as video and you can kill two birds with one stone by creating and optimizing videos that can then migrate to page one of the world’s most popular search engine.

While there are a number of other revolutionary online technologies that can provide any business with a competitive edge, the only way that the web will work for you is if you work the web.

The bottom line is that if the Internet is important to the continued success of your business, then you need to start making it a priority to engage and interact with your audience on at least a weekly basis. Whether you perform this task yourself, or you outsource it to a professional online marketer is entirely at your discretion. But, if you want to stop languishing in the backwaters when it comes to communicating with the public, you only have two choices:

1. Embrace online marketing.
2. Buy a horse.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2012/07/10/the-declaration-of-online-independence/

I’m going to break it down for you this week. There’s some intense debate happening in webmaster forums about whether social signals outweigh links, and what webmasters should focus on more when building a website. The Panda and Penguin updates have everyone in a tizzy and I’ll lay it out for you – right now is a really confusing time for search marketers.

Everyone’s in an uproar now about Matt Cutts’ comments during an SMX Advanced interview with Danny Sullivan. These are the kinds of articles I’ve been finding plastered on the front pages of sites like Search Engine Roundtable:

After this wave passes, we’ll inevitably be faced with a new update and even more mixed signals. Of course, there’s already mass confusion. Forums are lighting up (again) with frustrated webmasters arguing about the importance of links versus social, like in this excerpt from an exchange in the Webmaster World forum:

This versus that, tit for tat. Links versus on-site optimization versus your Twitter following. The process of figuring out what works is simply exhausting, but I never get tired of this stuff. Love it. However, for those of you who are sick of the noise – those of you who just want to know how to make some great content for your websites that will bring in visitors, I’m going to exercise the KISS technique. This week, I’m staying in the same vein as last week’s post (if you haven’t had a chance to give it a read, you can find it here).

In it, I discussed the importance of community-building as a means for growing and maintaining an audience for your site or blog. I focused on the external things that you must do in order to develop a following – so now let’s talk about how to create content they’ll want to follow.

The Guts of a Feature Post

I wrote about that guy on Entrepreneurs-Journey.com last week. For those of you who weren’t tuned in, he talks about the importance of regularly writing “pillar posts” and sprinkling them into the other content on your site. His take is that pillar posts are articles that are evergreen – meaning the material is never time-sensitive. Someone could read the same article months after you first post it and derive the same value as the very first readers. Pillar articles boost traffic and still enjoy frequent visits long after they’re buried deep within your site’s archives.

I agree with all of this, and I’ve been writing pillar posts for my own sites for quite some time before I stumbled upon the pillar post concept. The only difference is that I’ve been calling them “feature articles” and I structure mine a bit differently.

If you commit to spending a little more time on an article or two each week and consistently include a few key elements, you’ll have a website full of feature articles in no time.

The guts of a feature article, stripped down naked for your viewing pleasure:

1. A great headline and meta description.

The headline and meta description are arguably the most important elements of your article when it comes to search traffic. You could have the most mind-blowing article in the world, and no one would know if your title and description are a real snooze. Your article could hang out on the first page of the SERPs, but if you mess this up, you might as well be on page 14.

To craft a killer title, sum up in one sentence what your article is about and write it down. Then, think objectively about the most exciting way to present the information. Leave something out that the audience would have to read the article to discover or start with a teaser.

If you’re still stuck, try this. For one solid week, as you browse the Web, keep a Notepad file of every article you view online. Jot down the title of each one you read, and once you have your list compiled, review the titles carefully. There’s a reason you clicked through to read each article – and that reason was the headline. Figure out which elements ultimately influenced your click and use the tactics in your own titles.

2. A killer intro.

This, again, is critical. You need to open with a witty hook, something that grabs the reader’s attentions and is perhaps even a bit tongue-in-cheek. The idea is to draw your audience in and hold them there with a vice grip. In the intro, don’t be afraid of using the first person and showing a little humanity. Identify with the reader. And, please, whatever you do – talk directly to your readers. Write as if you’re having a one-on-one conversation with a good friend.

3. A meaty body.

It’s not all about the word count, despite what you may hear in marketing forums. This is one of the most common misconceptions out there, and it drives me bananas. If your article is 1500 words, then you can’t lose, right?

Wrong!

Would you sit through 1500 words of dribble when there’s an entire Internet out there waiting for you? Of course not! Always keep the $10,000 question in mind as you’re writing:

 “Is this something that I would actually read… start to finish?”

I’d much rather read 400 words of action-packed content than 1500 words of plain vanilla sludge. However, longer is better – just make sure to pack substance into every nook and cranny of your writing.

You know the basics. Use small chunks of text. Divide your article into sections with H1 headings. But beyond all that, really research what’s out there on your topic before you get started. Present the research in your article, and add rich media from your journey (think screenshots, videos, and images) to present to your reader as a one-stop “highlight reel” of your findings. When it comes to being thorough, your article needs to hit it out of the park.

4. A thoughtful wrap-up.

Add one last section. This is the part where you contribute to the conversation instead of regurgitating the same article that readers can find in a million other places on the Web. And, yes, they do notice when you do that. Add your own unique take on the problem or subject after you’ve presented a complete and balanced article, and show a little personality while you’re at it.

There you have it folks. My method for writing the feature post. Try it out on your site or blog, but remember – these babies take forever to write. And if you get your audience used to them, you’d better keep delivering or you risk losing your edge. That’s why it’s best to start by only sprinkling a few in from time on your site or blog until you’re more conformable with the process.

Source: http://site-reference.com/articles/how-to-write-a-feature-article/

Internet advertising is big business. The latest reports from the Interactive Advertising Bureau in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers show that in the US alone the industry was worth an astonishing $31 billion in 2011 – an increase of 22 per cent on 2010.

Search engine-based advertising alone represents nearly half of that total figure, with the rest being made up of contextual, banner, video and display advertising. Mobile is also becoming an increasingly important market; more than doubling in revenue a year previously.

However, where there is a market, there is competition.

This competition mainly comes in the form of advertising and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), in addition to search engines. The difference between which advertiser wins in this crowded marketplace and which one loses can come down to a concept which all of us are familiar with on the internet. It’s one which we all collectively live by and are controlled by – speed.

The effect that speed has on internet advertising shouldn’t be underestimated. There are no fewer than three parties that stand to win or lose, purely on the basis of how quickly a site and its on-page elements load – the user, the search engine and the business itself.

For the user, studies suggest that the average person has little time for delays on a website. Even if an advertising platform benefits from being separated from the main site on dedicated servers, a user will expect all on-page content to appear at the same time. This is because users trust speed; sometimes using it as a measure of authority. Those who cannot deliver their on-page content within milliseconds therefore may instantly lose a user’s trust and potentially their custom as a result.

Improving the time a website and its third party content takes to load not only benefits users but also search engine rankings. Google – the world’s biggest search engine – for one, confirmed several years ago that loading speeds now make up a small part of its ranking factor. It did so on the basis that “faster sites create happy users.”

As if improving a user’s experience while also satisfying the search engines wasn’t enough, a business stands to benefit from faster advertising in very straightforward cash terms.

Following a link could lead to revenues from affiliate networks, which offer a share of any revenue that is generated by the merchant from visitors to the publisher’s site – providing the user follows through with an appropriate action (e.g. making a purchase, requesting a quote). Therefore ensuring that these advertisements load in a very fast manner is key to the user respecting the ad, as well as the site; leading to them potentially following their visit through.

Speed is also a key concern for advertisers because of the changing nature in how ads are manifesting themselves on the web. While it might only take milliseconds to load textual or display advertising, the onset of video and even in-game advertising is pushing online advertising’s technological requirements to the max. It is now only with the fastest of connections that an advertiser can hope to have any influence in gaining a user’s extremely valuable and potentially profitable trust.

Source: http://www.seo-news.com/the-influence-of-speed-on-online-advertising-a-seo-news-exclusive/