Starting an authority site or a niche website is relatively easy. The hard part is making it profitable after you have started one. If you are new to the game, you might have tried and failed with a few of your first websites. This happened to me. And the same is true for almost every popular guru you know. 

I don't know your background or motivations at this time. But here is what I know. You are keenly interested in making your first or next authority website impressively profitable. 

Perhaps, you are inspired by amazing 35X multiples and great ROI you've been seeing in different niche website flipping case studies. 

But then, you cannot experience such outcomes if you start on a weak foundation. 

At the end of this post, you may be surprised to become aware of the fact that it is not the lack of opportunity or resources that cause people to fail or prevent them from building profitable niche sites. Stick with me and you'll learn some lessons that will prove helpful in your current journey. 

Based on my personal experiences and interaction with other people, some common niche website mistakes actually cause a lot of people to fail even when they start with good intentions and lots of resources. 

Common Niche Website Mistakes To Avoid 

Profit vs Passion Imbalance – starting or building an authority niche website when there is an imbalance between passion and profit variables is a big mistake. To a very large extent, this is a tricky one whose impact usually goes unnoticed for a very long time. 

But now, you may be wondering, what exactly do I mean by profit vs passion imbalance? 

It's about the constant debate around this question – should I start a blog based on my passion or high potential for profit from its monetization? 

The imbalance happens when you focus extremely too much on one side of the coin and ignore the other. For example, if you focus too much on your personal passion when choosing a niche, you may find yourself trapped in a niche with topics that have limited potential for earning an impressive profit. 

When this happens, it takes a gigantic amount of website traffic to break even before you start earning some small profits. 

This could also happen the other way around. 

If you focus too much on the money, you'll end up in a niche that is too competitive to an extent that your limited resources and current level of expertise won't be enough to compete favorably in it. do not allow such an imbalance to lead you astray. Read on to find out how to choose a niche with a strong balance. 

Misguided Keyword Research – unless you are an SEO expert, there is a great chance you'll make a mistake in this important step. Interestingly, keyword research and selection among the most important variables that will determine how much search traffic you'll generate and as well as revenue. 

Just like the first mistake discussed above, keyword research mistakes also happen on two extreme ends. Hence, you have to find a balance between them. 

First, going after keywords with relatively high search volume seems appealing at the earlier stages. Here I am referring to keywords with 3000 – 10,000 searches per month. 

Unfortunately, this is a slippery trap that everyone cannot pass through successfully. The reason is that such keywords are usually dominated by many strong authority sites ranking on the first page of Google. And that makes them too competitive for people that want to build profitable authority sites. 

The second keyword research mistake is simply ignoring search queries with low or zero search searches per month. Here I am referring to keywords with 0 – 100 searches per month. 

The reason why ignoring such keywords is a mistake is because a single piece of content can have multiple unintended keyword rankings that have search volume higher than the ones you targeted. Below is an example of what I mean. (add image of a page ranking for multiple keywords)

New products, services as well as keywords are appearing in Google search almost daily. In line with this, Google once confirmed that around 20% of search queries have never been used at all.

Hiring The Cheapest Content Writers – content creation is hard and expensive. Your only best option is to do all the work on your own.

But then, what if you don't have the time or expertise? 

In most cases, I have been a writer and I do hire writers too, a limited budget is the main thing that leads people into hiring the cheapest writers around. The other negative outcome of doing this is spending all your resources to compete based on content quantity. Probably, you have this belief that having 100, 200 or 500 pieces of content published will give you an edge. 

Unknown to most people that make this mistake, poor content will always have negative effects on the bounce rate and conversion rate. Yes, it is possible to generate traffic with low-quality content.

What if your filler content isn't offering any perceived value at all? 

Authority Site vs Niche Site: What Is The Difference?

Note, if you have made up your mind on this, you may want to skip this part. However, I just thought that understanding the differences will help you make decisions that are suitable for your current needs and long-term goals. Now, before you commit to starting an authority site, think about these differences. 

One vs Many - in practical terms, it is possible to build one or many websites that could be termed authority or niche site. The main thing to decide here is whether you'll build one big authority site as opposed to having your resources spread across too many small niche sites

Topic Depth – niche sites are usually focused on a single product or a small niche within a big category like health, finance or technology. And the topics covered seem to be narrow. The opposite is the case for authority sites that core broad topics in a certain category. 

Content Size – planned very well, authority sites often have a large content size in terms of depth and number of posts. We'll get to some authority site examples in the following sections. Niche sites, on the other hand, make use of small content pieces – under 100 posts in most cases

Brand Building – do you want to build a brand that is recognized within an industry with sizable enterprise value or just a niche site meant for quick flipping profits? Now, think about how this relates to the balance between passion vs profit? The thing is that if you want to do it for the long-term, it will be helpful to focus on the things you are passionate about. 

Authority Niche Website Examples

One interesting point that is worth mentioning here is that a profitable authority website can also be started within a specific niche. The main thing is that you should find a balance between profit vs passion as discussed above. Let's check out these authority website examples below. 

The Penny Hoarder

Source: thepennyhoarder.com

Founded in 2010 by Kyle Taylor, The Penny Hoarder is one of the most successful blogs you'll find on the internet. Its focus is centered on personal finance. Their mission is stated as - helping people to make and save more money. Topics covered on this website include credit cards, debt, budgeting, investing, retirement, insurance and taxes. 

At the time of this writing, their website, https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/ attracts around 12 million readers per month with over 7,000 pages indexed in Google. Check this Mixergy interview with the founder on how The Penny Hoarder becomes a $20 million blog. 

The WireCutter 

Source: thewirecutter.com

Here is a product review website that is now considered an authority in many different ramifications. This one was started in September 2011 and had stayed online for that long time, doing exactly the same thing. Though the site is not focused on a single topic, niche or category, it has become one of the most successful authority website examples that some entrepreneurs look up to. 

As recognition of the attractive enterprise value that the team had created over the years, The New York Times bought this website for an estimated $30 million that was widely reported in October 2016. 

A little digging revealed that this website is generating over 4.9 million visitors per month from organic search alone. In terms of size, this is coming from over 5,400 pages indexed in Google. 

Fatherly

Source: fatherly.com 

Another interesting authority website created a precisely defined niche is Fatherly. Even if small school children are to guess what the blog is about, it won't take them three seconds to do so. In their own words, 

''our mission is to empower men to raise great kids and lead more fulfilling adult lives''. 

Away from written content, this site has branched into other formats like podcasts and video. Some of the topics they cover include parenting, health, love, education and gadgets. 

From over 1.9 million visitors (from search alone), Fatherly is said to be earning around $5.2 million annually. The blog was created in 2014. 

Please note that these are just a few examples. The interesting fact that many other authority website examples exist in almost any niche, category or industry you look into. 

You just have to do a little digging to find most of the examples as they are not labeled authority blogs anywhere on their website. 

Some other examples include

• RunnerClick.com
• SurvivalLife.com
• NerdWallet
• IWillTeachYouToBeRich
• Greatist
• LifeHack
• MensHealth
• GoodHouseKeeping 
• DigitalTrends
• Healthline 

In between the numbers, you will find that these and other blogs attract a good number of visitors per month. Their revenue numbers will also have similar ranges. However, the two specific things that stand out are the content size and age factor. 

The key takeaway is that you have to stick around for like 3 – 10 years in order to build a profitable authority site. While 3 to 10 years seems like a long time and it is...not all authority sites take that long to be profitable. Most take up to a year or two to start seeing profits and a lot of traffic.

How To Build Profitable Authority Website 

As mentioned earlier, it is not the lack of opportunity or resources that prevent many people from building profitable authority websites. Having discussed some of the most common mistakes, my aim in this post is to help you lay a strong foundation for the kind of ROI you want. 

#1: Choose A Profitable Niche 

Did you notice in this first step that I didn't just say choose a niche or choose your niche? The keyword word there is profitable. This is the first and the most important step that will determine success in other steps we are going to discuss in this guide. If you fail a little bit in this regard, many other steps or your overall investment won't be profitable as you want. 

While it is possible to succeed in almost any niche you choose, one that remains true is that all blogging niches are not equal in terms of lucrative potential for monetization. 

But how are you supposed to measure the profitability potential prior to making the required investments? Good question. That's why you are here, so let's dive in. 

Just in case you are wondering what a niche is, check out this definition below –

'A niche is more than just a topic. It's the approach you're going to take, the audience you want to go after, and the way you're going to talk to them and position yourself as an expert.' – Sujan Patel 

How to choose a profitable authority website niche. These are the key factors to consider. 

Put Your Passion To Work - in relation to other factors we'll be discussing below, it is important to consider your passion first. As a single factor, it may not be that important because you can make good money in almost any niche. But here is why you should consider it. 

Building a profitable niche site takes a lot of hard work from keyword research to content creation. If you don't enjoy the core activities, it becomes so easy to quit when the first few obstacles unfold 

To build a great brand with sizable enterprise value requires that you stay in the game for a long time. The key question to ask here is – what will enjoy doing for the rest of my life?

Whether you are writing the content or outsourcing it, subject matter alignment will determine how much you'll enjoy working on your site from one big challenge to the other. Think about the topics you enjoy reading about without getting tired for really long hours 

This post on why happy employees are 12% more productive will give you more insights. If you are passionate about the subject matter your site is centered on, you'll be performing at your peak to bring high-value content and profitable products to the marketplace. 

Go For High Priced Products - if you are going to use the affiliate revenue model to monetize your authority website, average product price in the niche is among the variables that will determine the profitability or earning potential of your site. When you start promoting your site, the price of promoted products will have a direct impact on how much commission you'll earn per sale. 

Assuming the sales commission is 5%, think of how much you could earn from the sales of 100 products priced at $200 vs $30 products. With low priced products, it will take a big traffic volume and sales volume to make meaningful profits from your site. 

While choosing products, you should try to take your passion into account as well. 

Consider Ad Cost Per Click – here is another metric that plays a role in the profitability of ad monetized niche sites. What happens, in this case, is that advertisers pay ad networks like Google Adsense and Ezoic. 

Then your site earns money each time an ad unit is clicked. Consequently, if the advertisers in your niche are paying low cost per click to the ad networks, the ads placed on your site will always have low earnings per click (EPC). 

Think about this scenario. If two websites (site A and B) in different niches got 100 banner ad clicks each in one day. 

But the advertisers in niche A pays $15 per click vs $2 per click in niche B, which one do you think will earn higher profits? 

You can use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Ahrefs to see average ad cost per click in your niche prior to building a site in that niche. 

Start With High-Value Target Locations – in terms of geographic location, all niche markets are never equal. High demand for certain products and competition within the niche determines how much advertisers are willing to pay per click (ad cost per click). 

If there is less demand in your niche market, determined by search volume and less competition for ad inventory in your chosen target location, the ad cost per click will be lower. 

For example, if you are reading this content from India, Bangladesh or Kenya, starting a niche site with content that attracts US traffic will be more profitable than serving your country's audience. 

To understand what I mean, here is the estimated cost per click for ‘’best coffee machine reviews in the US 

...vs same keywords in India. . 

The main point is that you should be creating content and building your authority website to attract people in top tier countries like the US, UK, Canada, Australia etc. While doing that, don't forget to take your passion and product price into account. 

#2: Decide On Monetization Model 

Technically, learning how to set up a profitable authority site seems to be easy. However, if you want to experience above-average ROI, you have to nail your monetization model from day one. The first step has to do with choosing a profitable niche. The next step has to do with this question – how do I monetize my blog? 

On the surface, the answer looks very obvious. But it may surprise you to know that some people actually build a thriving blog that generates good traffic volume without a proper monetization strategy. In most cases, some of these people just followed their passion while ignoring everything else. 

Especially at the starting stage, the main thing about monetization is this. You have to take into account the type of content you'll be publishing based on your chosen niche. 

The proper thing isn't to invest in content creation and begin to figure out monetization later. If you do that your ROI will be limited. 

The next step is to explore available monetization models that will be suitable for that type of content. 

For example, if your content is centered around movies or woodworking, how are you going to earn revenue from the time and money invested?

To help you choose what's best suited for your niche and type of content, I have listed the best-proven blog monetization models used by many successful authority sites. While you are reading through them, keep the chosen niche and type of content in mind. 

But then, we'll get into the content strategy in the next sections. 

Authority Niche Site Monetization Models 

Display Ads Placement 

This is the most popular authority site monetization model that has been around for a long time. With this model, it is possible to start making money within one week or month, depending on your traffic volume. For instance, if you figure out a way to start generating a good amount of traffic from social media sites, you don't have to wait for organic search traffic growth that often takes time. 

How display ads revenue models work is this. You get a code snippet from an ad network like Ezoic. Place it on your entire website or specific pages. And the network will start displaying ads automatically on the specified spaces. Whenever your site visitors click the ads, you'll earn a certain amount for each click. 

Below is an example of such a banner ad placement. 

Source: fatherly.com

While you are deciding to use this authority site monetization model or not, remember what I said earlier about how ad cost per click (the money paid by advertisers) determines how much you'll earn per click from the ad networks. 

Best Display Ad Networks For Authority Site Monetization 

1. Google Adsense 
2. MediaVine
3. AdThrive
4. Ezoic
5. AdPush 
6. BuySellAds
7. PropellerAds
8. Media.net
9. PodAds
10. Infolinks

Affiliate Marketing Revenue Model 

One of the things I love so much about the affiliate revenue model is the transparency of the sales commission which is usually easy to see before you get in. Even though the commission percentage is fixed In most cases, you can choose the type and price of products you are promoting. This will then have a direct impact on the size of the commission you'll earn for each sale. 

Another interesting benefit of the affiliate revenue model is that you'll be leveraging the reputation of proven brands and products that people are constantly buying online. 

This is why the Amazon Associates program is said to have over 299,000 affiliates promoting their products in different countries. 

How affiliate marketing works is that you select and promote some chosen products through your website and with special links for tracking sales. When someone makes a purchase, your commission from the sale will be recorded. 

Below is an example of affiliate links promoting products listed on Amazon. (add image)

Source: fourthestatecoffee.com 

For this authority niche site monetization model, the commission ranges between 3 – 50% depending on the affiliate network and type of product. Once again, the fixed commission percentage will determine how much you'll earn from every sale generated through your website. 

More than anything else, the type of content you are creating and publishing on your website will have an impact on the conversion rate. Read on to learn more from the section on content strategy. 

Create Info Products

This is one of the most profitable blog monetization models that has been proven to work for many successful people. However, it is very hard to pull off for most people. By info products, I am referring to some useful content created and sold as ebooks or online training courses. 

With the info product monetization model, you'll be able to set your own price. Moreover, you can get some affiliates to start promoting for you as well. 

The usual order is to build an audience. Get a percentage of your authority site audience to sign into a targeted email list. Create the info product and start selling to your site visitors and email subscribers. 

Mathew Woodward, Brian Dean, and Nathan Barry are known to have used this model to monetize their sites successfully. You may want to read this post on why the product- first approach is the best way to build a profitable audience. 

See this info product example below. WiFiAffiliate.com

Check out this $39k info product case study for more insights. Most ebooks normally sell between $9 - $50 while online courses are usually sold between $60 - $2000. 

Sponsored Content 

If your niche is well defined and differentiated enough, and you are generating a good amount of monthly traffic, you can monetize with this model too. But the hard part is that you need the traffic first. When you start generating traffic, especially from search engines, you'll have real data to prove the value that can attract regular sponsors. 

Whether the content is labeled sponsored or not, this revenue stream can be passive once your content publishing guidelines are clarified for every prospect. 

Depending on your niche, sponsored content can be in the form of an expert interview, product review or guest post. 

You just have to put the content sponsorship offer and guidelines where most of your website visitors will see it. On the page that is meant for this purpose, consider sharing website traffic statistics if you are generating a sizable amount on a daily and monthly basis. 

In addition to making the offer visible enough on your website, reaching out to tightly related businesses in your niche and with your traffic stats might help you to earn constant revenue from this source. 

The price of sponsored content can be fixed between $50 - $5000 per post, depending on traffic volume and niche relevance. 

Paid Membership 

Can you create types of value that people will continue to need in each passing day, week or month? If the answer is yes, you may have what it takes to monetize your authority site with paid membership offers. When your authority site starts getting sufficient traction, some of your repeat readers might be getting in touch with one request or the other. 

Look into such requests and see if you can spot a pattern. You may want to launch an audience survey to get more insights in this regard. Further research into membership site ideas will enlighten you even more. 

Paid membership offers usually come in the form of coaching, content or service. The one you choose will be determined by your niche, type of content and audience needs. 

The main thing is to validate your paid membership site idea with your existing niche audience. 

Some membership website examples include the following. 

• Scott's Cheap Flights
• AppSumo Plus
• Scotts Bass Lessons 
• Food Blogger Pro
• Fizzle 

The most important thing is to be extremely specific about your preferred niche. And then define the value your subscribers will be getting and continue to get every month. 

Before moving to the next section, one thing you have to note is that some of these niche site revenue models can be combined successfully in a single site. However, if you are dealing with an ad or affiliate network, you have to confirm their operating and participation policies before making any combination. 

#3: Conduct Some Product Research 

In case you want to be selling digital or physical affiliate products on your website, it is important to do some research in order to understand the types of products available for promotion and the fixed commission percentages. At this stage, you'll also be able to confirm whether you have chosen a profitable niche or not. 

To a very extent, the type and price of the product you are selling will determine the level of profitability you'll experience through the process of building an authority niche site. 

This is something you have to decide before creating and publishing any piece of content. 

Don't make the mistake of jumping into keyword research as if it is the only thing that matters. If you prefer to outsource the content creation part, choosing the products should be within your control, not the writer. 

The only exception is if you found an experienced writer that can handle this part very well. But how then do you go about researching and selecting products? 

In this affiliate marketing context, we'll be using Amazon. Your task here is to make a list of products. Now let's dive into the three best approaches. 

Amazon Bestseller List 

Instead of selecting any product that appeals to you, starting with the Amazon bestseller list ensures that you'll be creating content around products proven to convert very well, regardless of price. This also means that you don't have to rely on guesswork. Hence, the bestseller list is updated hourly according to Amazon. Now here is what you do. 

• Open up Google or any other search engine 
• Type in Amazon Best Sellers in the search bar and follow the general bestseller link. To get faster results, you may also start with specific categories like 'Amazon bestseller home and kitchen’
• When you arrive on the page, you can then browse through the category page links on the left side. From here you can drill down into any other niche or subcategory you want. 

Note that your task is to make a list of relatively high-priced products sold between $100 - $500 with a good number of reviews and ratings. Within the subcategories, you can use the filters below to select the products you want.

Source: Amazon.com

Amazon Movers And Shakers 

These are products that have gained impressive popularity inside Amazon based on actual sales volume. While you cannot see the sales numbers or how Amazon calculates this, you can be sure that people are buying these products now.

 No need to create content around products that are no longer selling as much as they did yesterday. Again, this list is updated hourly according to Amazon. 

Just like you did for the bestseller list, just follow the same steps to make a list of products that appeal to you based on price and review count. 

Amazon New Releases 

Almost on a daily basis, new products are being created and listed inside the Amazon marketplace. Based on this fact, new product-related keywords are created as well. The benefit is that it becomes easy to find low competition long-tail keywords that many other authority sites are not targeting. 

Just think about the difference when you consider things like unique product names, features and models that have not been in the market for a long time. Practically, this is better than creating your content around old category name keywords (best X for Y) that many other high authority sites are currently dominating in the first and even second page of Google. 

The main point here is that first-page ranking competition, especially around some specific keywords, are never equal. Starting with Amazon new releases will give you a slight edge. 

This list again is updated hourly by Amazon. You can follow the same steps as described for Amazon bestsellers to make a list of products with a high price and a good number of reviews. Just browse through the subcategories and you'll find some gems. 

#4: Build Your Initial Keyword List

Even though it is possible to generate a good amount of traffic from other sources like social media, laying a strong foundation for a consistent inflow of organic search traffic will boost the profitability of your site. 

One good thing is that a single piece of content optimized for multiple long-tail keywords can be generating traffic for months or years after the work has been done. 

This is why it is important to nail your keyword research before creating any piece of content. Depending on your chosen niche, monetization model and selected products, low competition keywords should form the foundation of a profitable content strategy. 

While there are many keywords research tools that have been proven to be good for the job, I prefer to use Ahrefs and Google Search. Let me show you what I do with them. 

Using Ahrefs For Keyword Research 

Product Keyword Selection – the very first thing is to make a list of relatively high priced in-demand products that you want to be promoting on your website. Below is an example. 

Source: Ahrefs Keyword Explorer 

Now here are the steps to take. 

• Pick a product name and enter into the search bar (Example – coffee machine) 
• Hit enter and the tool will give you a big list of related keywords
• Do that and you'll have the following options to drill down a little bit

Keyword Difficulty – from a range of 1 – 100, with 100 indicating high competition, you can filter your keywords down to the ones with 0 – 10. This indicated low competition 

Word Count – difficulty score aside, long-tail keywords usually have lower competition. You can use this option to filter search queries containing 3 – 5 words

Include/Exclude – you can use this one to get a list of keywords that include any specific modifier like best, reviews, buy, coupon, discount or even location name. Check this post for a list of the most influential buyer keyword modifiers.

Newly Discovered - you can use this one to select newly discovered search queries that people are beginning to use based on your original search term. Interestingly, these newly discovered keywords tend to have lower competition 

Questions – find questions that are related to any product name or category keywords like ''coffee machine''. The gems you'll find with this filter might surprise you.  

These are the most important filters you can use to do your keyword research with Ahrefs. Use these filters to do the research for all the products you selected in the previous steps. You can use this for informational content creation as well. When you are done, download the CSV file and keep it in a folder. 

Using Google For Keyword Research 

Assuming you don't have money for paid tools, you can use Google. In addition to selecting keywords, Google Search can also be used to analyze and confirm the first-page ranking competition for your keyword list. Let's get into that. 

Google Autocomplete – if you've got the nerve to ignore search volume and follow Google's lead, there is a great possibility you'll find lots of interesting buyer keywords. 

Related Searches – just do a search for your main keywords and you'll find a list of other related queries under the search results page. This screenshot should explain that enough 

People Also Ask – when you search for any keyword, you'll find in the middle of the SERP, a white box with a list of related questions that people are asking 

Keyword Competition Analysis 

More than what the premium tools provide their users, you can use Google to get insight into the competition for any keyword with considerable search volume. Just use this search operator – allintitle:target keyword. An example is allintitle:best affordable coffee machine. 

What this does is to reveal the number of websites targeting that specific keyword in their page title. The lower the number of competing websites, the better. If the number is zero just like this example below, then you'll have a better chance of faster ranking. 

Source: Google.com

Another way to look at competition is to check if the top-ranking sites have lower or zero backlinks. You can use the MozBar chrome extension for this. 

#5: Develop Your Content Strategy 

The big question here is this – what type of content should I be publishing in my authority niche site to make it profitable? Before we get to the answer to that question, please note that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Doing what works repeatedly over a long period of time will get you the profit and ROI you are looking for. Hence, it is always helpful to study the competitors in your chosen niche. 

On a deeper level, studying your competitors will give you insights into the general types of content they are creating and the exact type that brings them the most traffic. 

Best Types of Content For Your Blog

1. Single product reviews 
2. Best product list posts
3. Product vs product comparison post 
4. Information/How-To guides (IMPORTANT)
5. Expert interviews 
6. Infographics 

The most interesting thing about these types of blog content is that they tend to perform in any niche you can think of. However, you have to enrich your posts while matching search intent in order to make it valuable to the target readers. Even if you create shallow content around the categories mentioned above, the profit earning potential will be limited regardless of the monetization model. 

Have you noticed how long this post seems to be? Well, it was made intentionally. Let's move onto the next sections. Side note: be sure to note that not all of your blog posts should be written for profit. Write buying guides yes but also be sure to write information and how-to guides so that not all of your posts are money or commercial posts.

#6: Build Out Your Website 

Since you have been through to this stage, congratulations! Practically, you've completed more than half of the hardest parts. As noted earlier, building the actual website is relatively easy. But if the foundation is not laid properly, making your authority website profitable will be harder than you think. 

For most people, you'll have two options for building an authority website. The first is to do all the work on your own. Probably, you are a WordPress expert, web designer or developer. The second option is to outsource the work. 

If you choose the second option, you can use Upwork, PeoplePerHour or Fiverr to hire experts. 

Regardless of the option you choose, you have to complete the following steps first. 

Register a domain name – when it comes to actual set up of an authority website, there are no conventional rules for registering a domain name as this is easy to do. If you have done this before, you already know how to do it. Whether or not you have done it before, there are three things you have to keep in mind. 

First, your authority website domain name has to be English words in order to make sense. Second, it has to be descriptive of the niche you chose, think about GoodHouseKeeping.com or DigitalTrends.com. 

Thirdly, your domain needs to be very short and easy to pronounce, this is what they call the tongue test, meaning, how does it flow when pronounced? 

These are the three main things that make domain names brandable. Between $1 – $10 per year, you can register a good name at registrars like Godaddy, NameCheap, SiteGround and many other companies. 

Buy website hosting – the next step is to buy a web hosting space where you'll be developing your website. This is like buying an empty plot of land and then building a house on it. While it is hard to measure hosting speed which is the major thing that matters in terms of website hosting, the most reputable hosts for niche site builders include SiteGround, Kinsta, WPEngine, Flywheel, and BlueHost.

Get a WordPress theme – starting with WordPress will make it easier to build your website in a very short time without meddling with CSS or Javascript codes. I personally use Divi, Thrive Themes, Generate Press, and Elementor.

But first, you have to install WordPress through your website hosting dashboard. Check this detailed guide on how to install WordPress. After that, you can get an affordable theme from MyThemeShop, GeneratePress, ThriveThemes, and Astra. 

Install essential plugins – WordPress plugins will help to extend the functionalities of your website. But one thing to keep in mind is this – you don't have to overload your site with too many plugins. If you do it, the loading speed will be terrible. The most essential WordPress plugins are used for the following - 

Backup – you need to have a backup of your WordPress website at all times. That means you don't have to leave this to chance. You can use Updraftplus, VaultPress or BackupBuddy

SEO Plugin – for proper on-page optimization on every web page, you need an SEO plugin that will guide you. Most popular plugins used by many other authority sites include Yoast SEO, SEOPress, All-In-One SEO and Rank Math. 

Website Caching – caching is a way of opening your website to visitors without sending a request to the server. This helps in websites that load really fast. The best WordPress caching plugins include W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache and WP Rocket. 

Image Optimization Plugin – image optimization is another factor that will affect WordPress website loading speed. To help in that regard, you can use Short Pixel, Optimole and WP Smush. 

WordPress Security – you don't want to leave your website to be an open heaven for attackers. For this purpose, Sucuri or Wordfence can help you secure your website. 

These are the fundamental steps in building out the actual website you'll be monetizing and making as profitable as you can. When you have your website built out with few pieces of content (5 – 30 posts), you can move to the final steps which require long term commitment. 

#7: Growing Traffic To Your Authority Website 

If you have succeeded in every other step and then perform poorly on this one, you won't have many visitors to click your display ads or affiliate links. Though there are many ways of growing blog traffic, it will be helpful to focus on one or two specific strategies before moving to others. 

In order words, spreading yourself too thin will limit the level of momentum you can build at the initial stages. Let's explore the best-proven strategies for growing blog traffic. 

Create Shareable And Linkable Content 

The main thing worth noting here is that you don't have to spend all your resources on creating monetizable content. This is one of the few things that separates profitable authority websites and small niche websites. When people link to and share the content on your website, the traffic potential increases beyond what you can achieve with your limited resources and efforts. 

Another interesting benefit of creating this type of quality content is the potential for earning natural backlinks and generating traffic in the long-term. Do the work once and continue to get the benefits. 

Here are the key steps to take at this stage. 

Study Your Competitors – you can use BuzzSumo or Ahrefs content explorer to get insight into the exact types of content and topics getting the biggest share count. The findings here should inform your content strategy.

Create Infographics - this type of content tends to get a lot of social media shares while earning natural backlinks at the same time. Check these infographic content case studies for more insights. 

On-Page SEO

If you have completed the step on finding low competition keywords, this one should be relatively easier. On-page SEO is about making every piece of content published on your site optimized for selected search queries. Endeavor to use your target keywords and its variations in places like the page title, URL, meta description, subheadings, within the content body and for image alt tags. 

To maintain a consistent quality standard, especially if you are outsourcing content creation, having a template will prove helpful. Technically, you should implement internal linking within every page while optimizing images at the same time. 

Again, creating a blog post publishing checklist will also be useful whether you are outsourcing this part or doing it on your own. 

Active Link Building

The number of backlinks, especially referring domains linking to your website will always have an impact on the referral traffic volume and search engine ranking. One important thing is that you should be building your links from sites that generate traffic from search engines. Below are the best ways to build powerful backlinks that will influence the consistent growth of your blog.

Broken Link Building – find websites linking to competitor pages that no longer exist. Create similar or better content. And then reach out to those sites and see a replacement with links to your website. This guide on broken link building will help you to get a powerful backlink from this strategy. 

Guest Posting – do some research to find high authority websites that accept guest posts in your niche. Check out their content quality guidelines. And then write guest posts with links leading to inner pages on your website as well as the home page. 

Expert Interviews - similar to guest posting, get into Google to find websites that publish expert interviews in the niche. If you have an interesting case study or original research report, this will also be helpful in getting interviewed by other websites. 

Explore Competitor Link Sources - instead of having to depend 100% on guesswork, use Ahrefs to discover the exact types of backlinks leading to your competitor website pages. Explore this source and then reach out to get new backlinks for your site. Do this for 10 – 100 competitors over 3 – 12 months and you'll see the effect on your search engine rankings and traffic volume. 

Expert Roundups - reach out to selected experts in your niche. Get some insightful tips around a topic from them. Use those tips to create content and then share it with those experts. Some of them will reciprocate by linking to the roundup as well as other relevant content pieces on your website. 

Social Media Automation 

This is the fourth strategy for growing traffic to your authority blog. While you are waiting for your search engine optimization strategies to start generating traffic, you can leverage social media automation to start growing your website traffic. Just in case you are wondering what it is, social media automation is about using software tools to promote your content on social media. 

In addition to automated social media content promotion strategies, it is important to make the content on your website shareable by installing the best tools for that. 

Some of the best social media automation tools include -  

• Buffer 
• HootSuite
• Tailwind 
• Social Pilot
• Later 
• Meet Edgar 
• Sendible 
• Sprout Social 

You can use any or some of these tools to automate the constant promotion of your authority site content even when you are sleeping or vacation. Practically, the effect will depend on how well you do it. Meanwhile, you may want to spend a little amount of money to hire experienced freelancers to help with this automation task. 

Final Words

If you observed very well, I have listed out the seven key steps to building a profitable authority niche website. Perhaps, it is not a must to follow all the steps in a particular order. If you've got some experience in any of these areas, you can always skip to the next section. 

The most important is to lay a strong foundation from the start. As you can see, building the main website isn't the only thing that matters. 

The steps needed to be completed before publishing any piece of content are also important. 

Talking about the steps, you have to choose a profitable niche first. The next steps include deciding on the authority site monetization model, doing the product research, selecting low competition keywords and then developing a profitable content strategy before building the site.

All these cannot be complete if you are not generating a consistent inflow of targeted traffic to your site. And that seems to be the final step. 

Finally, don't forget to integrate Google Search Console for SEO and Google Analytics for measuring overall traffic volume. When you have these tools as well as your display ads or affiliate links added properly, you can then stay focused on growing the traffic and revenue as much as you can.