Niche Site to Authority Site Roadmap

I thought I'd share a method I've been using with some success now to build niche authority sites. I think most of us are familiar with niche sites. You pick a specific item and build a site around it with the purpose of capturing eyeballs and converting those eyeballs to either product sales or advertising clicks.

One of the common posts you see around hereis: how do I create more content for my niche site? I made a site about tea kettles, but how do I grow that? That can be tough - how much is there to write about tea kettles? Or desk calendars, or charcoal grills, or round dining tables? Its n ot long before it comes off as low quality filler crap. And now Google has publically stated it's mission to filter out low-quality content sites. It's a recipe for a future Google Slap where you wake up to see all your hard work on page 10 or lower.

So what kind of site can you build that would stand the test of time (and Google)? The goal is to build a site that has truely useful information, and that include outbound links (doh!).

For the purpose of this write-up, I'm going to pick an example product and explain how I'd build a niche authority site around it. The product I'm going to choose is Fish Oil. First thing is to register a domain name containing the main keyword - that's still important and probably always will be because of the way people search. It's nice to use a descriptive name that relays the mission of the site. I like to use DB or Database at the end. FishOilDB.com or FishOilDatabase.com.

I use custom software I wrote myself, but you can do it with Wordpress, although it isn't quite as easy. Here's the plan in a nutshell:

Page for each fish oil product out there
Page for each company that makes Fish Oil
Page for each ingredient found in fish oil supplement

All of these pages interlink with each other. The product page links to the company page of the company that makes it, as well as to the ingredients it contains. The company page has links to all the product pages for the products it makes. The ingredient page has links to all the product that contain it.

At the micro level, each product page has:

• Product information: image, description, quantity, dosage information, complete ingredients listing (with links), company that makes it (with link)
• User Ratings: only registered members can add a rating
• Ingredient listing: Complete ingredient information with link(s) to the ingredient(s) page(s)
• Links to stores that sell it along with pricing information: make them affiliate if you can, if not still put them there. I redirect these links through a redirect script
• Links to Reviews/Logs/Other information: nofollow links out to other places on the web that have information about the product
• Comment form for registered users to offer comments. I also use this form to add additional info on the product should it become available

Here's a general structure for a Wordpress version

Categories:

• About
• Products
• Ingredients
• Companies

Pages:

• Product (containing info bulleted above)
• Ingredient (info on that ingredient, including nofollow links to other resources)
• Company (information about the company, including nofollow link out)
• Standard About, Privacy, Contact and Terms assigned to the About category

As I mentioned, I built my own custom software that does all this to make building and maintaining a site easier. It also allows members to sign up for email notifications when new products, ratings, info links, and buy links are added, but again, you can find a Wordpress mod that will probably do the same.

What you end up with is the kind of site Google likes - targeted information with links out to site about the same thing. It might seem counter-rpoductive to have out links that don't generate income, but having these is an important part of looking legit to Google.

Income comes from affiliate sales or ad clicks. If you start generating enough traffic, you can sell ad space.

I know the above is a quick and dirty, so if you have any questions, AMA. If there seems to be some interest, I'll even stand up a sample site so you can see how it works...