Authority Blogs: Money Makers Or Time Wasters?

Yes, very good point. Very much so - it certainly suits people who prefer marathon approaches to sprint approaches.

I was (terribly naively!! ) hoping to get through the thread without anyone asking this question. :p

In reality, I think the expression has two completely distinct meanings.

First, there's "what Google considers an authority site" (which is the more objective of the two), which I think we can all take as meaning "a content-rich blog/site which ranks very highly for a large number of different keywords and whose outgoing backlinks have great value to the sites linked to. Something like that, anyway.

Secondly, there's the more subjective evaluation of readers/potential customers, about which obviously one could write many paragraphs perhaps not boiling down to all that much more than saying that is subjective and that we all mean slightly different things by it, and take different factors into account in forming our (doubtless partly subconscious) impressions?

I've seen your site twice earlier today (and again now), when reading other threads. And both times (three times, now) not answered properly (or at all, as you may say). This is because I have "too much to say" and not enough time to say it.

Very briefly (and will say more tomorrow or soon, anyway - perhaps in your thread) ...

I like your site. I understand what you're trying to do with it. I think you've got off to a decent start in many ways.

I think it's exactly the right sort of site for this sort of niche. It's not too glossy and professional-looking and that's a compliment, and a very good thing, because it means you don't across as "just another marketer".

However, I think you've also made some fundamental mistakes (easily changed - don't panic!) of which the first and foremost is that you're not building a list. In my opinion, you're not going to sell that ClickBank product (or other products which you'll add to that blog as it grows) from the blog itself. Not in bulk. Not so that you can build it up and make a living from it. As it stands, you can make only occasional sales to a swiftly exhausted market. I'd expect you'll make some, and then they'll gradually tail off and you'll be left with very little.

Here's the thing (and please excuse me, I'm pasting a little bit in here, from earlier posts I've made on this subject) ... however you look at it, selling ClickBank (and similar) products is all about three main things ...

(i) You have to select the products wisely (obviously enough, without getting this part right, it doesn't much matter what else you do);

(ii) You have to pre-sell effectively to well-targeted traffic;

(iii) You have to build a list and form relationships with the people on it, so that they'll buy on the strength of your recommendation. Without doing this, your conversion-rate won't be great.

These things aren't optional: you really do need to do all three of them. There's a huge turnover of affiliate marketers trying other ways and not being successful. The above overview - simplistic and superficial though it is - is representative of those who make a living from it, however we choose to attract our traffic.

The product you're selling, in particular, in my opinion, is one that's going to sell "on the strength of the recommendation". It's not the product itself (or strictly speaking its sales page) or even your blog itself, that will (often) determine your sales: it's more whether you're the person through whom the customer chooses to buy it. (I don't suggest they'll think about it consciously in those terms, of course, but that doesn't make it any less a reality). With apologies, I'm being long-winded about this: all I'm really saying is that in my opinion you can sell this one far more easily by email (if you have a blog like this, through which people opt in to receive the emails) than you can from the blog itself.

There are some other smaller, specific things I think you ought to change. Will say more when I have more time.