Do I Make An Authority Site, Micro Niche, or Blog?

In my opinion i would use a wordpress blog, it's bit more simple, and everyone is using wordpress mostly for anything.

I think that is a pretty good strategy myself and one you should pursue. I would also have a "products" page where you can compare all the "heartburn" products on the market and do a review on each one too. The whole purpose of an authority site is to cover the topic from every angle so that when a person arrives on your website with a specific heartburn issue, they need to look no further than your content. Cover all angles, keywords, best products and build that list.

Best of luck.

Edit: I forgot to mention that nowhere in your plan have you mentioned a "squeeze page"
This is a MUST, in my opinion and where you will get people onto your list. A squeeze page converts at such a higher level than a blog or a website.

You can drive traffic to your squeeze page, build your list, and then send them to new blogposts on your authority website where you have "another" chance to make a sale. This is actually a no brainer if you want to be an authority in your niche. You build relationships with your list by sending them to your authority blog, plus, you will always have updated info to send them.

Once again, best of luck.

Don't forget that the presentation of you information, what ever route you decide to take is just as key as the content.

I would stay away from micro niche sites, especially with all the new Google changes.

Authority website or an authority blog is the way to go, it's up to you which one you
choose and the platform to build it on.

Define authority site. What do you think it is?

You are planning to add more content over time, right?


I monetize with affiliate marketing, reselling, selling my own products, selling ad space, sponsored articles, JV offers. I prefer private advertising networks over adSense most of the times.

If you're confident that you can add your own personal voice into it, blog about it.

On my authority sites, I also publish blogs that are written and run by individuals. Let's say I have a health site where I'm publishing "generic" content, and I also host a few blogs on it, where people (staff writers, experts, even my readers) write about the subject. They all have their own unique voices. I also run my own personal blogs on some of the sites.

But again, what do you think an authority site is?

Everyone got their own methods I guess. Test a bit, and you'll find yours.

I have tried creating general knowledge authority sites and they can work, but they are a lot of effort. A more effective solution seems to be more of a product review style site. The advantage here is that there is a definite product to sell that you are getting your self and your website visitors exited about.

Micro sites seem to be coming in to their own not as the main selling platform, but as sites creating inbound links to your main website. As these micro sites will never appear in the top 100 of the search engine results, you can fill them with any gibberish. Natural language gibberish with some of the keywords worked in seems to work best as these cannot be distinguished from regular blogs.
As for the web site designer to use, using a selection of different website designers will give a more natural feel to the inbound links. In fact keeping the micro sites as disassociated as possible will be a good idea. For example definitely do not use the same Adsence account on the different micro sites, better still do not have any adverts on them.

I would suggest an authority site also.. especially given the latest "preferences" being expressed by Google about what makes a "good" site.

Review sites are good also (as mentioned above) but as you want to sell your heartburn product (the example given) reviews of other products may not work.

Wordpress is a quick easy platform for newcomers to use so go with that.

To effectively build an authority site though make sure you have good quality original content. Then get very active on any forums or groups serving your niche - post loads of articles and answers for people to build credibility and traffic.

The SEO route to natural traffic is tougher and tougher and will take time.. traffic from forums is MUCH faster to develop for you.

Authority sites are the way to go, but people have different ideas about what it really is...

Your ideas are pretty good already...

I my mind, you need to offer people various choices of information, written, video, product comparison, etc....and very important...you need to have updated content...

The "freshness factor" seems, from what I've heard, to be more important. So have a section that is about news of your niche, that updates regularly.

Monetization is totally up to you. Of course, building a list is a good idea for sure. Adsense maybe...but just do some testing with adsense, affiliate product, cpa offers on your site.

Their are products that can make all of that, automated news, doing different things for people from different locations, product comparison etc, a lot easier. PM me if you want more info about those.

You're on the right track I think

Amateurs = Fingers in lots of MN sites and busiensses

Pro's = Expert in one field!


Would you pay a top divorce lawyer who also did painting and S.E.O. on the side? What would you think about his "focus" if he told you this?

Personally..... forget AS and Aff marketing. OWN product/Service is the ONLY palce to be.

create a product. and then think which in the list is needed for that product....

Blogging is the way to go. Almost 60% of my leads come from my blog. I use 5 different landing pages to sell my products. With great content you well rank high on search engines. Good luck to everyone.

Authority and try to build your own list so you don't have to rely on Google everytime when another pinguin or panda or maybe the gorilla itself come to you.

Good sharing and info here. Thanks guys!

Sounds pretty good. Make sure you milk your list.

It sounds like a solid strategy, however an opt in box on a corner of a webpage probably wouldn't get you much opt ins. Maybe a dialog box that appears after 20 seconds would work much better?

yeah authority sites take a ton of work to make happen. They are authority sites for a reason. You have to have kick ass content that people like and want to read. In addition, you need to have a ton of content spread out over time. Big authority sites take years. I mean look at webmd, like 17 years old and makes $600 million a year from advertising. Or Huffington Post.

If you create an authority site that is more of a curation site, like Huffington, or Drudge Report etc, then you will gain alot more momentum faster.

I'm working on a few content sites. It takes time to fill it out with content, and then get traffic. But the good thing is, if you stick with it, traffic will grow, and if you leverage it correctly (build a list, promote your own products/affiliate products, sell ad spots, etc.)...you will be creating a real online business, not just a squeeze page. And eventually, as it grows, income will become more stable as long as you get conversions and you don't rely on one source of traffic.

At least this is my goal