7 'Out Of The Box' Optimization Strategies I Use To Build An Authority Site. Share Yours.

I thought it would be cool to have a thread on this forum where we share 'out of the box' tools/tricks that we use when launching a new site. Here are 7 tools that I have in my arsenal to quickly rank sites, get traffic and profit from it.

1. Content has become incredibly important to rank a site organically. The regular $10/500 word articles do not get you ranked as fast as before. I always aim to trigger an emotional response with the content on my site. So I start by examining blogs and newspapers in my niche to see which writers create similar content and target a similar audience as me. I then create a list of 10 - 20 bloggers and journalists that write exceptional content. These bloggers are prime candidates for my writing position. I don't mind paying a good writer $100/article if I only need 2 or 3 sales to make it back. It's worth it in the long run.

2. Claiming the brand/website property. Now that my site is live with great content, I use Brandclaimer.com to quickly outsource the account registration process on the most important sites. I simply don't have time to do this myself. I want Google to instantly know that I'm serious about building a brand.

3. ForumAccounts.com. There are sooo many forums where people talk about the products and services you offer. Do you run an e-commerce shop related to weddings? Do a search for 'wedding + forums' and start building up a reputation on these forums. With the right approach you can have an extra 100 marketing channels and send thousands of qualified leads to your site. On ForumAccounts.com you can outsource the research and (natural) account building process.

4. I created a list of 5 unconventional sites where I post high quality content myself. The sites are: Medium.com, Branch.com (good place to start social discussions), Suite.io, Quora.com and Academia.edu. All sites allow you to link to your own site. But make sure your content and links are of high quality when you publish. Google will love you for it.

5. Muut.com. One of the reasons I never started a forum is because I did not have the patience to set it up. Muut makes it super easy to integrate and manage a community on your own site. Use tip #3 in this thread to start conversations in the community that you set up with Muut. Then link from your niche forum accounts to the threads in your own community. You all know Google loves to rank forum threads.

6. Wikipedia links. The holy grail of links, right? Pay a college or university student to write a 500 word article with lots of (quality) references to proper academic studies. Post this article on a blank page on your site (no navigation bar, no images... nothing). At the bottom of the article post a hyperlink to your homepage. Go back to Wikipedia, find a category related to your site, and find a good place to add the findings in the studies. Then add your site under 'References'. You can also build second tier links this way and start linking to the sites in Tip #4 of this thread.

7. Last but not least: Stampnote (note app) + Serpfox.com (rank tracker). After I complete a task I quickly note down the task I completed. I can exactly see which days I am being lazy and when I'm being super productive. It holds my team and me accountable and I can see if the work we put in is producing results.

All these things combined will help you build an authority site in no-time.

These are my 'out of the box' tools and techniques.

So what about you, what are your 'out of the box' marketing tools?