Authority Sites vs Micro Niches

by 62 replies
75
In your opinion what is the more successful business model?

Many micro niches or one big authority?

Pros/cons of each?

Thank you
#main internet marketing discussion forum #authority #micro #niches #sites
  • One big authority will take longer to establish but is a better model in my opinion because you can keep expanding with it.
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    • The recent changes at Google will probably make it harder to use spun content for micro sites--and thus relatively more sensible to aspire to "authority" . Does that make sense?
    • Any idea on how long it takes to establish?
  • In my experience:

    If I want to see quick results I go for a micro niche. I really enjoy niche-keyword marketing as it opens up so many additional avenues and markets to me. That said I run two "Authority Sites" and the traffic I get is freaking insane. Which makes more money? The authority site without a doubt. Why? Because it gets more traffic and I can target CPA offers and affiliate products as I see fit.

    My niche sites really only dominate in the fourth quarter. They are mostly physical product affiliate sites and I do well with them for Christmas. I'm not always hitting the nail on the head though. I started in a lingerie sub-niche last August and really expected some big time profits this February.

    You can still smell my singed eye-brows for the crash and burn on that one.

    Authority sites are a lot of work. Daily posting, staying up on your niche's news or happenings. I'm sure there are many who feel that you can just outsource content, but my two sites are my babies and nobody else is touching them.

    It really comes down to personal preference. Nicke-keyword marketing is a great way to learn SEO.
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    • Definetly agree with this: cpa and adsense for big autorithy and physical productts and offers for micro niche
  • We've had both, and are working on creating more of both

    Why stick to just one business model when both can work very well?

    One can work short term, and one takes a little more work and obviously time, but you don't have to stick to just one.
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    • It is best to have your fingers in many pies and include numerous stream of ways of moneitization and traffic attraction.

  • I am seeing great results from building an authority site on a range of topics then having niche sites point to the various categories of the authority site.

    Different class C IP's of course.

    So, if structured correctly, an authority site could put you in high cotton
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    • This makes the most sense to me. It's what I'm doing.
    • Would you mind explaining this to me? I've been wondering if it would be beneficial to link among the relevant sites I have created, but thought there would be some caveats to this - I think you're touching on it but I'm not sure exactly what this means. Thanks!
  • Plain and simple use your strong traffic and converting micro niches to build your authority site.
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    • Definitely more authority type sites as I don't believe it takes that much extra work and also Google seems like they are on the war path against thin affiliate type sites and sites they think is of no value.

      Authority type sites are also safer in my opinion in the long run especially if you rely heavily on Google for traffic.

      Cheers
  • I combine both these methods to make things easier. Fitness niche for example. I have one authority site in the fitness niche. It's pretty general with the topic choice and hits all the fitness and exercise nutrition questions. It keeps up to date with news within the industry.

    I also have a bunch of mini-niche sites that are focused on those small niches in the fitness market. These mini niche sites all are static and have autoresponders of their own. They will also link back to the main authority site in the email autoresponder to add to the daily traffic there.

    The mini sites traffic is from low competition keywords on Google only. The authority site main traffic sources are search engines, articles, videos, social media, and the mini niche sites pointing towards them.

    The products I sell through the mini niche sites are very focused. The products I sell through the authority site are things all people interested in fitness could use. Anyone who buys from the mini-niche sale funnel will also be a very relevant customer to the authority site's products.

    I like to call it my industry take over system. Essentially, you are creating one giant authority network of websites all focused on one main topic, but using multiple locations to make it work.

    Travis

    EDIT: I see Craig is using very similar system above...definitely use the different class c IPs
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    • I dig your system! Are you selling your own products or mainly affiliate info products on these sites?

      Cheers
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    • This is the exact same method i use, the great thing about having loads of micro-niche sites around the authority site is it makes it so much easyier to go after a new keyword. Not to mention the extra income you earn through all those mini sites.
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  • You can also have an authority website even if it is a super-micro niche.
  • The major benefit of building a large site over the smaller 'micro sites' is the benefit you get from having an aged site with aged backlinks pointing to a wide range of internal pages. This gives numerous benefits. The mains ones are:

    Old content continues to rise up the SERPs without the need to continually build new backlinks to that specific page. Building links to other pages (with a good internal link policy) will help boost these existing pages. The more pages you add and the more links across the domain, the larger the rise.

    New content gets ranked very fast and comes with an initital boost that content on a brand new site lacks. You can make the most of your new content by placing it on an established domain. This makes your domain ideal for targeting industry news that is 'of the moment'. You can test new content fast or maybe make part of your traffic generation specific to the latest news.

    Long tails. You will get traffic from a lot of searches that the keyword tools won't reveal. This can make up a large portion of your organic traffic.

    The risk is lowered. Your traffic will become a lot more stable on a site that is targetting a wide range of keywords. A keyword could drop right out of the index and you will barely notices. This makes you less consicous of rankings and more focused on creating new content or improving your conversions.

    Wider scope for monetisation and branding. A micro site can be very hard to brand or get recognised as an authority. You are often only worried about 1 type of monetisation method and if that doesn't work out it can be hard to adapt.

    Return visitors. It is also hard to get return visitors to a 5 page site. They have already seen it all. If you don't sell them on the first visit then it can become hard to get them back again. You can however create a loyal readerbase if your content is useful, exciting and interesting. This can lead to social traffic as well.

    Micro-sites CAN be great for list building though to feed your authority site even more traffic. They can also be used really well for social media and viral marketing campaigns - once again to feed the larger site.

    A handful of larger sites is a lot easier to manage. I would argue they are a lot more efficient and productive and allow you to be more focused.

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    • Wow--great post Troy. I keep looking for excuses not to worry about "gaming" the system and to just go all-out on creating good content--establishing backlinks, etc.

      I'm attracted to a strategy that I've seen outlined in other places (and echoed on this thread) wherein you use your personal time to build the "authority" site and try to outsource feeder sub-niche sites.

      If I can decide on the keywords for my main domain, I will get started on this strategy myself

      polrbearz

      P.S. Recent actions by Google reinforce your point, I think.
    • Wonderful information Troy.
  • Simple Answer IMO is Do Both Start with Micro, end up with Authority at the end link up etc.

    Good LuCK !

    -EA
  • I agree with Travis. I have a number of major "hub" sites that I have been building up and these are always the better long-term business model though they take time to get going. Minisites can achieve great rankings for low-competition keywords really quickly so are better for fast results. However if you're really going to leverage your business then combining the two can work well.

    You can create an authority site and numerous satelite minisites around that same theme. In that way, correctly targeted, you can quickly build up a single list from all of those traffic sources meaning you only need to write one free ebook to give away, one autoresponder series etc.

    All the best,
    Richard
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    • A agree that its best to go with both. Micro sites can then be used to build link power toward an authority site. Authority sites take a lot of work and that is the clue, that it takes a long time to build, and you need time with google to gradually build reputation and trust. I do both.
  • Me too is starting to build authority sites. been with niche sites for more than 2 years with good success but I think authority sites works best. The potential expansion is limitless..
  • It seems the consensus is a combination and I would have to agree. If it had to be one or the other I would go with micro sites though. Putting everything into one site can be disastrous if it fails for any reason. Just like the stock market diversification is the key. Outside of theory crafting you do not have to pick one or the other so why not get the benefits of both?
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    • After a few years of "trying" everything, which means chasing every new shiny ball and thus confusing activity with building a true business, I am really going to take some time and write out a business plan to create a real and sustainable business.

      For me, that means to focus on a niche that I am passionate about (and I don't mean "yellow birdcages") and where I can bring my expertise to truely help people. Sometimes we spend so much effort in learning every new seo, backlinking trick, etc. that we forget that the best business model is to become an obvious expert on a topic that people are craving for solutions.

      With this approach I think you can build an authority site which is branded, and personalized, and then use the more generic niche sites by topic to drive traffic to your authority site. Niche site traffic is created by the more traditional niche keyword / seo method and the authority site is based on you becoming an expert, being personally attached and visible and reaching out using every social media tool available to become well known and driving people to your site because they crave more of what you have!

      Just a thought.

      i did buy a product called firestorm seo by sean donahue that described this approach of having say 10 niche sites, on different ip addresses, each focused on one topic of your authority site and then each site can certainly be a profit center but also can be linked to the authority site.
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    • Banned
      I don't know, I've made really good money with Micro-Niche sites over the years but I think they actually ended up costing me MORE money. I ended up dividing up resources that would normally go towards promoting my money sites.

      I know people say things like "Well, I'll just outsource these sites and they'll take care of themselves", but very few can actually do it effectively.

      I just think your income will be MUCH larger if you focus 100% on building one site.
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  • A bigger authority website is better in my opinion, because it takes time to build and you immediately looks like one of the go-to-guys in your niche. Using this business model vs the micro niche business model will potentially make you long time wealth and not just some short time income, as micro niches will.

    They both work if done correctly, though. It's just that I think you look more professionaly if you've built a authority website vs setting up a one page blog with Wordpress.

    Another great advantage of an authority website is that you can constantly build on it and expand as well as adapt to the changes in your niche. As everything else in this world, the Internet is always in some kind of change and what works today can be gone one week from now.

    Authority website is the winner for me.

    Thanks for reading,
    Joachim
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  • I've always had WAY better results focusing on one or two authority sites than juggling with a myriad of small sites at the same time.
  • Don't see why people keep saying Google is on the war path against thin sites, No, that is not the issue. Google is on the war path against crap content, and websites with the intention to just make money without the end user in mind.

    If I write the 'BEST' content on a blog specifically made for say on one type of serve in tennis, but do so in great detail to the point the user is gaining a lot from the content, who's to say it deserves to be put into the spam pile?

    That small thin site has in essence completed its purpose and helped the user in providing him/her with what they were specifically looking for.

    To end, both work.

    They both also have long term and short term plans, only the micro-niche model is geared more towards the short term. You can how ever with a proactive approach keep your thin sites highly ranked, visible and promoted to an extent, therefore it can go into the long term.

    They are quicker to do, easier to keep up with and require less work. But monetary gains aren't always greater.

    And they can still be classed an authority in that sub-niche. Where as a huge site, takes far more work, usually use a harder keyword on their main page, and target several to hundreds of keywords. Therefore taking longer, but being more proffitable in the long run.

    They also provide you with more fulfilment, and you grow as it grows. Making bigger sites is more fun, especially if its something you love. Making thin sites is tedious and doesn't provide much fulfilment past its completion other than the monetary gains.

    There are, of course, exceptions.

    Hope that helps
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    • A large site is just a lot of small sites under the 1 domain. They take no longer and no extra work to get to the same stage as a micro site and they don't take any longer to rank. In the medium to long term they are actually quicker to rank new content with less off-site promotion.

      Your example for a micro-site is a good one but the same content could be put on a larger site about tennis and get the same results.

      Micro sites are ideal for branding and trying different campaigns without having to worry about the larger site clouding the purpose of the microsite. They are perfect for affiliate marketing and specific product. If I had a product about the tennis serve then a micro site is perfect. BUT you could also promote that tennis product on a larger site - the marketing approach would be different though and conversions likely to be lower.

      I just don't believe they produce faster results in the short term as they both start with just 1 page.
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  • well....like others I have had a hard time with too many sites...I ended up with two big sites and one was a hit and the other a miss. I really lucked up on the hit because of I didn't do proper keyword research and the like...

    If I had to do it over again I would probably start 3 or 4 smaller sites and as they got successful build on them...as they fail drop them. All of your eggs in one basket is really scary...
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    • Eventually you want to have both.

      In one of our niches we started micro, built out additional micro sites and then created a massive amount of content that we turned into an authority site which feeds the micro sites.

      In another niche, we started out with authority through a year or so of writing, video creation, blogging, etc...and actually let the authority site guide us to the micro's that were important which led to affiliate sales in the beginning followed later by a combination of e-commerce sites and info product micro niche sites.

      Jeff
  • How would you define Authority Sites and Micro Niche Sites? What are the difference? Anyone willing to explain? :confused:
  • No it hasn't.

    I just don't agree with you.
  • Before you jump to either way, this is what I will consider

    1) Passion - Am I developing something that I love so much that I will update it even if I do not see the result yet

    2)Focus - Am I willing to put all of my effort to make it work?

    3)Resources - What am I willing to give up to made this work?

    If you have answers to the above question, then it is time to move on
  • I am running 2 new authority sites and around 12 microniche sites. One of my authority sites actually was a former niche site. Because the niche is too big, I converted it into an authority site. The traffic is insane and increasing in faster speed. Authority sites hands down. 10 niche sites is hard to work than 1 authority site I think.
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  • I like micro niches because it doesn't take much time to build them and see results, but authority sites are also great for generating hoards of traffic with immense amount of keyword phrases
  • 1 Big Authority site without ay doubt at all. Mini-Sites usually leverage "loop-holes", and loopholes won't be around forever. A high quality authority site on the other hand could be.
  • going with micro niches is much better. Because creating one big authority is hard, and specially if the market is filled by another big authority... Go with the micro niches!
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    • If you want to build a business for longer than a few months, a big authority site is the way to go.

      Promoting a site and getting good SEO rankings has been getting more complicated over time.

      3 to 5 years from now it will be almost impossible to get smaller niche sites to rank, or to get attention for them in the market place or in social media.

      2 reasons:
      - the number of factors that are needed for ranking and attention are increasing. it won't be manageable for a large array of small sites.
      - those who built authority sites will have advantages and increasing marketing power, leaving the smaller competition in the dust.

      Consider the effort to build and promote 30 niche sites, and then think what you could achieve if you consistently put the same effort into 1 site.
  • does anyone know of a good expert for niche (adsense) sites?
  • [DELETED]
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    • I think the scary thing to me about authority sites is if the site gets hit with some kind of penalty or algo shift, the whole thing can go down. I guess that is the benefit of the hybrid method mentioned earlier, plus generating traffic from non-search engine methods. That being said, I am heading toward the authority model (with a few supporting niche sites) because it feels like a more solid base for my business.
  • It seems like more and more internet marketers these days are moving towards building authority sites. It's probably due to Google's recent changes in their algorithm.
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    • I like to develop sites that are somewhere in the middle - 10 good pages of tightly themed content that make around $100-$200 a month. These sorts of sites can stand as is or be built out into authority niches if the market demand is there.

      Sometimes though, certain subjects do not need more than 5-10 pages.
  • I started off with several micro niche sites and did fairly well with them. I then started to do authority sites and it is more work. But the rewards seem to be much better for me on it.
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    • Its funny because most of my micro-niche blogs end up being Authority Blogs through time. Its my style and not for everyone !!
  • Managing Micro sites is a completely different business model compared to one big authority site... Not for the long term unless you are passionate about the topics you build your site upon (the following question is the underline....)

    How can you and I possibly make money online, if we can't keep up with all the new stuff? And, not only that ... how do we know who to believe ... what's real ... and what's just the latest passing fad?

    Building up one single authority site is much more strategic long term... why? its basically putting all your eggs on just this one basket... making it work no matter what it takes...

    How successful can your micro sites be ? if they are not your passion...
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