In my last post in this series we discussed How to Start Choosing Your Niche and looked at how you need to think in order to come up with niche topics about which, not only can you write with authority, but how you can also keep writing over a long period of time. Now we are going to look at how you can establish yourself as an authority in your niche.
(Note: By “Authority” I mean not only with your target audience, but also with Google and the other search Engines.)
And to do this you need to take your time! No way can you establish yourself as an authority in your niche over a few days or weeks.
Think about it this way. OK so you may genuinely be an authority on a topic. But unless members of your target audience know you personally, then no one is going to be aware that you DO actually know what you are talking about.
You have to build a following. You have to show people that they can trust you. No one is going to accept recommendations unless they fully believe what you are saying.
So how do you get yourself known?
This is where Networking comes in and by Networking I don’t mean dropping your links all over the place. I mean engaging with your potential audience, having conversations with them and only leaving a link when it is genuinely relevant, NOT whenever you make a comment.
I see people doing this in forums all the time, they join in a thread and then they drop a link to their own stuff and make it look as though they are only in the conversation because they want to drop a link. It is a huge turn-off!
If you are seen as a person who is genuinely trying to help someone, without regard to what might be in it for you, then you are going to get noticed. And then when you DO leave a link, that will get noticed too.
Somehow you have to find a way to stand out from the crowd. You have to be different to everyone else who is publishing content and trying to make sales from similar products to you. And sometimes less is more!
Who are you more likely to listen to? The Niche Marketer who constantly seems to yell:
“Buy, buy, buy from ME”?
Or the marketer who seems genuinely interested in passing on help and tips to help you solve your problem as well as offering a product?
Places I use to network include:
Twitter
Forums
Facebook
However, I also know that Bev Owens has started using Google+ to great effect and as a result has made good connections with people who are interested in her Native American Totems and Old West Legends blogs.
And while you are networking, you should also be publishing quality content to build the authority of your site in the eyes of Google. If Google can see that you are regularly updating your site with unique content that people are searching for, then you will rank higher in the search returns and get more traffic.
Eventually networking will become less important because Google will do your promotion for you and that is a great place to be.
Networking won’t make you successful overnight. But put the time in at the beginning and then the time you need to spend will reduce as time goes on.
About AJ
Relating building authority to old fashioned word of mouth advertising is one way of looking at it. Word of mouth advertising carries with it the trust factor of the person you heard the info from. Networking is one way to build trust, and therefore is almost as good as word of mouth. Authority is another way. Trust is the main factor that you need to build. That takes time.