photo credit: Matti Mattila

And no, I am not referring to Technorati Authority, or the number of links/backlinks/trackbacks your blog has received compared to other blogs.  This is a whole different spectrum - the ability to become an authoritarian in your blog niche.

By Definition, What Does “Authority” Mean?

Definition Sources

There are several different meanings, with the ones relative to this topic defined as:

• the power or right to give orders or make decisions
• persons/people who exercise control over others
• an expert whose views are taken as definitive
• belief in yourself and your abilities
• an authoritative written work

Clearly, I have eliminated a few of the results, using ones that relate more to the topic being mentioned.  Each of these terms can correlate with blog authority, while the third in the list most correctly relates to blogging, or being an “expert.”

For the sake of the argument and for the rest of the post, we’ll summarize the definitions and use “power” and “expert.”

Building An Accurate Definition Built on Accepted Knowledge

You’ve started a new blog, have no daily visitors, besides the ones received through spiders and web crawlers, and you have little new content.  No planning of any kind has been completed prior to paying for the domain and hosting.  

While this may not be the best place to start, it is where many begin their blogging “career” and the whole scenario can change in less than a year or two.  Not an entirely long period of time when you look at the whole realm of the scene, but hundreds of hours of work are ahead of the person/people who are in this particular scenario.  

The ideal predicament to be in at this point would be educated in either a single or multiple fields; the second option the more desirable situation.  Using this knowledge, preferably in both the web and separate online/offline field, you could quickly use your knowledge to leverage visitors to your site.  Otherwise, there will need to be a lot of learning to do in the field that you have interest in, so it’ll take the utmost time and devotion to achieve this.  

Building up your name, blog, or company to this level of success and attribution takes quite a bit of time, and by the time you feel you have reached this level, the other group of people already at this level are even stronger.

How to Become An Authority

If you want to become known as an authority, you can’t continue doing something that isn’t getting you ahead.  Try a few of these methods to launch your blog to success.

• Speak with Authority - People that want to be an authority on a subject must exhibit that they know what they are talking about.  The main reason for this?  Visitors to your blog must be drilled with the idea that you “know your stuff,” so they will subscribe and likely regard you as an authority until you prove otherwise.  Be sure that your content is top-notch without any errors or grammatical mistakes.
• Don’t Assimilate Your Readers - Readers absolutely despise people who run blogs and don’t answer their comments, emails, and simply disrespect them.  If you don’t have the time to manage your email and comments effectively, consider outsourcing support to another group of people that can do the job right.  In addition, don’t fill every part of your blog with advertisements - popups, keyword-stuffed text to the point that it is noticeable, and Google AdSense ads in the header, within posts, in the sidebar, footer, and in your feeds.
• Communicate with Everyone - Technical jargon for commonplace should be avoided at all cost.  Simplify your content so nearly everyone can read and understand it.  If that means adding a disambiguation of each word, or other meanings/terms for the word, do so.  It’ll allow readers of both a higher knowledge level of the subject and those of a lower level understand what you are trying to explain, without needing to divert from your content to look up the meaning of a particular word.
• Create a One-Stop Website for Research - Websites can generally be classified into two categories: those that provide something in high demand and those that provide timeless knowledge and research.  Become experienced in what you are writing about, and don’t limit the ideas and thoughts that you want to share with visitors.  Cover as wide a spectrum of your niche as possible, exploring into new areas for additional sources of post ideas.
• Defy Odds - Bloggers that have started out with nothing - no experience and no prior knowledge - and who then become world-renowned for what they have done, defying the perspective held by many people, can be one of the best accomplishments that many want to be attributed to.  Create something that no one else has ventured to do, and promote that differently than everyone else.  Success only comes when you experiment and think outside of the box that you have formed.  Break apart from what is accepted of you.
• Cut No Corners - Don’t follow the path of many other bloggers. Spend the five to ten dollars that it costs to register a domain, and the one hundred or so it costs to host your site on a quality hosting plan - many come with a free domain as long as you register it with them and continue using their service.  The best advice that many other bloggers and I now give is to begin in this way.  You can still use Blogger, TypePad, and Movable Type, or nearly any other service, then register a domain to redirect from your .blogservice.com sub-domain.  In the end, the cost of hosting and the domain will be minimal to the advertising opportunities and readership that is gained using your own domain.
• Timing, Timing, Timing - Launching a blog may not have been on your mind a few years ago, but now that many people can attribute blogging as a legitimate job, more people jump on the bandwagon each day.  There is no reason that you couldn’t have been there in the forefront, making dramatic changes to the way people think, you likely chose not to do so or didn’t perform the right steps to get yourself there.
• Inform Readers on News Affecting Them - Authority bloggers are often first to break news (relative to other blogs) on important issues that affect the targeted audience of their blog.  It isn’t simply the fact that they were able to spot and decipher the important news from the lackluster, but they are also able to eliminate the content that doesn’t concern their readers.  Many of the stories that they find are delivered straight to their inbox from networking contacts or directly to their feed reader, making it easier for them to get the word out on new startups, services, and events.
• Be a Networker and Someone that Puts Visitors First - Reader satisfaction is an important factor when expanding and building your blog.  If you don’t listen to readers and answer any questions that visitors have - through the comments area or through you email, these visitors will think that you have objectives other than developing a site built for your visitors.  Great networkers have thousands of contacts, which are useful for starting new sites, launching services, and sharing recently posted content.

Additional Tips to Follow

Building authority can be a daunting task for many people that are just starting out.  Here are a few additional, smaller tips to help you optimize your blog so visitors regard you as a leader in your niche.

• Add Images To Posts - When images are added to complement your content, it adds a visual appeal that can’t be beat when it comes to the level of visitors that convert into subscribers.  A higher subscriber count, as many have found, leads many others to follow suit, subscribing to your blog simply because others have.  Sex doesn’t sell when it comes to being a professional blogger and gaining respect in your niche.
• Empower Your Blog Design to Work for Your Content - A blog design says a lot about the type of blog you run.  Find a theme that works for both you, your personality, and your topic/niche.  Unless you have a real reason to use the default theme, find a unique layout, tweak another one, or hire someone to create one for you.
• Navigation - The Internet isn’t an easy place to navigate for some.  Simplify your menus, content structure, tags, and categories, so readers are offered a broad spectrum, instead of having to search (albeit not in alphabetical order) thousands of tags and categories.  The most organized sites limit the number of categories and tags they use to <20 categories and <80/100 tags.  On this blog, I have found it much easier to navigate and manage the tags, categories, and posts using a highly organized structure that allows any visitor to find exactly what they may be looking for.
• Write World-Class Copy - Take the time to experiment with several different post titles.  You can have great content, but if your headlines don’t grab their attention, visitors won’t read any more than your blog title.  In a sense, the way you write your post titles throughout your blog can either make or break your success.  
• Format Your Posts Appropriately - In the process of formatting your posts, add headings, blockquotes, use bold and italic text, and make it all easy to read for both visitors and subscribers.  Add ordered and unordered lists where appropriate.
• Advertising - It is only natural that most people want something in return for the work put into their blog, whether in the form of comments, traffic, or in most cases - money.  You have to be willing to accept that you will not make money from day one.  Judge your traffic levels, set goals, and add advertisements when you have reached a certain amount of daily visitors, and have a minimum of a hundred or more posts.
• Post Often and Consistently - It goes without saying blogs that don’t update often are generally regarded as owned by people that can’t manage their time effectively and make time to post a few short articles each week.  Unless you have multiple writers for your blog, you should aim for at least one post a week, if not more.  Daily posting is not always necessary to achieve the status of authority blogger.
• Don’t be Timid/Shy/Nervous - People that don’t take risks aren’t the ones that succeed at what they need to accomplish.  If you are afraid to connect with other people, you won’t be able to grow your network, ideas, and ultimately your gains will be limited.  Venture down avenues that you haven’t personally explored before, and you can find what works for you.
• Link, Direct, and Follow - With more than a trillion different individual web pages on the web, it can be impossible for others to find your tiny blog unless you link to larger, higher authority sites, write reviews of other sites/services (relative to your blog), and high quality, human-edited directories.  Eventually, these bloggers will visit your blog, link back to you, or even mention you in a post.
• Show Others What You Can Do - Guest post, comment, and simply share your knowledge through multiple forms of media - ebooks, resources, and newsletters to continue spreading word about the content that you are able to produce.  It wont’ take long before the people are using these resources to build their own blog.

Why Everyone Can’t Be an Authority

New opportunities and niches are created everyday.  While many of these aren’t quite as popular as the ones that have been developed over time, they are certainly there.  Discovering a category in one of these “sub-niches” can be quite a challenge, as they are often so specific that there isn’t an audience wide enough to target content for.  Whens the Internet was “new” according to most people ten to fifteen years ago, these niches were forming, being exploited, and now the remaining people that are often regarded as “authorities” in their niche are living successfully.

Even though many of the people that started these sites cashed out a long time ago, the remaining people are now persistent in trying to continue staying where they are and undermining the bloggers (or anyone, for that matter) who are trying to “compete” against them.  

A hundred percent of people aren’t able to get to the same level as someone else, unless they have the same level of knowledge, background, determination, mindset, and hundreds of other qualities that make these people what they are - authorities.

The Final Thoughts

It’s hard to judge your success when you have just recently launched a blog, but the best advice that anyone can give is to continuously experiment and adapt knowledge that has become standard from the “authorities.”  However, not everything these bloggers throw your way will help you grow your small blog.  You can’t simply expect to be regarded as an authority after writing a few great posts, but after at least a year of hard work and dedication.  At this point, you can relish in the success that you have attained to date, then continue optimizing your blog until you sit with the “big guys.”

photo credit: `?ccdoh1?

Much like people who favor particular television shows, newspapers, magazines, or even websites, your subscribers essentially drive you to create new content, keep the blog running by commenting, and potentially beget a small revenue stream for other projects or for other purposes.  When blogging wasn’t recognized as a career, instead as a hobby, subscribers meant little to bloggers besides providing feedback on their posts and similar experiences that they may have faced.  Today, with the advent of paid content (advertising and sponsorships), the amount of subscribers that you have is largely indicative of the content and/or services that your provide on your blog.  In recent months, blogs sold were appraised based significantly on the number of subscribers the blog had and how valuable they are to the buyer, with some estimates as high as $30/subscriber.

If you’re concerned with your subscriber count, you likely try your hardest to produce the highest quality content each day and invest time into replying to comments that visitors have placed on your site, not to mention please the needs of people who request information.  Letting the subscribers decide how to run your blog, on the other hand, may not be the right course of action, as it is your blog. 

Following the course of this post, there are certain traits that visitors look for in each and every blog, and when you do everything wrong, you’ll likely leave them grasping for something more, something that you can’t fulfill.

The wrath of the subscriber vs. publisher (or traits exhibited by blog owners affecting visitors and subscribers):

1. Provide false numbers representing your actual subscriber count.  This leads visitors to think that you have more subscribers, and thus, better content.  After subscribing, they realize that there isn’t many quality traits about your blog.
2. Transfer your feed to different addresses then asking them to re-subscribe.  It simply doesn’t work.  Settle on a single feed address (preferably with FeedBurner), then stick with it.
3. Add dozens of links to the feed - links from FeedFlare, advertisements, links/images from your blog (more social bookmarking) and other useless “content” that should be kept out of a relatively minimalist area.
4. A lack of updates for a link time, then a sudden increase (three or more one day, then none for a few days, then three another day).  It provides readers the sense that they can’t prepare posts ahead of time or effectively manage time to create a semi-updated website.
5. Promising that he or she will return, only to leave the blog abandoned for three months, then to return again for one post.
6. Leaving promises in the form of new content or add-ons/features to the blog.
7. Providing too much in the form of post updates throughout the day.  Creating a series of relatively short posts and firing them off at spontaneous moments throughout the day can leave subscribers quickly wondering whether you can manage your post frequency - a balance between length and content/uniqueness.
8. Frequently changing the feed type - full or abridged feeds.  Generally, I prefer reading full feeds in my RSS reader, however, I don’t mind reading partial feeds should the site provide shorter content posts/excerpts.
9. Constantly update their readers on their personal life (unless it is, of course a personal blog).  Stick to the purpose of the blog 95% of the time, or readers will lose interest.  
10. Running contests over 80% of the blog’s lifespan.  Contests can be useful, especially for new blogs to get the word out about their blog and build some links/readers/traffic, however continuously being updated by contest stats can be mind boggling on the end of the reader.
11. Format content correctly before it enters the feed.  In other words, don’t format the post so images and text aren’t scrambled and not aligned properly.
12. Lying to your readers.
13. Telling your readers that you will be stepping down/away from the blog for some time.
14. Offering something to readers only to never distribute it to them.
15. Reproduce (or begin reproducing) content from various sources around the web illegally (scraping).
16. Start acting as though you are the most important person as you (may be) more successful than your readers.
17. Dramatically change your posting schedule/style/topic - readers subscribed to get what they saw on the blog for a particular purpose, didn’t they?
18. Distract from the original purpose of the blog.
19. Not providing a feed at all.
20. Quickly increase ads and useless content on both the blog and feed.
21. Content that is all “paid” - sponsored PayPerPosts or full of spam links.
22. Solely covering news stories in fields that are unrelated to the niche of the blog.
23. Leaving a copy of a post that is barely dissectible: content that hasn’t been proofread for two minutes and full of grammar and spelling mistakes.
24. Incorporating tags and category links into the content, unless feedback has indicated that it would be a beneficial addition to the site.
25. Inappropriately dividing content using the more tag for shorter posts.
26. Excessively using images that aren’t associated with the post content.

Conclusion

The list above represents just a fraction of the ways that people may annoy their blog readers, however the list doesn’t end there.  On an ending note, don’t try to do any of these tactics to get new subscribers - you’ll be on the course of losing subscribers if you excessively do any of these.

For many, the transition to blogging on multiple blogs from a single blog can be a difficult one, however it doesn’t have to become stressful.  The key aspect to remember is that both quantity and quality should be evenly distributed between the sites, so that if you decide to link to the new site form your old blog, there won’t be a huge transition for readers who may want to subscribe to the new blog.

First off, be sure that you will have the time needed to post on both blogs on a regular schedule.  Don’t neglect a blog unless you know that it is heading down the path of failure.  You can adopt a strategy of posting every other day on one blog and switch to full-time posting on the other, if it suits your schedule/needs.

Secondly, keep everything organized.  This may not necessarily mean plugins or themes integrated on the front end or back end, but how you style posts.  If you are able to maintain a similar style on all your sites, it will be easier to replicate the results or tweak them to improve performance on these sites.  Along the same lines, if you have related concepts, you can include them as sub domains of your main blog, which reduces the cost and time needed to completely start a new blog up from scratch.

Set up different email accounts for each blog, typically beginning with a “contact” and “advertising” email for each domain added.

Stick with your main marketing and growth goals.  If you stray from them, you’ll find yourself less determined to continue working on your dream goals.

Finally, a line to remember: don’t let anything get in your way of your personal goals.

Other key factors involved when managing multiple blogs:

• There may be a point that you realize that one blog will not last and isn’t worth continuing.  From this experience, you’ll learn how to cope with failure and (hopefully) grow from that mistake.
• Don’t drop a blog simply because you want to start another one.  You should have a well-developed and established site before you even think about starting another blog.
• Having more than one blog increases the amount of time that you need to spend working on them - either creating content or promoting - on a daily basis.  There are no “free rides” in the blogging industry.
• Spreading content across more than one blog can help you become more productive and determined to accomplish more, plus it helps increase revenue if you are looking to do so.
• Multiple blogs will allow you to express yourself in more ways, since your hobbies/likes aren’t confined to one blog.

When you think about the leaders in the blogosphere, they have effectively captivated their reader group and have allowed other bloggers to take in the skills and “secrets” they have already learned, in hopes that they grow their own experience (and profits) from doing so.  Even if you don’t agree with their systems, the platform that they are creating has a huge influence on the way others and yourself blog.  

The platform, or combination of services, features, posts, or inspiration that the bloggers convey to readers are the leading characteristics of creating a “power” blog.  When readers visit your blog, can they see that you offer services beyond blog posts - forums, directories, e-books, consulting/reviewing, a job board, and so on?  Or, are they greeted with a cut-and-dried blog?  

Each day you blog, prepare a method for tackling the problem of keeping visitors on your site and maintaining your readership.  If at all possible, invest some money into “premium” plugins, site additions, or other types of services available which will allow your readers to take more away from your blog.

Create a sidebar area that showcases the services you offer or add a few to the header navigation bar.  The main purpose of this is to place your services (whether paid or free) in front of new and demanding visitors.  

Getting back to the idea of a platform, essentially what you are trying to achieve is building a community within your site that will allow others to adapt your ideas and methods on their own blog.  Although this notion may appear like copying or reproducing someone else’s thoughts and work, it is done everyday, or there wouldn’t be any successful people left in the world.

Your “Platform” Will:

• Show others that you are devoted and willing to spend time creating content that was primarily designed to help readers (and not solely benefit you).
• Allow others to partake in these services and adapt them to fit their own needs/incorporate them on their own blog.
• Help connect your blog and services as an internal network of services.

Healthy competition and analyzing who your competition is will greatly impact the success of your blog. Beginning with the ability to see what others in your niche are blogging about to the ways they are successfully building their blog will enable you to develop a strategy if you have no idea where to begin.

First, figure out what you’re blogging about. If you blog about random life events, your competition will be less defined than someone blogging about a specific topic, like web design. Place your blog first into a large category then into a few subcategories, which will help you later when it comes time to define your competition.

Secondly, determine your target audience. Indulge in your subscriber and traffic information, from the referred sites to how long visitors stay. You’ll find that the amount of time visitors say and their traffic patterns also helps to define what your blog habits and patterns are.

Once you have gathered a little background information on your blog, begin by using some keyword searches for the niche categories you have defined your blog as, and include “blog” if you find results are primarily traditional websites. Next, use blog directories such as Technorati to effectively analyze where you stand amongst your competition. Directories like these have been set up to help, not hinder your growth. Make the most of any category or organization system the service may provide to compare your blog to the others.

Finally, track the bloggers who are being talked about the most. What type of content and services are they providing to their readers that you aren’t?

While these three tips to discovering your competition are general, you can use your own method for deploying a new marketing strategy that fits your blog.

When thinking about the reasons why your blog can’t compete with the “big guys”, try innovating, re-strategizing, and providing more. Simple changes to your blog such as posting frequency will permit much faster growth. It’s easy for others to detect when you are following a strategy that is directly similar to another blog.

Think about all the ways you can benefit simply by developing a strategy that will allow you to compete with blogs much larger than yours.

Patent Troll Tracker, a blog begun last May by Cisco employee Rick Frankel, in which he discusses various work-related topics such as patents and intellectual property, as well as Cisco-related legal matters. The problem (and possible litigation) arose when he revealed his identity on February 23, 2008. His affiliation with Cisco led
two Texas patent attorneys - T. John Ward, Jr. and Eric Albritton to file defamation actions in state court against both Cisco and Frankel.

On his blog, he wrote a post (or series of posts) which tarnished the company of their good names and degraded a patent case one of their clients had filed against Cisco.

Cisco’s current blogging policy states that common sense should be a prevailing factor in employees’ blogs and that it allows blogging, but has reorganized their policy, stating that if you write about the company’s business or any information regarding the company which could potentially offend another party, you must not conceal your identity and that you are posting on the stance of your own views and not those of Cisco.

In terms of other company blogging policies, Sun Microsystems’ policy states that blogs should not contain a large amount of information that wouldn’t normally be seen by the public, and doesn’t require bloggers to include the fact taht they work for Sun.

Google and Yahoo have policies that do not require an employee to include their affiliation with the company, but once again, that they are advised not to post non-public information.

Dell and IBM have stricter policies, with Dell’s policy stating that they disclose their affiliation with the company whenever “they do any sort of blogging, social networking, Wikipedia entry-editing, or other online activities related to or on behalf of the company”.

After suing Cisco, the Troll Tracker blog was set to “invite only”, but will continue, and the Cisco blogging policy was changed in an announcement on their official blog. The new policy affects all 63,000 employees.

The new policy and statement released is as follows:

The company believes strongly in employees’ right to freedom of expression, online and elsewhere. At the same time, we expect our employees, when commenting on matters related to Cisco’s business, to exercise that freedom in a manner consistent with Cisco’s corporate values of transparency and integrity. Therefore, we have evolved our employee blogging policy to expressly address:

· blogging anonymously about issues employees have responsibilities for at Cisco; and
· passing on to third parties “anonymous” blog postings of any kind that employees know were written by someone at Cisco.

“If you comment on any aspect of the company’s business or any policy issue the company is involved in where you have responsibility for Cisco’s engagement, you must clearly identify yourself as a Cisco employee in your postings or blog site(s) and include a disclaimer that the views are your own and not those of Cisco. In addition, Cisco employees should not circulate postings that they know are written by other employees without informing the recipient that the source was within Cisco.”

Furthermore, the discussion continues as to whether corporations should allow bloggers to anonymously post about their work-related experiences and work/personal information. This lawsuit will lead to many companies either changing their policies or creating them, if they did not have one before.

Please be aware of your company’s blogging policy and use your best judgement when posting your views, whether you are outspoken, using your real name and affiliations with the company or companies involved, or posting anonymously, revealing critical information that shouldn’t be shared.

[via CNET]

Because so many of the top bloggers will be posting about this, it creates a ton of link bait for the creator. Creating a video like this (fairly easy to create using a ‘put your face in a holiday JibJab movie’) is one of the quickest ways, as long as you’re first and at the right time, to create a decent stream of new traffic to your blog. 

Forbes released their second annual celebrity personalities - many consisting of bloggers. Since last year, nearly half of the online celebrities rated in the inaugural edition failed to place on the list this year. The lucky 25 were chosen from a collection of 200 and then ranked on their popularity in six categories. Forbes defines a ‘Web Celeb’ as ‘a person famous primarily for creating or appearing in Internet-based content, and for being highly recognizable to a Web-based audience’.

The Six Categories:

1. Google - News and People searches and adaptations of Google search.
2. Alexa traffic rank of their home page.
3. Technorati rank of their primary web site or blog.
4. TV/radio mentions and press clips compiled from Factiva.
5. Bonus points were awarded to those publishing their own videoblog or podcast.

Notable Web Celebs from the blogosphere included Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing, and Frank Warren of Post Secret. A majority of the other ‘celebs’ were located in the tech blog niche - including the founder of Facebook, Digg, and other media sites.

Source and Article: FORBES