Yesterday was Day 1 of my self imposed domain authority challenge. I’d have to say it was a success. I spent 3 hours, just as I’d hoped to, and found 3 solid prospects. Two of these links should definitely happen and one is a bit more on the fence.
If I can have 2 more days like yesterday this week then I’d say this little experiment is going to be really profitable for us. Today’s tip is this: don’t be afraid to make some phone calls. I tend to beat this to death but it’s how I tracked down all of the prospects yesterday.
Making telephone calls is definitely a pain. If you’re going after .edu’s then it’s guaranteed you will spend a half hour on the phone just to get to the webmaster or somebody with some authority. But, in my opinion, this is time well spent in building your status as an authority in your industry and building a higher barrier of entry/moat around your niche to protest your SERPs.
Recently I’ve been working a lot to find, build, and finagle “authority” links to create more trust for our main domains. As you all know, the right authority links can mean BIG money for your sites. The sites I’m working on are very established in their markets but we’re a very proactive team and we spend a lot of money to make sure the SERPs don’t turn on us. This week we signed an agreement to get on a pretty major media site and we’re currently investigating a few more similar possibilities.
Why should you care?
Well, I’m self imposing a little domain trust project. I’m calling it the “One Week Authority Challenge,” (stupid name) although hopefully it turns into an ongoing, organized thing. My plan is this: spend at least 3 hours per day for the next 5 business days email, calling, and searching out relevant links.
I’m not going to be buying links from skeezy .edu blogs off DP or any spammer stuff. I will be seeking out high quality, relevant links just as I would any other day of the week, except solely .edu and .gov websites. I’ll update every day about my progress and hopefully I can pass on some wisdom about how you can build some trust for your sites. Although I likely won’t give away the urls of where I’m finding these links, I’ll let you know how I found the page and what (if anything) it cost us.
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These posts get me seriously hot and bothered. I decided that the best way to kick off my personal blog would be to give you a little idea about who I am and what I think. (Ya, I’m using “you” in my writing, whatcha goin’ do ’bout it?) I’m laying out a little smörgåsbord of my favorite inspirational blog posts. Don’t let that scare you! Trust me, these are strictly business. No fluffy, follow your heart, just dream it and you can do it, BS posts. I’m a fan of no nonsense, legit info. So if that’s your cup of tea, sip away.
Sleepy Tuesday morning? Get your blood pumping with one of my favorite ever blog posts. Andy talks about how to build an affiliate site you can sell for a cool mil. The only thing I would say is this: don’t limit your ideas to affiliate sites. Although the model is attractive there’s probably some great niches that you can exploit by developing your own products.
I know what you’re thinking: being a millionaire is so 1970. I’m right there with ya. (Although I would settle [settle=kill] for a mil right now.) If you set your target a little higher, a bil, you’ll be fighting Provost in a race to be the first internet billionaire. This post get’s my blood pumping because Brian really looks at the big picture. Seos and Domainers are the new media mavericks. Who is going to be the Carnegie of the web? I think that still remains to be seen.
Neil Patel write on getting covered by the offline media. It’s one of those cliche simple but not easy kind of things. I like Neil’s ideas on leveraging your unique aspects (mine and Neil’s being age) to get publicity and position yourself as an authority. You might be saying, “I don’t want to be a consultant so what does offline press matter?” Put yourself out there like Neil and surely you’ll be bombarded with opportunities and connections stretching far beyond the typical consulting gig. Someday you might need investors or partners on your big projects and a fat profile surely won’t hurt the cause.
That’s enough to give you an idea about who I am and where I’m at online. Just to clear this up from the start–I’m not linking to the big names because I want to be one or because I feel the need to suck up to them. There’s a reason these people are the A-list (ya, it exists) and it’s because they get it. I don’t mind reading about people making a few grand a month blogging with payperpost or similar methods, but my goal is a business, a company, something that can grow, scale, and evolve. These guys see where the internet can take them and hopefully I can figure things out and get myself there as well.
