In this episode I go over some of the skills required to start a successful authority site and then some of the best actions you can take to grow your site.
Skills & Mindset Required:
- Abundance mindset
- Perseverance
- Stubbornness
- Positive belief system/Get rid of limiting beliefs
- Copywriting: You should understand it- you don’t have to be an expert copywriter. Start with this, this, or this.
- Understand “great content” and be able to create great content. Get this book.
- Constant self-education. I really think a $79 Kindle is one of the best investments you can make in your self-education.
- You have to really want it
Then there are actions you can take:
- Produce pillar content, then one solid post a week
- Forum participation
- Interviews
- Series of ebooks
- Youtube videos
- Look at what the most popular posts are on other sites
- Guest posting
- Blog commenting
- Email list
- Starting a podcast
- Contests
23 Comments
Alan
July 3, 2012I enjoy reading everything you write.
By reading today’s post, I’ve decided to buy one of the books that I know will help my CTR for my website as I offer more valuable information.
Nate
July 3, 2012Thanks Alan- Good luck with your CTRs.
SweetPea
July 3, 2012First off, Nate, after listening to your podcast, I am glad that I am not the first to leave a comment
Great recommendations – the cheapest Kindle (am on the fence between that one and the Kindle Fire) and the book on various content modes.
I am very selective about who I stay subscribed to – you are on that short list, so thank you for providing great advice without trying to gouge your readers’/listeners’ pockets. It is much appreciated.
I am glad that Kindle books are working well for you. I went in the opposite direction. I started with Kindle books (fiction) and once I started doing well with them, I had enough time and funds to venture into supplementing my income via other passive ways (like, say, authority sites and niche videos? as well as PLR). But for me, nothing beats Kindle authorship/publishing.
I wish you continued and further success with Kindle books and look forward to more of your internet marketing golden nuggets of wisdom.
Because of your and a few others’ methods and advice, I am discovering that Google is not the be-all and end-all of gaining and maintaining traffic, but rather just icing on the cake. So thanks again!
Nate
July 3, 2012Thank you, I’m glad to hear you got something from it.
Yeah Kindle ebooks are easily the most hands-free thing I do once they’re published… I’m putting more and more resources into them.
Thanks for reading(listening).
Helen Page
July 3, 2012Nate, this podcast is another reason why you are my favorite guru and the one I follow scrupulously. I have already passed it along to friends. I particularly appreciate the encouragement that the work I am doing will pay off with perseverance and stubbornness. I know I have a lot of the latter!!
I think this is a short course on how to make it in Internet Marketing. Great work. Can’t wait for the next one.
Nate
July 3, 2012Thanks Helen- I appreciate it.
And yes- stubbornness will go a long way.
John Bowie
July 4, 2012Sound advice and information, as always Nate. The only thing is you left New Zealand off your iPod list.
Nate
July 4, 2012I’ll add NZ- I just looked and they have an Apple store.
Cathy
July 4, 2012I’ve got to go back through your podcasts on mindset you mentioned because I believe that’s my biggest problem. I have been stuck so long making $300-$700 a month, I think I no longer believe I can actually make a full time living at this.
One of the other things that stuck with me is where you said after you have your pillar content up, you only need to add one good article a week. I had it in my mind I need to post much more often and because of that, some of that content isn’t the best. I think I’ll concentrate on adding just one great article a week.
Nate
July 4, 2012Cathy- It really is a huge thing and one that most people never realize.
Brian Tracy talks about how people have a subconscious limit to how much they can earn and if they start getting close they’ll start self-sabotaging themselves.
Cathy
July 4, 2012Yikes, that’s discouraging. How do you change that subconscious limit?
Nate
July 5, 2012Umm… Affirmations help, but I think the most helpful thing is to capture your limiting beliefs on paper or on the screen- write them out either way, and then logically prove to yourself why they’re false. Then keep those in mind and consciously try to think differently overall.
The other thing that helped me through that was focusing on the work that brought the results… If x number of sites were making this much, then x more would make this much type of a thing and focus on hitting those “project goals” instead of income goals.
Cathy
July 6, 2012Thanks Nate!
Sadie
July 5, 2012Perseverance is a whole lot easier when choosing a niche topic that you are passionate about. It has been my experience that when you have passion about your topic you tend to exhaust the subject when writing articles rather than worrying about how many words are in the article.
Typically my article posts for my authority website are 1,000 words or longer and I’ve found that they’re easier to write. Quite honestly I don’t understand why anyone would create a blog/website if they didn’t intend on going deep with the topic.
I haven’t always understood this but I do now. I think we should all stop chasing the money and make our goal/intent be to give the end user good and quality content that is evergreen and well researched.
Thanks Nathan for the podcast.
Nate
July 5, 2012Sadie- I think your words are wise.
Everyone is trying to build a site that just “makes money” when to do that your site has to provide real value to the end user.
Jason
July 7, 2012Great stuff, Nate. Checked it out last night while walking/jogging. Getting ready to start the Kindle eBook journey tonight. Currently, my product is in PDF, Android app, and iOS app. Kindle is next on the list.
Question about pricing. Do you sell any of your Kindle books as a PDF on a site? Do you price them the same? Or do you just direct people to Amazon to purchase? Thanks.
Nate
July 9, 2012Jason- I just send traffic to Amazon. I’d rather have those sales adding up and winning points for my books within the Kindle Marketplace. I think there’s about 10 times less resistance if someone is looking at your book on Amazon.com versus a buy button on a random website they’ve never seen before.
Sean
July 8, 2012Hi Nate,
Success is no mystery, and like you mentioned in the podcast, “The harder I work the luckier I get”. But, of course you really need to WANT it. How bad you want it will determine if you will go through the daily tasks consistently to make your dream happen in the long term.
As you mentioned, our limiting beliefs disqualify us before we even begin. We are all more capable of so much more than we are even aware of, but we will only find out if we just throw ourselves into the deep end and give it everything we’ve got.
I like Brian Tracy too, and the one saying that will always stick with me is, “If it is to be then it’s up to me!”
Thanks for your hard work Nate.
Nate
July 9, 2012Sean- Yeah it definitely isn’t. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Matt Clark
July 10, 2012Hi Nate,
I’ve been enjoying your podcasts and the tips you’re giving in them. You mentioned how listening to podcasts gives some great ideas. Are there any particular podcasts you listen to that you’d recommend? Thanks!
Nate
July 11, 2012Matt- I kind of just download single ones on topics I’m interested in.
But, some of the best ones are from the Clickbank blog actually.
Greg Milner
July 31, 2012Nate,
Gotta say I disagree with you wholeheartedly on the text-based interviews here’s why:
I would say podcasts or videos are the best interviews hands down.
Take Trent Dyrsmid and onlineincomelab.com for example, his interviews are really incredible and he cranks them out all the time. I know for a fact he is increasing the rate of podcasts he does too.
This is because we feel a more intimate connection to hearing someone’s voice as opposed to reading text.
Also, questions and answers are usually better articulated directly from the interviewee.
In fact, I found you through that podcast you did with Trent, I don’t think that I would have found you from a text-based interview because I simply don’t have the time!
You could always go for the podcast, then transcribe it to get the best of both worlds. I always listen to podcasts when i’m on the go and I believe that this not only increases the amount of time I spend learning and self educating but brings me closer to the podcaster and immerses me deeper into the topic.
When I have the time, I don’t want to be reading an article, I want to be taking action on what I have already learned!
You have aimed a large portion of your training to those who have little time in which to work – you should capitalise on this and recognise the most accessible content to them may actually be audio.
Basically, audio allows the listener to multi-task whilst consuming your content.
If you could put all of your articles into audio, you would be able to make yourself tons more accessible to those with less time available.
And just because text is compatible across the most devices, I personally find that there is much more effort and time involved with reading text.
People these days have less time to read articles which is why Videos, Podcasts and Infographics are becoming more and more popular.
Nate, I think you have a really unique view on the internet marketing game and I really like everything you do BUT I think you could utilise podcasts and interviews even better than you do now!
Just my thoughts! Sorry to ramble on dude.
Greg
Nate
August 1, 2012Greg- I agree… and I wish all my interviews were over skype and had audio…
The reason they’re not, is I contact people for an interview and give them the option, and they usually just want to fill out questions because it’s easier for a number of reasons.
Guess I should just quit giving the option.. thanks for the feedback.
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