Authority Blogs: Why They’re the Hardest But Most Worthwhile Websites

Authority Blogs are not a get-rich-quick scheme.

They are not easy to start, they take a lot of time to grow, and you will likely not see tangible results for quite a while into the process.

Therefore, I realize the title of this post might be controversial, but I do stand by the statement.

Today’s post was going to be one of my famous and much sought-after critiques (you lucky people) but then I got an email from Laura that I just had to answer (with permission).

You said you don’t do adsense [or] make money online like Darren Rowse and Yaro [Starak], why when you have [enough] traffic?

The Pros and Cons of Advertising Monetization

Why do I choose to not monetize with advertising and instead sell digital products, offer services, or recommend affiliate products?

It’s an interesting question. I have had blogs where I did the AdSense thing. I am not against it. A lot of our clients do very well with advertising and they are happy with it!

I believe you can have authority while displaying ads, you just need to ensure a good user experience.

Check the definition of authority blogging here. It doesn’t mention advertising or the lack of showing ads.

My personal reasons for not displaying ads on this site are:

• My traffic is no longer sufficient to join the biggest advertising networks.
• Even if I did have the traffic to join, the income made would be very low.
• You can make a lot more money selling products and services with a lot lower visitor count.

How to Monetize an Authority Site

Let’s drill down into the differences between a directly monetized site and an indirectly monetized website.

First of all, if you want to make a good profit directly from your site through advertising, you are going to need a lot more page views and visitors than if you have a loyal audience of people who are in the market for your products and services.

For an advertising monetized site to grow in revenue, you need more traffic or higher-priced ads.

In authority blogging, you grow based on serving a specific audience, building a brand and community, and your visitors bring friends. That compounds over time, allowing you to have a healthy email list, strong social media accounts, and maybe a podcast or YouTube channel.

Growing the revenue of an authority blog can simply mean putting your prices up, creating more products, or selling more products to existing customers – you are not locked in to just getting more visitors necessarily. Plus your content is guided by what the community wants and needs, not which adverts are pulling the highest revenue per thousand page views right now.

When you are at the point of having a strong email list and repeat readership, Google algorithm changes or an advertising network can’t take away everything you have built with a press of a button.

An authority blog can, however, have advertising and such as an additional revenue channel, but optimizing for advertising takes away authority from you.

Optimizing for Advertising Revenue

Getting the most out of an advertising network can mean having more ads than you would prefer, in more intrusive locations, therefore damaging user experience. It could also mean taking advertising from companies that you don’t entirely align with.

By the same reasoning, an authority blog might perform less well at driving advertising dollars because you put the reader above all else.

That said, if you are hoping to monetize your blog with privately sold advertising, done well an authority blog is perfect for attracting highly aligned advertisers because of your influence and relationship with your community. You can sell a package combining on-site advertising, mentions on your podcast, on YouTube, and newsletter sponsorship.

When it comes to “brand safety”, advertisers know they are in safe hands with an authority blog.

With a made-for-ads blog, the goal is to get a torrent of traffic from search and/or social.

At the other end of the continuum is a pure authority blog, for example, Seth Godin, whose goal in blogging is to build up a loyal following. To attract people who are motivated to buy his books and pay to hear him speak.

It’s like comparing a street fast-food stand versus a Michelin-starred restaurant four-course banquet.

The former wants as many people as possible with as little friction as possible, whereas the other wants a more concentrated and targeted group to soak up the experience and stick around for a long time.

With an advertising monetized blog, it doesn’t really matter where the traffic comes from, you don’t actually have to serve them well, just get those ad views.

Most of the visitors are never coming back and therefore you don’t have to listen to their complaints. Spam away. Outsource your “content”, and use the latest content generation tools and SEO tricks. Who cares?

It’s much slower and harder with an authority blog to develop traffic as you have to be more selective and strategic.

With authority sites it’s not enough just to do short-term clickbait or SEO tricks, because you don’t need just anyone to visit, you have to attract the right people and delight them with your content so they subscribe and come back.

Blog Authority and Repeat Visitors

Growing your blog authority means treating your visitors well.

With an authority blog, you actually need to get to know your audience and what they like. You have to treat them as individuals rather than a herd of potential ad clickers.

I can see how the “throw it up and don’t care but make a stack of cash” idea has appeal, particularly to anyone who wants to make their money fast and with little effort. But consider the long-term value.

Which is going to be safer from the ups and downs of search engine changes?

Who is on the treadmill of keeping up attracting brand new victims visitors?

Who builds a loyal readership of people who actually want to see you succeed?

This blog has been live now for around two decades, I registered the domain in the 1990s. There are people who still visit regularly and email subscribers who have stuck with me from the beginning.

Try achieving that in any other way but by treating people well.

Building blogging authority is an incremental process of consistently providing your visitors with an excellent experience.

Anyone who has actually tried a get-rich-quick scheme will know how unsatisfying it is. Even when they do make money.

I would much rather build something of lasting value, something you can be proud of.

Yes, I need to make money, but I prefer to earn a profit by providing something people actually want and need.