Case Study Shows that Authority Sites Rank in Top 5% in Alexa

Summary:If you have tried all the SEO tactics and only
received mediocre rankings, it is time for you to shift
your attention from web promotion to producing quality
research and content. This study shows that seasoned
Authority Sites rank in top 5% of Alexa.

What is An Authority Site?

Dictionary.com defines "Authority" as follows:

Authority: Au-thor-i-ty [uh-thawr-i-tee] - noun:
1. An accepted source of expert information or advice: a
noted authority on birds; a reference book often cited as
an authority.
2. Power to influence or persuade resulting from knowledge
or experience: political observers who acquire authority
with age.

In internet terminology, an Authority Site is one that has
a large empire of high-ranking pages linking back to it.
Well-known examples include About.com, Wikipedia.org, and
so on. These are sites that others look to (and link to)
as experts in the field.

In this study, "Authority Site" simply refers to any site
that has been promoted with Authority Site Tools available
from Jack Humphrey.

Preliminary Study of 56 Randomly Selected Authority Sites

This study started by randomly selecting 56 sites that are
being promoted with Authority Site tools. On average, these
sites ranked better than 87% of all other sites monitored
by Alexa.

A Look at Seasoned Authority Sites

One problem with the preliminary study is that Alexa uses
three months of data to calculate its rankings. However,
many of the sites listed in the random sample were only a
few weeks or months old. So even though weekly Alexa
statistics indicated that these sites were ranking
extremely high, the three month Alexa ranking was lower. To
adjust for this problem, the original list of 56 sites was
examined to see how many months of archived blogs existed
for each site. Then, only sites that contained over 4
months of blog archives were analyzed. These authority
sites (on average) were found to rank in the top 5% on
Alexa.

Public Verification of the Results

Note: If you are not familiar with Alexa, please visit
www.alexa.com and go to the traffic rankings section. Enter
the url for any web site, and it will show where that site
ranks within the 11.2 million sites that Alexa tracks. It
will also provide a graph that shows a historical picture
of traffic to that web site. Please use Alexa to verify the
results of this study for yourself by looking up the
traffic rankings for any sites that interest you or for any
of the 56 randomly selected Authority sites listed below.
The statistics were collected on June 25, 2007.

Authority Site URL................................ Alexa
Rank........ Archived Months

http://addictionrecoverybasics.com
.............135,505............... 6

http://barpubchat.com
...............................1,511,568............. 2

http://blog.esalesguru.com .........................
205,676.............. 8

http://bugdugle.com
.....................................189,845..............1

http://coincollectinginsider.com
...................3,819,470.............1

http://cruise.every1loves2travel.com
................292,408.............9

http://didyousmellthat.com
..............................174,431............2

http://e-businessadvantage.com
...................1,682,034.............1

http://fearlessdreams.com
...........................1,003,899...........12

http://fitnessblackbook.com
...........................2,203,895 ..........1

http://forexlearnguard.com
............................1,798,145............1

http://newpsychicreading.com
......................1,825,970.............1

http://niche-newsreels.com
...........................1,578,478............1

http://onlinesecurityauthority.com/
.....................354,392.........12

http://sayno2odor.com
....................................5,884,207...........1

http://sexandgaming.com
................................3,600,742...........1

http://shoppingcart.instantestore.com
..................72,462..........5

http://trafficmasters2007.com

...........................592,003..........4

http://visalusblog.com
......................................3,012,861..........2

http://www.abundancehighway.com
.............1,639,877..........7

http://www.arkanimals.com
...........................1,274,297...........0

http://bestshowticketslasvegas.com
.................271,201...........0

http://www.bigmarketingonline.com
..................747,425...........0

http://www.blog.marinerblue.com
.....................838,222.......... 3

http://www.cheatcatcher.com
.......................2,206,694...........4

http://completediabetesinformation.com
.............256,895...........5

http://consumermortgagereports.com
.............1,123,968...........4

http://www.copywriting.com
.............................266,284..........0

http://www.dreambodynow.com
.....................298,349............8

http://www.empowersu.com
........................2,324,067............0

http://www.every1loves2travel.com
...............292,408...........10

http://www.gojdhl.com
....................................1,128,887..........3

http://www.homemusicrecording.com
................604,644.........4

http://www.hotexercise.com
...............................111,673.......10

http://internet-home-business-blog.com
............1,273,082.........2

http://www.jackhumphrey.com
.............................23,103........18

http://www.joyofcamping.com
...........................245,569...........2

http://www.lawfuel.com/

..................................233,616...........0

http://www.lawofattractionsimplified.com
.........259,634...........3

http://www.marriagesite.info
..........................1,891,783...........5

http://www.medcarehealth.com
......................2,869,639..........2

http://www.mywealthpuzzle.com
....................5,419,224.........4

http://www.mywritingblog.com
........................1,137,527.......20

http://www.neutralexistence.com
......................529,187.........4

http://www.onlineprofithome.com
...................1,316,275..........0

http://www.simplyantiaging.com/
........................279,153........9

http://www.socialanxietycrusher.com
.............4,823,082........1

http://www.successinspired.com

......................444,016........4

http://www.theassociatereference.com
.............193,280........9

http://www.the-football-nut.com ..................
865,654..............0

http://www.the-golf-nut.com
.........................455,044..............1

http://www.thelovebunch.com/
..................2,602,671..............2

http://www.thevideowebsitewizard.com
........715,796...........3

http://www.theweddingwizards.com/
............931,021............7

http://www.tobe-healthy.com
.........................345,167.............. 0

http://www.workfromhomegroup.com
............542,008..............3

----------------------------------------------------
Wade Harvey is the author of http://idealprogrammer.com

This blog provides a visual "big picture" of the major
components involved in the world of programming.

How To Find As Many Profitable Niche Markets For Info Products As You Will Ever Need.

Publishing niche e-books is a proven business which can
make the operator a lot of money but finding a niche or
niches to exploit can be both time consuming and
disheartening for the inexperienced. Many find this to be
the most daunting stage of beginning any information or
other Internet marketing business.

Fortunately there are tried and tested methods for finding
suitable niches, which anyone can adapt and use in their
own business. In this article I want to highlight a very
simple, straightforward strategy for finding as many
profitable niche markets to sell e-books in to as you could
ever want.

First go to:-

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

This is an amazingly useful site for finding out how
popular a niche is and it doesn't cost a penny to sign up
to.

Just type in any niche markets which interest you. For
instance, if you are interested in organic gardening you
would type in "organic Gardening". All you need to do then
is list all of the sub niches within the general niche of
organic gardening. These are all potential niches for your
business to exploit.

http://www.google.com/trends

Google trends, is a relatively recent tool in the internet
marketer's armoury. It will show you a graphical view of
your niche keyword search volume over the last couple of
years, allowing you to spot seasonal or other trends
easily. News stories are included in the graph so that you
can see if outside factors have influenced search volume.
Also shown is where the searches are coming from,
identified by region, city and even language. This is great
for deciding whether your market is limited or whether it
has global appeal.

http://www.amazon.com

Often overlooked, the major bookselling organisation Amazon
is an incredible resource for finding niche markets. In the
search bar on the company's website, select books and then
type in the niche that you would like to create a product
for. Market gardening would once again be a good example.
The results of this search will provide plenty of insight
into potential sub niches at which your e-book can be
aimed. Look at the subject matter of the books, DVDs or CDs
covering your niche interest. Check the sales rankings as
an indication of demand.

Don't worry because you are not going to be competing with
Amazon. You are going to be catering to the market in a
very different way. As an e-book publisher your customers
can download your products straight away rather than having
to wait days or even weeks for their books to arrive from
Amazon.

Another bonus is that downloadable info products tend to be
regarded as having a higher perceived value than their
physical paper and print counterparts. Selling a book
through Amazon may make you fifteen dollars but as a
downloadable e-book it could fetch up to fifty.

http://www.dummies.com

The Dummies company, are master craftsmen when it comes to
creating products for niche markets and their website is a
superb research tool for the e-book publisher to use. You
will find masses of niche topics and ideas within the "for
dummies" book range. Simply search through their titles in
general niches that interest you and make a list of all the
possible e-book topics that you see.

http://www.goarticles.com

Article directories are, just about the best way to find
subjects to create e-books around. The directory Go
Articles is just one of many in which you can go to the
site, type in a niche subject in the search bar and get
literally thousands and thousands of e-book ideas.

Websites.

Visit existing websites catering to your potential niche.
What solutions do they offer? What questions are asked in
the forums? How does the website look? How could you
improve on what they are providing for their customers with
your own website?

Magazines.

Go to your local major bookseller/magazine retailer and
look at publications aimed at the niche in which you are
interested. Buy a few to study. What questions are asked in
the letter pages? What is being advertised? What concerns
are expressed in editorials? Could an e-book provide
solutions?

Use of the above research methods will help you to get a
definite feel as to the potential of any niches that you
have an interest in.

Done properly e-book or info publishing can be a very
profitable business model. You won't become a millionaire
overnight with one site or one product but, build a network
of sites, and you can get there. Being able to come up with
an endless amount of niche product ideas is the key here.
Then all you need to do is create the product.

That's easy to say isn't it? "All you need to do" is create
a product. They're hard to create right? Actually, no they
are not. There is plenty of no cost content online for you
to use and some good software products to help you turn it
into a quality e-book. If you don't want to create your own
product simply go to www.elance.com. and you will have
experienced writers bidding to do the work for you.

You are an internet marketer, not a writer. Have one
product created, set up pay per click campaigns, write a
press release and blast a few articles over the net on the
topic of your e-book. Then have another one created and so
on...........

Multiple streams of autopilot income are the secret of all
wealthy entrepreneurs. Now thanks to e-books and the
internet, anyone can set up streams of income that will
send money into their bank account twenty four seven.

----------------------------------------------------
Paul Greaves is an information publisher specialising in
helping people start their own home based business. Now
you know how to find lots of profitable niches learn how to
create a product in one day and how to market it by getting
a no cost two hour video on niche ebooks at:
http://www.mynicheinlife.com

Avoid These Fatal Web Site Design Flaws (If You Want A Profitable Site)

Web site design is not rocket science but you have to avoid
certain fatal flaws or your site will never get off the
ground. You must also sidestep these common design mistakes
if you want your web site to reach its fullest potential.

In other words, there are certain vital elements of web
site design you must get right or it's game over before you
even get started. These are the design elements which every
successful site possesses, essential components every
webmaster must consider when designing a profitable site.

* The Right Keywords

Perhaps one of the most deadly design flaws has to do with
keywords. Many novice webmasters fail to target the right
keywords when designing their sites.

Keywords are the vital lifelines of any well designed web
site. Basically, keywords are the exact words or phrases
web users type into search engines to find what they're
looking for on the Internet.

You must get this right or it may spell disaster for your
site. You must target the right keywords and optimize your
site for them in all the search engines.

Most SEO experts suggest you have your main keyword phrase
in the domain name of your site. This domain name should be
directly related to the topic of your site. If you design a
site on gaming laptops, then these keywords should be in
your domain. All pages on your site should be related to
these main keywords.

But first you must make sure your keywords are good
searchable keywords, i.e. a large number of people must be
searching for these keywords each day in the search engines
in order to supply a steady stream of interested visitors
or potential customers to your site.

How Do You Find Good Keywords?

There are many free keyword suggestion tools that you can
use. All the major Pay-Per-Click programs such as Google
Adwords, Yahoo! Marketing (Overture) and MSN Adcenter have
keyword suggestion tools.

Many professional online marketers use keyword research
software like Keyword Elite but you can also use any free
online keyword suggestion tools to see how many searches
are made. This is a good site:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Check and find good keywords related to your site and
optimize your site for them. Don't pick the most
competitive keywords because first page placement in the
search engines will just be too hard to obtain especially
for a new site.

Instead pick long tail keyword phrases which have fever
searches but you will have a better chance of ranking high
for these phrases. These long tail keyword phrases also
have much better conversion rates than general (too broad)
keywords.

Make sure your targeted keywords are in the title of your
page and many experts suggest it should also be in the URL.
Simple yet effective design elements which will increase
your site's chances of success.

* Exterior Links On Your Homepage

Another common design flaw is placing exterior, external
links on your main homepage.

Most SEO experts suggest ALL your links on your homepage
should be internal links pointing to your own content
filled pages on your site. External links should be on a
separate 'links page'.

If you want to use affiliate links, create a separate page
for each affiliate product or program and link to this page
on your site. Place your affiliate ID link and moneymaker
on this content filled (reviews, how-to-use,
testimonials...) internal page, rather than on your
homepage.

To rank high, especially in Google, all your PageRank and
visitors should be funneled into your site and not out to
some external links. This is extremely important on your
homepage - so make sure all or most of your links are
internal links.

* Simple Effective Navigation

You must design your site with simple effective navigation
in mind. Visitors to your site must be able to access and
move around your site with ease. Your site should also be
fast loading even in this age of high-speed Internet for
surfers are the most impatient creatures on the planet!

As a common courtesy, if nothing else, make sure you place
a link back to your homepage on each and every page of your
site. Instead of just calling it 'home' or 'homepage';
include your domain name or major keywords in this link:
'gaming laptop home'.

Have links to all major areas or topics of your site on
each page. Make it easy for your visitors to find what
they're looking for on your site.

Include a sitemap which lists all the major pages/content
on your site. Make sure a link to your sitemap page is
listed on all your webpages, never leave your guests
stranded with nowhere to go.

These are just some of the most important design flaws
which can spell failure for your site. Avoid them at all
costs. So make sure you keep these design elements in mind
when you're designing your next site or correcting your
present one.

Creating a successful site will be much easier if you
overcome these simple, yet all too common, web site design
flaws. Give your site a fighting chance at success by
sidestepping these mistakes, after all, sites like rockets
are meant to soar.

----------------------------------------------------
The author is a full-time online marketer. For the latest
web marketing tools try: http://www.marketingtoolguide.com
Here's another good free resource by Marlon Sanders
entitled:
http://www.bizwaremagic.com/weblog/?p=29
Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if
this resource
box stays attached.