Why the emphasis on forerunners in a specific niche? Because being perceived as an authority on a topic or in an industry leads to many benefits for your blogging career, especially when it comes to monetization and the art of making serious money from your blog.
Being an authority in your niche will:
- Increase your readership and audience. When you’re considered to be an expert on a specific topic, audiences with an interest in the niche will follow your blog as it provides them with relevant information as well as inspirational fodder for their own blogs, businesses or websites.
- Make you inherently linkable. While not everything you write is link-worthy, the sheer amount of the people tracking your blog ensures that it naturally has a high link-attracting potential. Links will of course bring (a) new audiences, (b) SEO benefits and (c) long-term traffic.
- Develop your Ad Selling potential. Your ability to negotiate for buying ad pricing and arrangements depend not only on your traffic levels, but also partly on your ability to influence opinion.
- Naturally develop word-of-mouth recommendations. If an absolute newbie were to ask you to recommend one website about making money with blogs, would you suggest Problogger instead of other newer or less established blogs? Authority blogs dominate the playing field when it comes to beginners who need information on a specific topic.
- Maximize your affiliate selling potential. Buyer consumption is heavily dependant on trust and and being regarded as one of the top dogs in a niche allows your personal recommendations to carry a lot of weight.
- Create money making opportunities away from your blog. Consultations, networking conferences, paid writing gigs at other websites, product sales, blog collaborations and joint business ventures are just some of the options that come from being recognized as an expert in a niche.
