How to Create an Authority Website in 21 Days

I wanted to share how I created an authority website in 21 days, and if I did it, so can you. What is an authority site? An authority site or authority blog is a website that provides useful, quality specialized information along with a positive user experience.

Because of this, website visitors are happy to sign up for emails, engage with the site, share content, and ultimately come back. I created my authority website for these same reasons and also to help kick-start my new business. Creating an authority site is a great way to promote your product or service, even if you don’t have one yet.

Why create an authority site?

In this age of social interaction, you the entrepreneur are the brand. It’s never too early to start marketing yourself, your expertise, your insights and ideas. Every entrepreneur or small business could benefit from blogging. I will share with you the tools I used to create an authority website in 21 days so that you can too. 

Tools used to create my authority site:

1. WordPress.org – With wordpress.org you have to host the site yourself. With wordpress.com, they can host the site for free, but there are many limitations. You can read about the differences here. I recommend going with wordpress.org and having full control. Learning WordPress is easy, but like everything there is a learning curve.

2. Hostgator.com – This is where you should host your authority site. Hostgator hosting is perfectly fine for authority blog sites. Hostgator offers 1-click WordPress installations and 24/7 customer service.  You will need to install WordPress on your Hostgator admin panel. I recommend doing this yourself using youtube tutorials to guide you. You will also need a domain name. If you don’t already have one, you can buy one from Hostgator or GoDaddy.

3. Beaver Builder – This is a WordPress plugin that features an outstanding “drag and drop” editor. They also offer a premium theme, which you can use to design just about any site. Thank you Chris Lema for your useful review on drag and drop page builders.

4. Framework – You need to create the framework of your site: appearance, pages, posts, menu’s, permalinks, etc. Familiarize yourself with the WordPress admin panel. If you can’t figure something out, just google it or ask me in the comments section below.

5. Graphic Design – Unless you are good with Photoshop, you will need to hire a graphic designer. Fiverr.com is a great resource to find an inexpensive graphic designer. They also can help with your website or various business services. I used CarterCreativ for all of my graphics and highly recommend them.

6. Content – Create the content for your pages.

7. Plugins – You will need plugins to customize your site.

Here are the plugins I recommend:

Optin Monster or Thrive Leads Popups – If you want to utilize pop-ups to collect subscriber emails. Both are great choices. Optin Monster is easier to use, but more expensive. Thrive Leads is less user-friendly, but inexpensive and a great overall value.

Add This – Floating social share bar for your blog pages.

Pretty Link – Makes links shorter and customizable.

W3 Total Cache – Speeds up your site.

Akismet – Eliminates comment spam.

Backup Buddy by iThemes – Backs up your site, includes offsite storage.

Easy Facebook Likebox – This adds a likebox for your facebook page in the sidebar.

Facebook Comments – If you want to add facebook comments to your blog posts.

Google Analytics by Yoast – Helpful analytics tool.

SEOPress – Search Engine Optimization or SEO to optimize your pages and blog posts

Sucuri Security & Wordfence – Because securing your site is critical.

The features you want on your authority site will dictate what plugins you will need to install. Most are free, but some have a fee. The nice thing about WordPress is that if it doesn’t work out, you can always switch to another plugin.

You obviously need to learn WordPress and familiarize yourself with the plugins. It’s really not that difficult to learn. If you can create a document on Word or navigate an Excel spreadsheet, then this skill set is not much different. But, if you absolutely hate technology and refuse to do it yourself, then hire someone to do it for you.

Don’t let technology get in the way…

8. Start Writing – Your blog posts will be the lifeblood of your authority site. Create regular and useful SEO friendly content. Focus on your target audience and provide useful information on what topics they are interested in reading about.

9. Social Media – Create accounts on several social media sites and link your authority site to them. It’s important to grow your social media presence if you want your authority site to succeed.

10. Promote, Promote, Promote! – You need to get the word out that your site is out there. You can do this directly by contacting those you are already associated with, commenting on related blogs that your target audience reads, writing guest posts, etc. The possibilities are numerous. Be consistent and over time your site should do well.

An excellent resource is authorityhacker.com, which has tons of great free content and ideas on how to monetize your site. If I can do it, then so can you. If you are set on creating an authority website in 21 days, my guide will save you time. Don’t get caught up with all the information out there on WordPress and all the plugin options. Stay focused on the task, make a decision, implement then move to the next task. Good luck and comment below if you have any questions.

Did you find this post useful?  If so, I would greatly appreciate if you commented below with your thoughts and shared on Facebook!

To your success!

Noel B. Lorenzana

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