Want to know the number one tactic authority site publishers use to dominate the market?
One common trait I have noticed across the board among people who have killer rankings, regular readers, die-hard customers, and flat out fans of their sites is this:
They know everything that is going on in their niche from top to bottom.
How do they do it?
They dedicate a good portion of their time prepping delectable content their visitors want badly by reading every significant source of news, tips, tactics, buzz, press, and blogs in their niche on a regular basis.
Hey, if you aren’t interested in your niche enough to do that, someone is going to be and they are going to kill you on every front in your niche.
Sounds like a lot of work?
I see people doing stupid time consuming things trying to trick their way to the top. Why not use the time more wisely and earn your way to the top in the same (or even less) amount of time?
Authority is Earned
The top sites on the web in all niches are sites where an obvious amount of time, energy, and resources has been spent to get them there. It’s no secret and the evidence is in plain view, even if, on the surface, the resulting authority site seems like a no brainer.
They ALL seem like no brainers in hindsight! And no one knows the work that went into getting them to the top except for the owners/staff.
Back to the “how.”
A long-standing tactic we use to keep up on the markets in which we publish is aggregation. Here is an example of the blogs I read on a regular basis to keep up on internet marketing and related niches.
Most of the time you cannot get a real scoop first hand. When it happens, relish the day, because it is every content publisher’s goal to scoop a good story.
What happens instead is we scoop the scoop. It’s the law of averages. When someone else gets the story, we scoop them and get traffic from the guy who got the scoop and is presently enjoying a ton of traffic for it.
If you are going to find constant sources of ideas for good posts, you have to use the equivalent of a CB radio scanner and watch, read, and listen for what’s going on “out there” in your niche.
Do you honestly believe that your favorite blogger comes up with all those great post ideas 100% internally?
Not too realistic if you assume that blogger also sleeps and has a life on the side.
My secret is aggregation.
I have free software and services looking around the web and reporting back to me on everything going on in my niche.
I use Google Alerts to find out what people are saying about me, my competitors, and all my products and services. This is a killer way to get a scoop because often I find Google has been on top of a new page of information before most people hear about it.
You just have to have the right searches going on at the right time. Google Alerts works in the background and emails you the things it finds on the search terms you put into it, 24/7, before anyone else on the web hears about it or sees it.
I use BlogRovr to pull in feeds from minor and major players in my niche.
Go From Information Overload to Information Overlord
If you are not looking down on the battlefield from a high position and getting a bird’s eye view of what’s going on in your niche (no matter what kind of sites, services, products, or content you produce) you are swimming in a sea of mediocrity on the web.
Chances are you feel more overwhelmed with all there is to keep up on in your niche precisely because you aren’t organized and you don’t have good tools working for you.
And, chances are, that you’ve closed down, gone “hobbit” in your niche, and are working in a veritable vacuum away from the very information that could set you far apart from your competition if acted upon.
Use the two free tools above to aggregate the massive amount of information generated in your niche. Use them to come up with better content. Use them to inform your market research on a product idea you have or a service you want to start.
There’s not a single business online that couldn’t benefit greatly by gaining that bird’s eye view of their market.
Who knows? I may have just exposed the chink in your competitor’s armor. The one thing that might have you dominating your niche rather than picking up his scraps in 2008.