Build your authority site

[alejet]

Just an idea here, to get some discussion going:

How many of you have built an authority site?
We all talk a bout linking to them, getting links from them, but how about buidling one? (other than this one?).

There's a good group of realtors and other types here, no?

So how hard would it be to build, together for example, a site that could rise to become an authority site?

Something that doesn't have the same old same old for content. Something a little fresher.

Something that could remain fresh for a long time, perhaps built on a blog script or some other thing that would allow for easy posting and organizaing of ideas?

Provided we aren't all competition, we could work together to build something (other than these great forums) that could put an authority site in our hands.

Possible?

Some of the keys as I see it would be:

1 - A steady stream of fresh content. Perhaps once a week for fresh content.
2 - Something original or new for the user in terms of content.
3 - Nationwide (for you US of A'ers) and possibly worldwide.

Hmm, that's all that comes to mind for now...

[VRI]

It seems if it were an objective resourse produced collaboratively (to share the burden in writing, promoting and linking) that it is imminently do-able. The key, it seems, would be to make it of real value to tremendous numbers of small realtors out there to make them aware of it and then to get them to buy in (not necessarily as contributors but for natural links).

[alejet]

I think that the natural, or organic, link development would happen; it's a 'if you build it they will come' type of thing.

The problem with many sites these days is it's the same old same old, you know? Provide something a little different, a little better, and maybe something good could happen.

I see it this way: we're all busy, and developing a good quality site takes time and effort. Going by the 80/20 rule, I'd say that many of us probably don't feel that we've acheived the 80 yet. Perhaps as a group this could be acheived, and maybe even part of the 20 could be chipped away at.

Anyway, just an idea. I was thinking along the lines of a 'real-estate community blog'. Something where realtors and the like band together and publish posts on this and that, advice etc. Blog scripts have a built in admin section where writing up content is made easy, file management is taken care of, and categories are also available.

Could be a natural fit to this sort of idea...

[IgotDreams]

We would be stepping on each other's toes. For instance, those of us that build web sites for realtors may have conflicts with the placement of our ads. Or the SEO people may have conflicts. I think if you want to build your own, you can do it, but if you want to ride on the coat tails of this one, you can ask the leaders of this project, what you could do to help out and get involved and or get recognition. They may be more open if you brought something marketable that they do not already have.

You never know, maybe they might consider something if you brought something to the table like;

50 real estate related articles all optimized and owned by you.

I am stretching it here, but you get the point.

Myself I am building one as well, to launch with my new domain name.

[alejet]

Dan,

I think you need to stretch a little to get what I was after, though I was sort of talking hypothetical.

In effect, I'm (hypothetically, for now) talking about starting something where "placement of our ads" wouldn't be an issue, because for starters, this site would be to build an authority site, more aimed at users and getting over 'hilltop' effects than anything else.

Building my own is quite simple, through a lucky break, I have tonnes of content relevant to my area and the market that my clients are after.

The reason though that I suggest collaborative work here, is that an authority site must have fresh content, can't be linked to you (i.e. your whois info should be different, your IP addy, the last 3 octets must be different etc.), and needs to be user friendly etc. This is something that as a group we could easily make happen, and would have the potential to become a real leader, if done right.

I don't know if I'm being clear enough here - perhaps I'll write more tomorrow after the Spain - Russia futbol game is over!!

[alejet]

Dan,

Okay, now a reply with a coffee rather than a beer in hand.

The thing I was after was something where multiple authors build something that is more of a user focussed resource rather than a sales focussed website. Rather than generate leads, the site is a 'real estate authority', not a 'let me sell you something' authority.

From this perspective, you are building something that Google, Teoma and Yahoo all want in their search engines - information that users will find useful.

This too is something different than this forum, which isn't as much user focussed as it is real-estate agent and webmaster etc. focussed.

In order to reap some benefit from this, authors, for example, would have a small bio and link back to their site at the bottom of their articles. Perhaps on the homepage you could have a 'latest article' feature with the title and author and a link to his/her site. In addition a 'random article from our archive' which would hold the same information would be good for getting everyone's links on the home page, as well as for giving Gbot some 'fresh' info.

The trick here would be to provide something different - there's a recent thread in here somewhere where a client rants about real-estate sites. Thought he was a little harsh at times, he's right on the money - many real-estate sites look far too 'agent centric' than 'user centric'. We could fill that gap, and if done right (and lets face it, on page SEO is easy, getting a tonne of content is hard, getting a tonne of backlinks, quality backlinks, can be hard) could become a real force.

Sites like the one I describe are sites that many people link to organically, and many people would have no problem linking to if the content is good.

Using blog software (wordpress would be perfect) the site could be up and running very quickly, and maintenance would be a snap. If you aren't familiar with Wordpress, it spits out XHTML compliant code and is styled by css.

Okay, back to research mode...

[IgotDreams]

To tell you the truth I have been working on something like this for my new web site.

I uploaded a screen shot today to show you.

http://www.c3studios.com/projects/oness/realestate.jpg

My idea is sneak in my product, web sites for realtors.

The content is easy to get really. You can find RSS news feeds in regards to real estate. Which I showed some people in another post. Also articles are easy to get a hold of as well. Creating a directory is quite easy, and simple to populate. Even a message board is not hard to do. In fact I own one, that I believe is more organized then the one we are currently on. I use to have a model message board community with over 4,000 users.

What sucks is as we discuss this, we are helping our competition. Since all our competition will be hanging out on these boards either now or in the future.

You know I am down to help, but still I think we are going to have issues. For instance, who will host it? Who will own the Domain, who decides what direction the site will go? It would have to be carefully planned. I suggest we get feedback from everyone, then create think tank session! I can set up a private message board to discuss this, if we decide it is a project to work on.

But people would have to understand that this would be a huge project.

[Jim Messenger]

Alejet,

First, I think the chance of success with a group project like the one you speak of is slim.

There used to be a private section on this site that a group of agents used to discuss matters relating to their referral group. It was shut down! There was so much arguing and complaining that most of the members stopped coming. It just wasn't worth the effort.

I think you will find similar results if you try to get a bunch of Realtors together for group project.

Remember what the definition of a partnership is: A ship that won't float!

Second, I think the general idea of putting a collaboration together to build an authority site is unnecessary.

Why not do it yourself?

With hard work and a little time you can do it!

For what it's worth,

Jim

[alejet]

Hey IgotDreams, nice looking comp and good plan. Just for clarity, I'm looking at something more geared towards buyers, ie 'joe and anne public' rather than realtors.

Jim,

I am putting together an authority site, but something very different from what I am talking about here. Here, I am getting at a real-estate authroity site, whereas the project I am involved in is more of a geographic-area oriented site.

The reason that I posted this here as an idea is simple. Many realtors don't have the time to generate a lot of unique original content; I'm talking about something more than your standard RE website. Something more like your 'Real Estate Articles', but on even a larger scale.

The point is this would have to be a good quality site to acheive the desired effect; it would have to be different then the usual, somehow.

The devious truth is that a well ranked site about real-estate, and informational site that people would have no probelm linking to, would be a very powerful source of links for those involved.

Anyway, this was more of an idea, inspired by others talking about linking *to* other authority sites (which works, albeit much less than links from) and that post in another thread by that disgruntled buyer made a lot of sense to me. It's no different here in Spain. All of the sites offer the same relentless copy. We're in the throws of trying to up the quality of our site.

So anyway, I was more testing the waters. If people were interested it could be set up in a flash with a nice comp and a weblog script. I'd be happy to code it up, webspace may be an issue, but we have extra space, and a nice 'hosting provided by' would simply be an extra link for whoever would be interested.

Man, I do babble on in these posts. Off for a run and dinner. Have a good Sunday!

- Ale

[IgotDreams]

I would have to agree with Jim. You should do it yourself. It would more of a benefit to you. If your content is good, you can count on a link from me, on my Realtor Resource Site ie get them interested in my services!