Ivin Viljoen

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If you want to make it online, you need online cred. Credibility and ‘expert’ status is important if you want your blog to be a success, if you want to sell products and generally to make money online.

Why having authority is important.

If you want to make a success of your business online, you need to have authority. Authority is simply the ability to have people listen to you and follow your every move online. Some people are so successful, they can sell the biggest load of crap, overcharge for it and still have raving fans.

I want to have raving fans and great quality products. So, below I want to give you my plan on how I am going to cement my authority online.

Guest posting on authority blogs.

There’s no better way for you to get known as an authority online than by guest posting. I have been guest posting for quite a while, and you can see my ‘credentials’  in this blogs sidebar, blogs I have written for before. Now, my method for guest posting is as follows:

• Write a great authority, pillar article on your own blog.
• Write two or three blog posts around the same topic but covering some of the paragraphs points in detail. Send traffic to your main post with a anchor link to the main post in the guest articles.
• Read more about this strategy here, here and here.
• This specific strategy got me a very high profile writing gig on a popular blog – and when I say gig, I mean PAID.

Then, as you grow your portfolio, post your featurettes in your sidebar like I did. Have a look.  Go to the link for a list of my favorite blogs to guest post on and get some tips too.

Create products.

I have 2 products under my belt. Both failed dismally, but I am not one to quit. So right this moment I am busy with 2 BIG products which will hopefully launch in the next month or two. But these are not silly products, these are premium products that I hope to be of the best on the internet. A little more on how I plan to achieve that below.

Joint Ventures.

There is no better way to cement your authority in the larger webosphere than to work with or joint venture with someone that’s an authority in a specific niche. I have 2 of these ventures going right now and I’m confident it’s going to pay off big for me.

Here are some things that fall under joint venture that you could do to increase your authority.

• Get your name mentioned in the same sentence or alongside that person. You become an authority simply by association.
• Be seen on their platforms, as guest writers or contributors.
• Create more association using social media and connecting with authority figures and celebs. Not only will your following rise, but so will your cred.

Release a report/write a book.

Because my main online endeavors are related to publishing, most of my examples here will be related to that. Not to list achievement, but here is a list of my publications:

• Vision for a generation – This is the book from where the case study comes from that made me semi-famous. I wrote this book in 3 days and had a published, printed copy in my hands two weeks after I started. An awesome feat, even by today’s standards within an electronic world. Mine was old school write, print on paper with an office printer and pages put together by hand. Only thing I outsourced here is the binding of the book. I owned the cover image and had a graphic designer design the cover for me. If you want to know how this process works, feel free to download my Flash Publishing Report free.
• Up Close and Personal: An Interview Series with Modern Self-Publishers – This book was ‘harvested’  from my blog. I have been doing a series of interviews with self-publishing authors for almost two years and this book is a result of that.  I published this one on Amazon’s Kindle platform.
• The Flash Publishing Report – For this one I used the best and most important posts on my publishing blog and put them into a report.  The report is free on my blog but also on sale on Amazon’s Kindle platform. I’m selling in on Amazon for 0.99c just to get it sold.

Do a webinar.

As this could also fall under joint venture,  a webinar can also serve as a sales mechanism. But if you want to gain authority, do a high value webinar, for free, making your expertise available for free, exclusively to a join venture partner.

As I mentioned, it’s a great way to do sales, as you will also assist your partner in his affiliate sales with the webinar. So, not only will it help with building your authority, it will also give you respect and kudos with your partner and hiw entire network.

Syndicated Podcast/Radio Show

I am thinking of doing one for this post. Is it up? Anyway. What you basically do is discuss the post content in a conversational manner. While you do so, you record this ‘conversation ‘with yourself’  and post it on your blog. Here are my plans with a podcast:

• Blog – Obviously, with the options below set up I will publish my podcast using those means. For now, a simple mp3 audio using Audio Player would suffice.
• BlogTalkRadio – Here I am busy setting up a radio show. I have wanted to do this for years, but I think it’s time to dive in. Hopefully I’ll have this set up very soon. I just did a quick mock intro while typing this and I’m VERY excited.
• Random audios – Looking at the options above, I realized that an audio podcast could be done for each post and a daily radio show for BlogTalkRadio.
• Other options – I have not investigated other options like Soundcloud of iTunes. I’ll see how this develops.

Social media presence.

In my company, 5 Butterflies Media, we believe there are 5 social media channels that matter. Below is a list you should simply be on:

• Twitter – For me, it’s an important platform to market yourself and your brand. You can really get clinical with your marketing on Twitter. So, if you really spend time on the platform, you can connect a brand with a brand ambassador in 90 minutes flat, using Twitter. I have two accounts, a personal one and one for my publishing blog.
• Facebook – This platform is important to me, because of the ability to build a fan base, manage groups and advertising to your fans. You want to spend money on ads to build your platform and then post value adding posts on your page. Then, when your fan base has grown, you can promote your posts to a targeted, selected group. All my platforms as well as my customers have Fb pages.
• LinkedIn – LinkedIn is like a Facebook for business people. It’s important to be on here, grow your connections, form groups and participate in others. Becoming an authority is SO much easier with a presence on LinkedIn.
• Youtube – Along with the podcast/radio show I spoke of above, I am thinking of making videos of the show and posting that on Youtube. Perhaps a live stream? But having a personal or branded page is great for becoming an authority. Just make sure you are giving great value and keep your videos short and punchy.
• Google+ – It’s part of our marketing strategy because it’s connected to your Youtube account, allows you chats, hangouts, give you authorship and greatly influences search engine results.

Pinterest has also become a platform we recognized as being important to feature on. Even though we deem it an important platform to feature on, we cannot change our company to 6 Butterflies Media, as it’s already registered.

If you want to an online authority, it’s important that you are present on social media

Your Turn

So, within my online experience of 7 years, that’s the BEST ways I can think of of increasing your authority online.  Do you have any other methods you can share with me, other ways of increasing your authority online? I’d like to read your suggestions in the comments below.

Photo credit: Thomas Hawk / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Continue Reading