I talk a lot about creating authority sites as an online business idea in order to build a long term online business. After all, this is what I’ve been doing the longest online and have had the most success with in my endeavors.

Recently, I added a new blog post to one of big content sites. I centered it around a three word keyword phrase that seemed to get decent traffic.

I did nothing else but make the blog post. No social bookmarking, no linking or promoting of any kind.

But because I had built this site up to somewhat of an authority site, that post was listed in all three search engines within a day or to.

I made the post on June 21st. From June 25th to July 13th it was #5 as far as keyword traffic to my site.

It was ranked #9 in Google, #14 on Bing (MSN) and #18 on Yahoo.

Oh, and another three word keyword phrase that I included in the post was #15. In that time period I received search engine traffic from 1,677 different keywords.

That is powerful stuff, making authority site building a powerful online business idea.

Sure, creating an authority site takes more time than other strategies. But it also lasts and it builds equity, if you ever decide to sell.

If you build content sites the right way, you don’t need to worry about it at all. The long run thing is the key. Don’t build them for immediate income (sure, you can get it but it’s not a stable thing to count on).

Just continue to build them out as you do your other stuff. Spend a little time on them each day.

My first ever content site continues to get 1,000 plus unique visitors every day, day in and day out and I’ve been doing literally nothing for it the past year as other projects have taken priority.

My point being, once you establish a content site the right way, the traffic doesn’t really get affected by any search engine algorithm shifts.

Obviously, that takes time, but like I said, do them as you do other things and you’ll see your income grow over time.

The things that affect content sites with ranking shifts are usually a young site, not a lot of content, and maybe some shady or unreliable ways of getting links.

Another site consistently gets over 300 unique visitors a day and I have a few other content sites that do the same (each over a year old).

Done right, content sites are an online business idea for a long term business model. I have numerous sites that get at least 1,000 unique visitors a month that I haven’t touched (added content OR done any link building or promotion) for a year or so.

I am going back to them now because of great potential and I don’t want Google to feel they are abandoned but luckily, once a site is established you don’t have to add content very often and at that point you could add a page every couple of months and even have someone else write it for $5.

Don’t just think about short term cash. Build a long term business as well. And creating content sites is an online business idea that works for the long term.

With these content sites you can:

• Promote affiliate offers
• Make money with per click programs like Adsense or Kontera
• Build your own email list
• Create and sell your own products
• Charge people for advertising on your site in the form of text links or banners
• Sell the site years later for a boatload of cash

When you create a quality content site in a niche, you can pretty much do whatever you want. You control a valuable piece of virtual real estate.

Next time I’ll go into some more detail on this powerful online business idea and getting started building your own virtual real estate empire the right way.

They don’t know where to start or how to find a niche.

It’s really not that difficult but many people have a mental block the same with they do when it comes to writing.

If you’re struggling to come up with niche ideas, sitting in front of Google or Wordtracker and not being able to come up with any keywords as a starting point, then get away from the computer.

You’re probably much better off taking your niche research offline. Think about it.

Niches are everywhere in your day to day life.

Just because you want to start an internet business doesn’t mean you have to find your niche online as well.

The easiest way to get started with niche research is to zip on down to your local bookstore like Barnes & Nobles or Borders.

Start with the huge magazine section. Every single one of those magazines is potentially a viable niche.

If a niche subject can support an offline magazine, money is being made because that magazine is supported by the advertisers that are in it.

For me, the magazine section at the bookstore is a goldmine when it comes to niche research.

If you can’t find a niche there I think something may be wrong with you.

But seriously, take a thorough look, write down the magazines that interest you, even purchase some for the niches you have an interest in pursuing.

Magazines are also a great way to get a feel for the type of content and information that a niche is interested in.

When you get your collection of potential niches, then you can start doing some keyword research to start planning your site.

If you have emotional issues and need to do your niche research on the computer, go to Amazon.com or Magazine.com and dig in.

According to a recent Yahoo/Harris survey, a whopping 70% of Americans said they have thought about starting their own business.

In addition, millions each year start home based businesses.

People thinking about starting their own business listed the following as the main reasons for doing so:

• For a passionate hobby/doing work I love 35%

• To be my own boss 20%

• To make more money 16%

• To create something people need 11%

• For the challenge 11%

• To get rich/nearly rich 3%

• Other 4%

These are all great reasons. Interestingly, I think they can all be placed under one banner. Freedom.

All of these things give us what we really crave from having our own business and that’s the freedom to do what we want when we want.

I recently returned from the Authority Summit, and we discussed this very thing.

Overwhelmingly, we agreed that almost any reason you can come up with for starting a home based business can fall under freedom.

Without it, do any of these other reasons really matter?

Now is the time, more than any other, to jump in with your own home based business.

Today’s technology and the internet has revolutionized what a business can be.

In addition, the barriers to entry are almost non-existent. What do you need?

• Register A Domain Name

• Web hosting: I recommend a web host without reservation -

  SBI which is an all in one online business package that helps you create content sites that the search engines love.

• Autoresponder Account

That’s about it at the beginning.

You may not grow your business as fast as if you had a lot of money but you can be very successful with a minimum investment in your business.

You can then reinvest profits and continue to grow your business.

I have a web site that generates 30,000 – 50,000 unique visitors per month from free traffic sources only.

Automatically. Pretty cool, right? So all I’m paying for is my web hosting.

If you’re serious about jumping in with your own home based internet marketing business, I highly recommend you sign up for the VRE Coaching Course

I don’t want to bash you over the head with too much hype but it’s truly more valuable than some courses you’d pay hundreds of dollars for.

Did I mention it was free?

First, making money blogging is not as simple as a lot of people want you to believe.

Don’t believe all the hype of sales letters and blog posts that you see. There is work involved.

You can’t just throw up a blog, make a few posts and expect the cash to roll in.

However, if you are prepared to put together a solid game plan and put in the necessary work, blogging can be a fantastic and easy way to make money working from home.

But you need to realize that you need a plan, just like with any other business.

If you were going to spend $350,000 to open a retail store, I doubt you’d just rent a building, purchase a bunch of random stuff, toss it into your store and open for business, expecting people (traffic) to stampede to what you have to offer (your blog’s content), and whip out their credit cards for your products (your offers on your site, whether it’s adsense or affiliate links).

So if you still want to make money blogging, here are eight steps you can take to start generating traffic and pulling in profits.

1. Select A Niche

There’s been a lot written about how to select a niche. My favorite ways to find a niche are actually offline and you can read more about that in my article, How To Find Profitable Niches Offline

To confirm that the niche will be viable online (people are searching for the topic and you can generate traffic), you’ll need to do some keyword research as well.

Wordtracker’s Free Keyword Research Tool goes a long way in helping you determine if your niche is being searched for online.

2. Create Your Blog

Once you have your niche selected, you need to set up your blog.

While there are a number of free options such as Blogger.com and Wordpress.com I recommend that you get your own hosting account and use the blogging software at Wordpress.org to create your blog.

One, it’s more professional. Two, it’s YOUR blog.

If you host somewhere else like Blogger, the site belongs to them (in this case, Google) and they can delete your entire blog whenever they want and for no reason at all.

I’ve seen it done to people more times than I can count.

By the way, I do recommend you use sites like blogger and wordpress.com for marketing and traffic generation purposes but not as your main site or blog.

Wordpress is currently the most powerful blogging software around today. I give it my highest recommendation.

However, there are a number of things you’ll want to do with your Wordpress once you have it installed.

This mainly involves setting up a number of different plugins that will make your site more user friendly as well as search engine friendly.

Here are a few plugins to get you started:

• Google Sitemap

• Subscribe Me

• Sociable

• Related Posts

• Tagalize It

• All in One SEO Pack

• ALinks [creeate links in your posts to affiliate products]

• Adsense Deluxe

• Akismet [spam buster for blogs]

3. Write 10 – 15 Quality Articles

Once your blog is set up, you’ll want to add quality content. Before doing any marketing, take the time to add ten to fifteen quality posts to your blog.

I would recommend you write ten solid articles in the 300 – 500 word range.

Once you’d done that, write another five pillar content articles. Pillar content articles will take you more time.

They should be longer, more in depth and the type of articles people would want to bookmark. That means high quality articles that include lists, resources, step by step plans, etc.

Think about articles you’ve bookmarked to read again. Why did you bookmark them? Look for the common characteristics of articles you’ve bookmarked. Then use them for your own pillar content articles.

4. Create Web 2.0 Pages

Yes, it’s time to create more content. I’m talking about creating content on web 2.0 properties like Squidoo.com and HubPages.com

By the way, this is when you can use sites like blogger and wordpress.com as well.

Here’s a sample Squidoo lens on affiliate marketing tips.

5. Network Marketing

No, this isn’t that kind of network marketing. This is the kind of networking where you get out there and mingle with those in your niche.

Email bloggers in your niche and let them know about your pillar content articles. Ask if they use guest posters. Vote on their stuff at social sites.

6. Submit 5 Articles to Article Directories

You’ll hear some people say this is one of the best internet marketing tactics around.

Others will say not to do it because of the duplicate content penalties in the search engines or that you won’t get much traffic and the links aren’t very valuable.

Personally I’ve gotten hundreds of visitors from an article directly from EzineArticles.com but there is an even more valuable reason to submit articles to article directories.

This reason is longer term but it’s very important. By getting your articles out there via guest blogging and article submissions, you get your name all over the internet.

You become an expert in your niche and other experts look at you that way as well. This leads to opportunities via networking by having other experts contact you about various joint ventures.

This has happened to me numerous times in the fitness niche, leading to marketing and product creation opportunities. This doesn’t happen over night but it will happen if you stick with it.

7. Blog Comments and Trackbacks

Look, I’ll be honest with on this one. It’s not going to instantly drive thousands of visitors to your site. However, it fits well with number five above, networking.

By being a regular commenter (with quality comments) and using trackbacks, you’ll get noticed by other top bloggers in your niche.

8. Submit Pillar Content to Social Sites

Submit your top content pieces to sites like Digg, Propeller, StumbleUpon and Sphinn

Find sites like digg or propeller that are specific for your niche and submit your content there.

Sign up at Only Wire and bookmark you blog posts.

Put these steps into action, follow them consistently and you will start seeing results. Before you know it, you’ll be making money blogging.

For a complete course, covering all this information, including videos, check out the VRE Coaching Course It’s free and provides more quality information than most courses costing hundreds of dollars.