DB Ferguson gave an insightful talk at WordCamp Dallas 2009 on authority. DB runs No Fact Zone, one of the top Stephen Colbert fan sites on the Internet. She has spent a lot of time reporting on news and information that surrounds Stephen Colbert and his tv show The Colbert Report.
Here are a few excellent key points from the session:
- Speak with the voice of authority or gravitas
- Present yourself as a professional
- Write with a neutral tone
- Stay positive and avoid negativity
- Make sure your content is accurate and relevant to your readers
- Present original content that adds value to the conversation
- Credit all primary news sources
- Create exclusive, valuable content
- Networking with credible people who can share valuable information with you
- Monitor existing authority blogs and contact people with authority in your field
- Develop contacts within your fan site and grow your community base
- Make sure your server can handle website traffic bursts
- Pass information back to your network of contacts to attract backlink and be helpful
- Use WP-Supercache to deliver a stored copy of your content to handle large amounts of traffic
- Use WP Greet Box to greet readers and prompt them to take some action, like subscribing to your rss feed
Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com
