hmmm... I like when someone ask a legit question: Why don't we build more authority sites?:
the fast answer is money & laziness, it's rather easy to build a site, that will get hammered soon than later, but you got your money back and made a very good return.
a white hat site is completely different:
A) you most likely enjoy the topic
B) you did your research on the topic
C) your research gave you a valid indication of what a conversion could yield ( IE: if you did everything right and got to serps ranking 6, what the expect advertising could produce in revenue )
D) the short term rewards are not your goal, you are looking at long term results.
I have multiple sites that are white hat. I designed the goals on these sites to produce a certain $$$ value ( revenue via clicks, email, promotions ... ) and they don't have to hit those goals for about 2 to 3 years.
the problem with white hat sites is the effort, it's a business, don't think any other way. I invest 6 working hours per day in my web site business 5 days a week. anywhere from linking, managing content, making improvements and hiring vendors.
It's not easy, but the rewards are great.
let me give an example for one of my auto sites.
I currently have a site that targets a specific auto, from a specific era. it's rather stable. I have 7000 unique visitors per day, 40,000 page loads, and about a 20 minute stick time to my site. Not that big of a site per-say but the traffic is consistent which is what I need.
the site generates about 250 in revenue every day from adsense, I made deals with different automotive part manufacturers to become an affiliate ( I get a few pennies when they get a catalog out, and on the first order ). I am working with a classic car vendor to promote his inventory ( I get paid for the lead ). I have cut deals with other sites so that they can get some of my traffic in exchange for some of theirs ( think high quality link promotions ), It's endless.
in exchange, I now get invited for test drives, auto cruises, and vendor promotions when they are local ( or flown to a plant to see how it's made ), of course I get paid to promote a vendor, test drives are fun as heck, and I enjoy cruising and promoting a local shop or 2 ( without fee ) when the quality work is justified. I recently had to hire a profession video guy for this amazing tricked out car from a no-name place. ( my other revenue number are intentionally being left blank, no one needs to know )
And this has taken me about 5 years to get to this point. I happen to like this type of car, I enjoy the people in the industry and the best part is that I am making money, now $250.00 might sound like a lot, but ask any of the guys here whom run big white hat sites that made it to authority, it's not a lot at all, and they all know what the more real numbers are like
Also note: google, bing, yahoo, and the rest are a free generator of traffic. As nice as it is, don't depend on it. I drop about 4600 per month on advertising on print media and targeted cable ad's ( you can see most of my cable ads on motor trends TV or HG network )
Point is that smart work pays off, you just have to look long term, and you want to build multiple sites at the same time. but at the end of the day it's the research that leads you to the goal.
so this is what you want to do:
find 25 things you like.
narrow the list by looking at alexa, and seeing which of the 25 categories are steady in traffic, what you are looking for is consistency with very little seasonal change ( a good example is seasonal change is spring break or april 15th, both amazingly high traffic, but in 1 season only, does not cover the entire year )
pick the top 9 that are steady, do your keyword research and keyword valuation Research what those basic 9 things could pay if you had the top 6th site ( converting at 1.2% ).
now reduce that to 4, and start.
Notes about starting:
buy a note book for each web site, put in the book ideas you learned from other web sites that you can do on yours.
good luck
Billy Good.
