Greg,
Sorry for so many questions, but I would really appreciate your help. I am trying to build my first authority site. I have read the entire thread, and some of the questions I had got answered (in which case I removed them from this post as I drafted it), but I still have outstanding questions.
Could you explain the details a little more?
You get 800 kws from Google, and then filter them down to several hundred, so your outsourcers have less work. What do you send them? Every keyword and then let them figure out the topics?
Or do you categorize them yourself and then send them off? What specifically (how many KWs) do you send your outsourcers?
4?
I have hundreds of categories... breast cancer, breast cancer symptoms, breast cancer cures, breast cancer treatment... there are probably thousands of categories I could create but hopefully this will help you see things a little differently.
How do you pick these categories?
No, I just have one KW per article but what you are thinking [grouping several keywords per article] might not be a bad way to attack a site. I won't because I want a lot of pages on a site as that makes Google happy.
How "close" are the different articles, and keyword titles? Do you have articles on synonyms?
Also, if there is only one KW per article, do you send your writers any instructions about trying to get other KWs in that article?
4?
I use all my KWs for categories and put each article into at least 2 categories.
... I put the articles in several categories so they show up in a bunch of places when people are looking.
Does it appear as duplicate content on your blog?
Someone mentioned you might be using broad matches, not exact. Which is it?
4?
Also, I don't always use adsense to monetize my sites so that doesn't come into play all the time.
For the cancer site, what do you use to monetize it instead of adsense?
Typically any KW I go after has some serious authority sites in front of me initially but since I target hundreds and sometimes thousands of KWs I become an authority site as well and although I may not overcome the guys in from of me all the time, I get them more often than not.
So you don't do competition analysis when picking your topic?
Then how do you choose what topic the authority site will be on (besides seeing it in your personal life)? There are so many possible topics, how do you narrow it down?
Who are the "authors" of each article? Your site name or made up human names?