Why buying quality blogs is a good marketing strategy

Almost all businesses that have researched Internet marketing strategies are aware that high quality, engaging and relevant content is one of the best ways to drive valuable organic Web traffic.

The problem is that many people don't have the time or patience to build up a good base of content via blogging.

So what's the alternative?

Many companies opt for social media marketing or PPC ad campaigns in the hope that they will deliver tangible returns in the short term.

Good idea, except that social marketing hasn't delivered the returns that companies hoped for, and PPC ads have no residual benefits (as soon as the money dries up, so does the traffic).

Only high quality content has long term benefits that not only drive plenty of high quality organic search traffic, but also serve to establish the publisher as an authority and thought leader in that niche.

This article explores how established blogs, that already have decent page rankings and Web traffic volumes, can provide greater value and benefits than the cost of buying the blog (if you know what to look for).

Benefits of buying a blog

There are several immediate benefits that purchasing an established blog brings, over starting a new blog from scratch:

• Established following
• Established page rankings
• Indexed content
• Proven track record
• Established backlinks

In essence, any blog that is driving Web traffic in a particular niche, is doing so because it is likely of decent quality and has built up a decent amount of organic backlinks - something that otherwise takes a lot of time, effort and investment.

In addition, because Web analytics capture historical traffic data, it is very easy to see what you are buying. In other words, it is almost impossible for a blog owner to inflate their Web traffic numbers, or be misleading about the type of SEO keywords they rank well on.

Web content is an easily quantifiable asset.

In addition, any blog that has good Web traffic is also likely to be free of major SEO problems - otherwise these would have been caught in previous Panda or Penguin algorithm updates and penalized.

How to buy the right blog

It is important that you understand the type of visitors you want to reach through the blog.

It's easy to ascertain what keywords drive a blog's Web traffic by inspecting the organic keywords section of their Google analytics (or other Web analytics software).

In particular, seek out blogs with:

1. growing Web traffic volumes
2. high page rankings for relevant niche SEO keywords
3. Content and writing with a voice and message that is compatible with your brand

This will help to ensure that any blog (and therefore content) purchased by you will be an asset, and lead to a high conversion rate that brings a positive ROI (Return on Investment).

How to value a blog

This is the part where savvy people can really score because there is a fundamental difference between the value of content to a blogger (without the infrastructure to sell relevant products and services), and a business that can monetize content with their own products and services.

For example, a blogger may be able to earn $100 per month from a great article about software via Google or affiliate ads.

But, if that article is appearing at the top of search results for SEO terms like "top business software", and this is exactly what your company sells, then it is likely that you can generate far higher returns from the exact same content.

In this way, blog content can be purchased at a rate commensurate with what the blogger earns, despite the fact that it will generate much higher returns down the line.

To value a blog:

1. Determine the volume of highly relevant traffic (i.e. organic search traffic, and other traffic, that is relevant to your brand)
2. Estimate the obtainable conversion rates from that traffic (you may be able to use conversion rates from keywords used in PPC campaigns)
3. Work out the net and gross profits based on Web traffic and conversion rates to get the overall value of the blog

Ok, that's pretty simplified, but you get the picture.

So not only do you benefit from taking possession of a proven, high ranking, tangible asset, you also benefit from being able to pay a lower rate because its value is less to the owner of the content.

Provided that you are able to pick and choose great quality blogs that are growing steadily and offer a great pool of quality content that is relevant, you should be able to generate very high returns.

Generating returns in the short term by purchasing an asset that has long term benefits is a fantastic strategy.

What other advantages are their to buying existing blogs with a view to monetizing them? Are there any downsides? Have you purchased an existing blog before? What were the results?

Share your insights in the comments.