A few months ago, Rand Fishkin wrote a post about the benefits of buying a blog. It's a tactic I have become a big fan of - it's effective, efficient, and scalable. By purchasing/financing a blog you can work hand-in-hand with an established site that already has an engaged readership and a social following.
One thing to keep in mind, the end goal here isn't links. Do you get links? Sure! You get a ton! But this isn't a tactic to pump a contextually relevant blog full of anchor text links. This is a blueprint to align your site with an established publication, partner on content, and build your brand. This is a strategy to grow a business, not just a back link profile.
Prospecting
(Credit: Flickr user ToOliver2)
Target a niche blog that pertains to your vertical - It's best to target a site that is about one very specific subject that pertains to your money site. If I was working on a site that sold beer brewing kits, I wouldn't go for a general beer blog. I would prospect for blogs that cover a specific aspect of beer, like home brew recipes or rare beers.
(Credit: Flickr user Tim Patterson)
Every site ranking for "beer blog" or other generic head terms that pertain to your industry is going to get hammered by link requests on a regular basis. When you target something niche, you are going to cut down on the amount of link requests they receive, and they may be more open to talking with you. I like to target sites that cover my secondary and long tail keywords.
(Credit: Flickr user Tax Credits)
Look for a blog that is not monetized - There is no point in trying to purchase a blog from someone who is guest posting, doing product reviews, and hosting giveaways several times a day. When prospecting, find a site that publishes a lot of original content for the sole purpose of benefiting their readership and sharing a unique perspective.
Target a site with one writer - During the acquisition process, it will be easier to sell a single person on the idea of financing their blog. Also, managing workflow, deadlines, and payment is much easier with one person as opposed to a group of writers.
Research the prospect with a microscope - If it's a serious prospect, I will read through the last four weeks of their blog and then do the following searches
- site:blogimresearching.com AND [client name]
- site:blogimresearching.com AND [head keyword] OR [secondary keywords]
- site:blogimresearching,com AND [CEOs name] OR [spokesperson name]
I look for any inclination that the blogger has been exposed to the brand before. How do they feel about the industry and your client's executive officers? I read the posts for tone, which I admit takes a lot of time. This is going to be someone promoting your brand, so you need to pay attention. If the mentions aren't extremely favorable, move on to the next prospect.
(Credit: Flickr user Victor Bezrukov)
Go for something established, but not a powerhouse - You are not going to be able to sponsor or buy a top blog that pertains to your industry. In my experience, it's best to target up-and-comers. Don't be too picky. If they are a solid writer, I would take a Domain Authority of 35 or higher with 40 or more linking root domains.
Outreach Phase
The term "buying a blog" is scary, remove it from your vocabulary when communicating with target sites. I like to refer to it as a "promotional partnership." Craft a quick personalized letter that comes off as professional and friendly, here's one of mine:
Always ask for a phone call in the introductory email. It's imperative to become a real voice in their ear and not just another thread in their inbox. This shows the blogger that you are willing to invest your time and attention towards them. If they have posts that have been picked up by major publications, it wouldn't hurt to reference those achievements either.
The Response
Acquisition Phase
Off the bat, I like to let them know that this proposed partnership isn't about links and anchor text, it's about driving traffic.
Before you go any further, it's important to get a screenshot of their analytics, if they have no traffic there is no point in going through with the partnership.
That's way better than I hoped for.
To seal the deal, I offer to pay for their hosting and the time it will be taking them to work with us to grow their audience. It's critical to go over all of your expectations with them. Let them know that they are free to have other advertisers on their site, but that they shouldn't engage in advertising with any of your competitors.
IMPORTANT: GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING!
(Credit: Flickr user NobMouse)
I recommend having the blogger agree to the following in writing
- Since our experts' opinions are useful and informative for your readership, we would like X amount of posts every month to feature them for an expert opinion or interview. These posts will link to relevant portions of the client's site in an effort to reinforce the overall message of your posts.
- One badge, with the client's branding that links over to the client's site with the alt image text of the client's choice shall be placed on the homepage for the duration of the partnership
- Site will be paid X on the 1st of the month as long as all publishing deadlines are met.
- Site will not engage in any advertising with the following sites: (list of competitors)
Once that's signed, the real work begins.
Mentoring Phase (Ongoing)
Now you have to follow through on the promise to grow their audience. These recommendations can be time consuming for both of you. I like to make one recommendation per month to improve their blog. Here's a starter list of things you can do to help out your blogger.
- Clean Up Their Site - Run their site through Xenu and send them the broken link report. Have them download Check My Links for Chrome so they can easily find and clean up their 404s from the Xenu report.
- Help Them With Indexation - Look over their site and provide them with a new robots.txt file that blocks out unnecessary directories with duplicate content. (like /tag/ and /category/)
- Make Them an XML Sitemap - I like to use Screaming Frog for this, just make sure to take out any unnecessary pages.
- Send Them Guest Post Opportunities - Those HARO opportunities that might not be right for your client are probably perfect for your partner blog.
- Identify Influential Peers - Use Followerwonk to find influencers in their space. Encourage your blogger to interact and engage with the influencers you've identified through social media and insightful blog comments.
- Optimize Their Evergreen Content - Get a user account for their Google Analytics and see which old posts are still getting search traffic. Rewrite the title tags and meta descriptions of these evergreen posts for increased click through rates.
- Give them social media advice - My favorite social media guide for small business is The Social Media Workout Plan (TM) by @manamica. It's extremely actionable and very easy for anyone to follow, including bloggers.
- Teach Them About Google Alerts - Show them how to set up topical Google Alerts so they will have a constant stream of relevant news stories that could inspire their blog posts.
- Give Them an SEO Education - Blogs need SEO help too; the Beginner's Guide to SEO is the best entry level resource out there.
- Grow Their Commenting Community - Have the blogger implement Livefyre or DISQUS for increased commenting on their site.
Content Creation Phase (Ongoing)
Every month, your blogger should come to you with a new topic that they want to write about that pertains to your client's industry. It's your job to get a representative from your client's company to get you a quote in a timely manner. As long as you don't slow down the blogger's creative process, they should like working with you. After all, you are providing them with authoritative industry opinions for their content.
If the blogger ever has writer's block, I like to use UberSuggest to create an evergreen post concept. If you need some tips on using the tool, Amanda Orson wrote a great post on how to use Followerwonk to create content.
Although it's a lot of work at first, this beats the headaches that come with maintaining a flimsy microsite that could get penguinized at any moment. With this strategy you get a real site, with real readers, that are being exposed to your client's brand on a daily basis. It can drive conversions, educate consumers, and help build a loyal brand following. This isn't just and SEO strategy; it's a business strategy.
(Credit: QuickMeme)
This isn't the only marketing initaitive we have going for this client, so I can't say if this single strategy lead to undeniable success. There have been a lot of other efforts to push them into mainstream press. However, here is a screenshot from their analytics that shows the conversion rate of the traffic from the partner blog:
This relationship is driving revenue.
Our client is experiencing growth because of a real relationship that we have created with a trusted and authoritative site. Overall, their rankings have gone up, they are seeing more conversions, and they love that we are creating content that gets read by their target demographic and not some "Top 10 Signs You Are..." to place on a low level blog in exchange for a single link.
Savvy clients are starting to care less and less about PR3 links on pay-to-play mom blogs or infographics you have to throw down $150 to post on the equivalent of a content directory. As an industry, our clients are relying on us more to be real marketers. Inserting our client into a target demographics’ preferred and trusted media source has helped grow their business, brand, traffic, and trust. This may not be traditional SEO, but it's working.
Really liked this post, lots of actionable tips in here. Any thoughts on how you gauge pricing? You throw out a number first or let them evaluate the cost? What metrics do you use to decide on the cost? I'm guessing your leave yourself an option to exit the relationship if things don't work out as you'd hoped - do you leave the blogger with that option too?
Blerg.... that's the second time I have commented as well. Alright I am logging out of OSE on all browsers. I try and feel it out to be honest, once i get them on the phone i look for clues into how much would be right for them. In niche verticals that aren't highly competitive you could get away with 100-200 a month no problem.
Really? $100-$200 per month sounds like an amazing deal - even in a niche vertical, especially for an up and coming blog that has a strong domain authority like you mentioned.
Really interesting to get a figure though :)
I think this is a very good strategy. I know giveaways were written about the other day, but you can pair this strategy with giveaways, instead of paying $X a month. Arrange an agreement where you get to write a post for them every week or month, in exchange for giving away something to their readers every month.
Good idea Henley! Because giveaways are mutual beneficial I could see bloggers being all over this, I am going to have to test this out - thanks for the idea!
JH,
Thank You! Great new idea and thorough explanation on how to do it! Those emails are great.
My question is how do you determine the amount of time to spend in mentoring a blogger? In your experience does the blogger become a problem in requesting to much of your time?
Hey Ben,
Thanks for the question buddy! Most of the bloggers I work with are pretty savvy, they've been blogging for a bit and just need to be pointed in the right direction. That being said, cleaning up 404s with this particular blogger took some time, so we negotiated having her double up on interviews for a few months. Most of the time, bloggers are very open to going beyond the contract because you are providing them with great advice.
* Also I was accidently logged into Wil Reynolds' account (we use it for OSE as a company) and left a comment under his name but deleted it... for some reason the comment box wont go away though.
Interesting approach. My initial thought was, all that work in the mentoring phase seems like a load for a site that you do not own doesn't seem scalable. However, I can see 'partnering' being a viable option if you've identified an awesome site that you want to buy, but the owner isn't interested in selling.
Enjoyed your post, John-Henry. This strategy is great because it's a win-win situation. Our clients get great results and the blogger(s) gets more traffic and more money to re-invest in their blog. As a former music blogger myself, I can say with certainty that the approach would work.
Wow - this blog post is incredibly clever and goes beyond the usual behaviour (that's why you work at SEER I guess - Wil Reynolds always opens up my mind, too).
Adding you e-mail traffic is cool, too.
Great possibility for brand awareness and link buidling!
+1 to your comment and +3 to the article... simply super phenomenal!!
Wil and Team SEER is indeed incredible and allow people to think again about what you are investing and what you are getting out of it as a return!
Just wondering if is this not going against business ethics? You got a business proposal from SEER Interactive that is great but I do not think that it is proper to reveal everything. However, it is great to learn that people are moving forward from the concept of buying or getting links to visitors sharing.
Thanks mate :)
Absolutely agree Debduali - its completely improper - by both the blogger and the "sponsor." I know people who've been taking bribes, I mean sponsorships for posts for years - its not a "new" strategy. But it is pretending to be something its not. I'll sponsor your $20 pa hosting fee (if there is even a hosting cost) - hosting is so cheap these days if not free, so I can't believe that people are being bought for such low sums.
Call me cynical or whatever you like but this is wrong! Actually the whole idea of scanning people's back links imo is wrong (I see I'm going to be hugely popular) - so when you can't tell black hat from grey or white - who cares really? :P
I am glad to read your post with unique approach and ideas. It is really best strategy for blogger and our clients to be partner with an existing blog. I think very few of people implements and use this strategy for engaging more traffic. Thanks for sharing with us your experience example it will really useful for us to start with this.
Nice post with few deep thoughts about the blog writing
John Henry,
This is a great post, I love your idea of acquiring blogs, we have spoken on numerous occasions on the beneits of this kind of stuff. I'd love to see more from you on Moz and SEER :)
Hello sir, thanks for providing such useful information about Blog. Blog is more useful for represent your Business.
I request to You that, you will continue to providing this type of useful information.
Hi John,
I've a question for you. As you have mentioned in the post that we should try to target a niche blog. Don't you think this would be applicable to only the particular company who wants to sponsor? (In seo words only one website for relationship building). However can't we think in an outsourcing IM company perspective? where we (outsouring IM comp) would try to sponsor the blog who has potentials readers as well as different categories. Which would help us to build relationship of diff clients with targeted site. Another advantage we will have is max amount could be sponsored to the targeted site/s if we have different clients. Please let me know what you think?
Hi Sunny, I wouldn't do this for two reasons. 1) I don't like crossing over my clients back link profiles. 2) It's important to connect with a niche site. What strong blog talks about both dog ownership and home repairs? Good blogs are usually focused on a single general topic, they build their readership through their expertise.
When i do this, I usually have the client have a pretty regular voice and influence on the blog - I wouldn't want the two voices competing.
Thanks for the question!
This is one of the best strategy i have ever read. I would totally use and recommend this approach as it is a win-win situation to both parties involved. Clients get their products promoted and the bloggers gets high traffic with their article. I would like to use this one as my personal strategy.
I have seen different post on this topic but none so complete and so well explained, thank you very much
WOW .. a great post with something that I can go ahead and suggest for some of our clients. Hats off for the detailed step by step action plan.
BTW does my eyes deceive me or is that bounce rate 1.62 % ?
What's the best thing to do in order to convince or make a blogger to partner with me? With my blog and to monetize by blogging?
i have been blogging for some time and it makes sense that you would acquire more, but i have enough on my hands without another! gcheers for the thoughts www.globlakap.com
I have been guest posting for a while now but blog acquisition never really occurred to me. Thanks for the great idea!
Finally, a post that isn't about 10 ways to build links. I like this outside-the-box idea. Especially for the fact that you're trying to align your client's brand with a niche set of readers over the long-term.
Do you include ways out of the partnership if the blogger starts slacking or if readership begins dropping?
Hey Shredward, thanks for the comment! If the blogger starts slacking, I would stop paying them their monthly retainer. In the agreement it states "Site will be paid X on the 1st of the month as long as all publishing deadlines are met" However, if they put forth a lot of hustle, and the just aren't sending traffic and their blog isn't growing I would most likely choose to end the partnership and be completely transparent with the blogger. I would let them know that the partnership did not meet the client's expectations.
A very sophisticated method indeed. I have never really thought about it - but it's so hard to analyze if it will be worth your efforts. You can go on for several months paying for his hosting, giving him free SEO services, and then not gaining traffic back to your client.
And then what? You can't back out on your agreement :)
Thanks for the comment Yoav. You're right, you can't back out once you have started working with a blogger, so you need to do thorough research. However, compare this process to making a quality microsite. How much time/money would you invest in creating a custom wordpress theme, curating and creating tons of content, trying to build a social following and attracting high quality links. I would say this strategy has a better chance of ROI than most whitehat microsites and can actually require less effort.
So the outreach is not for getting links is for "traffic". I am just curios if the blog owner will be open for a partnership but all links are no-follow willy ou still be interested in the partnership ??
I would jump the gun and say you probably won't follow up but it's just me - I am a non believer :)For me it's just a nicer way to buy links but again - it's just me maybe.
When going for a partnership, I have never had a blogger suggest nofollowing the links. In my experience, bloggers who insist on nofollowing links run some of the spammyier/low quality blogs that are highly monetized and do a lot of social promotion. The blogs this strategy is intended for are a it more natural and don't really worry about "passing link juice"
To answer your question - if a site owner insisted on nofollowing the links I probably wouldn't pursue the partnership unless the site had a gigantic following and they were willing to REALLY promote my site.
No follows are for purchased links/advertising - this is a legit partnership and, in my personal opinion, within Google's guidelines. This strategy isn't intended to "pass page rank" it's intended to bring new prospects to your website - but link juice is an added benefit that I will fight for / rarely pass up.
Thought about this tactic a few times myself, but you can't just jump straight into the ballpark and buy a blog because it sounds like a new and exciting prospect.
My site for example is very broad, it would be incredibly difficult to find a blog which covers everything that my current blog/website covers. Would changing the blog too much to match my site drive away traffic?
Would buying several blogs be more expensive and time consuming than simply putting resources into the sites own and current blog?
Also, what are the blogs audience base like? Some blogs no matter how niche they are have extremely loyal followers who will constantly return to the blog, others might leave at the blink of an eye when they suspect the blog has been taken over by a company.
Great tactic, but think long and hard before buying blogs.
Very nice post, this is definitely a unique approach, thank you for sharing it.
Any suggestions or to tips on earning the bloggers trust?
If the bloggers site has a ton of 404s or other errors, this would be a low quality site linking to your site, correct?
IMO blogs that have valuable influence/authority on the web are not easy to gain trust from and usually don't have too many SEO problems.
Thanks for asking! I go very, very niche with this tactic, and even the best sites usually have some problems. I recommend going for sites that are still relatively new (under 2 years old) but very hungry and dedicated. You have to build them up with this process - so if they are already a rock star blog, this tactic most likely isn't a fit.
Ever since reading Rand's post on buying a blog I've thought it was a brilliant idea. 'Sponsoring' a blog is of course much better than simply buying contextual links on that site, you end up with a channel to promote your message through.
A lot will see this as a big commitment that may not be quantifiable on return, however this is a longer term strategy and does need thorough research and time to make it work. You also need a source of funding for this so isn't always an option for low budget clients where it's probably the best option to do anyway. Some creative thinking will be required to build a relationship with the blog.
Quite informative post and gives lots of information about different tools monetize different websites instantly. A big thanks for this post.
What an excellent step-by-step guide on not only how to buy or finance a blog, but how to check it out from every direction.
This post can be used by bloggers to keep their blogs running well.
John,
Thanks for the post! A quick question: Do you draft the contract or do you use an attorney? Have you ever had one of these deals go south or end on bad terms?
Thanks!
Thanks for the question! I have never drafted a contract with an attorney, I would like to in the future, but I have found that lawyers make people nervous. I guess you could call this process making an "agreement" with the blogger. I have never had this go south or end on bad terms - the advice you are providing the blogger is really valuable for them so they are usually a joy to work with.
However, this goes back to researching your prospects thoroughly. After reading 3 months of someone's blog posts, i get a pretty good feel for them. Look at the dates, how often do they publish? Do they take their craft seriously - if so, chances are that working with them will be easily and mutually beneficial.
First, love this idea and everything that you wrote on it.
But, I'm going to be "that guy", John-Henry, and point out that you have a typo in your outreach e-mail (FIND: "if your open", REPLACE: "if you're open"). If this is something that you're scaling, I figured that this could be a template that's getting sent a lot (which would totally suck with that bit in there again and again :) ).
Otherwise though, awesome post. Well done.
I knew someone was going to get me for that :)
Sorry to be the odd one out but doesn't this scare anyone else? This just doesn't sit well with me.
Is this just not link buying by another name? What if you "sponsor" a blog and the author decides to write a terrible review or to promote a competitor? Do you cut them off? Would they be that stupid?
Of course its going to affect the editorial!
For balance - would you not add that the "sponsored" blogger has a duty and responsibility to declare that they have been bribed? I mean sponsored. Wasn't there a legal requirement to do this recently.
"Its not SEO but its working" > The same could be said for most blackhat SEO