The question whether to buy or start a blog is one of the frequently asked questions in webmaster forums today. I have also received quite a number of emails from my readers asking for my advice regarding this matter. In today’s post, I wish to address this question and share my opinion on the topic. test

To Buy Or Not To Buy

Considering that the cyberspace has millions of blogs already and that thousands are created everyday, the most obvious benefit of buying a blog is being able to bypass competition. It simply means, you have an edge over your competitors in terms of traffic, subscribers and rankings. This will spare you long hours of link building, search engine optimization and networking.

Buying an establish blog also allows the new owner to monetize it immediately considering that the blog is receiving sufficient traffic. With an established blog, you don’t need to hazzle your way up in improving your blog’s vital rankings like Technorati and Alexa (rankings vital in blog monetization) in order to get accepted to advertising networks or review sites.

Naturally, since you are buying a blog, you need to have enough funds. Prices of blogs vary depending on its traffic, revenue, subscribers and rankings. The ones with good traffic, high rankings and high income are normally more expensive. And, if you want to buy a quality site, you will need to invest some money.

Another problem with buying a blog is the risk of lossing your subscribers, which has happened in several cases. This usually takes place when the new owner fails to keep up with the standards established by the original blog owner. Another reason could also be the change in tone and personality of the blog, which is a direct result of the different personality and perspective of the new owner. It also possible that the new owner may have new goals and objectives, which changes the direction of where the blog is going. If the readers don’t like it, it’s always easy for them to unsubscribe.

It is also possible that you can’t find a blog for sale that covers the topic that you want to blog about. I have told you in several of my posts that when you start to blog, blog about the things that are of interest to you. Otherwise, you might just end up abandoning your blog from the lack of motivation to carry on.

To Start Or Not To Start

Starting a blog on the other hand is not an easy job. In fact, starting a blog is the most difficult and the most crucial phase of blogging. Starting a blog requires alot of jobs to be done like setting up your blog, making your first few posts, promoting it, building its rankings etc. If you don’t have the patience and dedication to start something from scratch and gradually build it, then starting a blog is not advisable for you.

Since your blog is new, monetizing it will have to be done later when you have established traffic and rankings. These are important elements to be able to start making money from your blog. And these can be achieved through hard work, which usually takes a longer time. If you want to start monetizing your blog right away, then starting your own blog is not suitable for you.

Perhaps another problem with starting a blog is the fact that you need to compete with a great number of new comers. The competition is usually tough as most of the new bloggers are highly motivated to build their blog. If you don’t have what it takes to beat the competition, then starting a blog is not the right move for you.

Although starting a new blog is challenging, there are still some good reasons why you should opt for it. For one, starting your own blog and achieving some good results is more fulfilling than buying one and you know that the credits are not yours.

With you starting your own blog, you will be able to minimize the risk of losing disgruntled subscribers. Starting your blog also gives you the freedom to use your own tone, voice and style.

Lastly, although starting a new blog is so much time consuming, it is still alot cheaper than when you buy an established blog.

That’s my take of the issue. What about you? What would you prefer, to buy an established blog or start your own from scratch? What do you think is more rewarding?

I would love to know your opinion. Do share it in the comment.

Thank you for your time.

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Almost everyday, I receive emails from different webmasters / bloggers requesting for reciprocal links. At first, reading their emails were amusing but it’s been annoying lately as the number of emails increased. Considering that reciprocal link is a less effective SEO strategy that rarely works, I’m really surprised at how many bloggers and webmasters are still engaged in this SEO approach.

In my observation, most of the bloggers / webmasters involved in reciprocal links are newbies. I had the same mistake when I was starting to blog and hopefully, after reading this post, you will spare yourself from doing the same.

What’s Wrong With Reciprocal Link?

Reciprocal link is a form of exchange link where one blogger / webmaster links to another website in exchange for a link to his/her site.

Search Engines determine the page rank of a website base on the number of links pointing to it. Links pointing to a website are considered vote of confidence to the site. The higher the number of quality links, the better. Now imagine that there are two candidates running for president and they are also the only voters. If one vote for the other and vice versa, no one wins. The vote is useless. Similarly, reciprocal links don’t work because its value is depreciated.

This “I’ll link to you, if you’ll link to me” SEO approach that predates Google, is not only ineffective but is also against Google’s Webmaster Quality Guidelines. Hence, using this method to boost your website’s page rank may actually harm your site instead.

It’s also worth noting that doing reciprocal link will only consume a considerable space on your blog and will only clog your sidebar. Why don’t you just use this space for more useful and productive purposes instead.

One Way Link

If you really want to improve your site’s Google Page Rank and optimize it for search engines, you should work in building more one way link to your site instead.

One way link is a term used among webmasters for link building methods. It is a Hyperlink that points to a website without any reciprocal link; thus the link goes “one way” in direction. - Wikipedia

There are several ways you can do to earn more one way link to your website without the need for a reciprocal link like submitting it to free directories or by leaving your comments on dofollow blogs. Or better yet, continue creating useful content and one way links will naturally build up over time.

What else do you think can be done to build more one way link to a site? Or you’re still going to use reciprocal link?

There are alot of bloggers who are still using this approach to boost their page rank and search engine ranking. Do Stumble this post or share it to others so they will know why their approach is not working, why it has done so little or why it has gotten their site banned from search engines.

Thank you for your time.

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