Starting a blog is no joke. Even if you’re an established brand with a solid reputation and big awareness, it can take time to build traffic and attention to a brand new property such as a blog.
In some ways, starting a blog is like starting a business. It’s going to take time. There will be lots of trial and error. And there is no guarantee that you’ll ever see the return you want.
That’s why some business operators prefer to buy companies. They buy a company that they can operate. They buy companies to grow their existing company. It’s a way to hedge some bets and skip some of the early trial and error.
In general, why struggle for a few years when you can buy a business that is already past that stage?
The same can be true with a business blog. Why struggle for a few years figuring out what your audience wants and what you can create when you can just buy a blog that has already figured it out?
So my answer is, YES, it can be a great choice to buy a blog and move your starting line closer to where you want.
1. What Are You Buying
There have been transactions like this in the past. Large companies have bought successful independent blogs. They have purchased all of the archive content and try to hire the writers and content managers as part of the deal. Sometimes it’s just been one owner/writer for the independent blog. They sell and then become an employee of the buyer. So they get some cash, usually, and a full time job doing what they already do. It likely includes a raise and additional resources to help them grow “their” blog in the future.
So that is something to consider. I’ve also seen situations where just the archive content is purchased and it’s up to the buyer to figure out how to continue creating new content without the original owner or writer. This can work too. Archive content has a lot of value.
2. The Technical Aspects
I’ve seen companies handle the technical aspects of blogging a couple different ways. Some will buy the blog and transfer all the content over to their own domain while adding it to their existing blog or creating a new blog on their domain. They do all the redirects and things like that including likely buying the blog domain and redirecting that.
They may or may not keep the blog’s name. This might be smart if the blog has a strong social following and name recognition and things like that. But changing the name can work too. It might just take time for the audience to adapt.
And that brings up another point of what you’re buying. You are likely buying the domain and the brand name. You’re buying social followers in a way. You’re buying email subscribers in a way and possibly browser subscribers and things like that.
I’ve also seen a couple situations where the blog remains as it is. But new marketing and branding are added. So it might be “The XYZ Blog” by “ABC Company” and things like that. So the buyer and their brand lets the blog continue as is but kind of becomes a sponsor in a way. This requires less technical change in terms of redirects and things like that.
3. What To Buy
Let’s say you own an accounting firm. You might want to look for an independent accounting blog. Maybe someone that was formerly in the industry, but has been focusing on blogging for the past several years. They have created some great content. They have built a following. They want some cash for their efforts and want to continue working on the blog, but with some greater stability and possibly more resources.
That can be a great win for all involved including the audience.
You might also look to get a little creative. Say that you realize that your accounting clients are 75% golfers. You might look to buy a golf blog. You’ll be attracting golfers to your brand and website, but odds are good that those golfers need accounting services.
Conclusion
Consider buying a blog. It’s likely more of an initial upfront investment. There are some tricky things to work out in the beginning, but it can be a great way to kind of skip past a lot of the headaches and waiting that comes with starting your own blog from scratch.
It’s not a new thing. It’s occurred often over the past ~20 years in the online world. And you can still put the same effort into the blog that you would if you were starting from scratch. Just with a different starting line.