Blog Duck - Blogging Tips & Ideas

Blogduck.com has come under new management in a new year. As my first post I thought it would be a great idea to offer some tips & ideas to those seeking to buy a blog since the purchase of this blog came with it’s own surprises.

The first thing to consider is when the domain will expire. This has a cost. Imagine buying your blog, paying for it, updating the DNS information only to find that has expired and is now owned by another. Find out when the domain is set to expire and who the registrar is. This can be done at Whois.net. You will need an account with that registrar to accept the domain transfer. If you do have an account with another registrar and want to host the new domain there it will likely be subject to a fee. Godaddy and Sedo are popular registrars.

The next thing to consider is hosting; all sites need a home. It’s possible that the registrar has a hosting service as well and can host the domain. The problem is that the hosting service may not transfer the hosting plan and you may not be able to take ownership so easily. You will have to reinstall the site under your new or existing hosting plan. One way around it is to have the seller just give you the login details for the host provided that they only have one domain hosted under this account.

Installing the site. How are you going to get the files that comprise the site on to your web host provider? Don’t assume the seller will or even can do this. Be sure to clarify this point before buying. Some hosts will transfer the site to them for a fee. Will you even have access to the original site files or will they be simply zipped and emailed to you? You should clarify this too.

Don’t assume that the blog seller actually has any tech skills to provide all the necessary files and configurations to make your new blog “plug-and-play”. When you clarify who will do the installation be sure that you have all the files or can access the old site files anytime. In the case of Wordpress blogs did the seller import widgets or change themes at any time? You will need this information too.

Finally, you will need to change the “link-outs” to the social networking sites like Technorati or Facebook, Blogrush, Blogarama or Diggit to name a few. And of course, there are Google Adsense ads. You wouldn’t want the seller to continue making money at your expense.