Using Blogs and YouTube as Social Media Channels

Inappropriate use of Social Media channels can be a waste of time

One of the best media to use to gain visibility and visitors to your website is to engage in Blogs and You Tube.  But its not appropriate for every product or audience. The value in using social media channels lies in the effectiveness and delivery of marketing message or narrative via the right channel.  Using inappropriate channels for your message with only cost you time and resources for no appreciable result.

Most marketers focus upon two major concerns; HOW do they make money for their organisation and WHY do some marketing channels make more money that others.

When social media channels were first introduced every marketer adopted this new marketing concept and exploited the possibilities to solve their HOW and WHY concerns.  Some notable organisations claimed spectacular results.  However, engaging in Social Media marketing is a challenge particularly in integrating it into a companies existing marketing plan and to meet company expectations on profitability, and it’s not for everyone.

Most marketers do not understand the dynamics that social media may not be the appropriate medium to engage for the promotion of their product or service.  There are characteristics and special audience requirements to consider for each social media channel that will be discussed in this article for blogs and social media.

Most large organisations in the market place, activity engage in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn but, in most cases, the promotion only accounts for less than 1%-2% of total revenues.  Good Marketing Agencies warn Website owners should be aware and avoid being tempted by assertions that claim immediate and extraordinary success. 

Is Social Media Right for Your Organisation?

 There are some pre-requisites required before you engage in social media:

1.know thyself – know your enemy as well as yourself

2. Know your goals – have clear, achievable and measureable metrics 3. Know your limits – set parameters and do not exceed them.

 Once your organisation has answered these questions, then all organisations should ask themselves and develop four fundamental questions.

•  Is engagement in social medium right for my organisation?
•  What is the appropriate match of social medium to my marketing message?
• Develop a four step social media strategy appropriate to the product/message?
• Develop appropriate metrics for measurable and growth.

Companies and organisations should adopt a reality check and not get drawn into the latest and greatest money earning fade pushed out by so called experts that cite how Dell Computers made $6.5m using Twitter which when compared to a turnover of $61b is 0.01% of revenue – not very significant as incremental revenue. Perform a reality check and ask yourselves is this right for me. Decide what time, labour and budget will be allocated and do a “reality check” on the benefits.

The Intent of Social Media Channels 

Social media channels like Face Book, Twitter and LinkedIn were never intended to be a marketing channel – they were created for like-minded people to share like-minded experiences and referrals and not for marketing campaigns – although some recommendations from friends, fans and followers do originate from social media  that convert into sales but they are in small and insignificant numbers. 

Although these incremental sales might be useful but do come at an expense in time and resources.  LinkedIn was conceived as a professional job seeking channel, Twitter was conceived as a immediate sharing experience focused on the immediacy factor.  The exception is Google.  Google + (Plus) was created as a marketing tool and is having a hard time establishing itself in the marketing place because of that. Punters in the social sphere are not yet ready they want to give advice, recommend to friends, fans and followers and share superior knowledge. Likes are not sales.

Top Social Media Challenges

A survey was conducted by SEO Synovation the web marketing agency during July 2012 and asked 250 clients what was their top social media challenge? Survey results show consistent campaigns and integrating them into existing marketing strategy.

 When organisations activate their marketing messages to social medium campaigns they share four common characteristics:

1. Clear and consistent marketing messaging and what they offer the community

2. Progressive, gradual and timely development of a clear pathway to deliver the marketing message to the channel selected.
3. Ability to interact with their audience
4. Successfully planning the campaign distinguishes you from the crowd

Clear and Consistent Marketing Message

 

The marketing message is sometimes referred to as the internal narrative of the organisation. The board speak, the messaging of its representatives and the publicity language of its advertising departments and representatives that ll determine the marketing message. Examples of marketing messages or narratives are:

Nokia – the Finnish multinational communication and information technology giant has a simple, clear yet persuasive narrative: Connecting People.

Sony – the Japanese electronics group has a message that unifies all of its products into one innovative, clear and persuasive narrative: Make Believe.

Aston Martin – the British exotic sports car maker’s narrative sums up its product philosophy: Power Beauty and Soul.

The narrative used by Aston Martin is totally diverse to that of Sony and Nokia. The narrative is directed at an audience with totally different needs. Aston Martin focuses on the visual image whilst Nokia and Sony follow a features lead campaign to gain and master market share. This behaviour accentuates one important point: Social Media channels need reviewing in the different ways. Not all social media channels are equal as each carry inherent differences in communicating information.

The essence of social media is which channel will communicate who you are most effectively. Treating all social media channels equally to carry your message will just drain all your efforts, resources and budgets. So its best to identify first which medium will deliver the best results in communicating your message.

Blogs versus Websites as Social Medium Channels

Blogs are one of the best ways to communicate information and attract organic or natural search visitors. Websites do not change that often but blogs do or they should do. Blogs are more active and casual in presenting information and people tend to link to blogs as the information is usually current and up to date. Studies have shown that Blogs get more visitors than websites, get more links that websites, get more pages viewed and overall convert more that websites. From an SEO viewpoint blogs are fantastic for search engines to discover, crawl, index and return results to users’ queries.

Blogs Maximise Interaction

Blogs gain greater visibility than websites and as a consequence there is more interaction with your audience. Now here’s the conundrum. Which social medium do I choose to get the best possible results? The answer to that question lies in the type of interaction you wish to have with your intended audience.

The messaging and interaction could be one:

• To solicit support

• Announce research material

• To promote education

• To network with like minded people

• To present the latest news

You would use Blogs when you want to:

 Increase search visibility

 To build links for long tailed search terms

 To educate the market space and community within it

 Communicate high trust content

 To build lists for emailing and promotional purposes for higher conversions and reach

 To create brand value and equity

The way internet users begin to search the web for branded products also emphasis that Blogs are the best social medium to use. Studies (Emarketer May 2012) show that:

 57% use search

 20% via Brand Website

 18% via Retailer

 3% via Facebook

 2% via Twitter

Searchers Behaviour

A study by ComScore in late2010 discovered a prolonged buying pattern and buying intent from internet users than previous thought. The buying pattern of intent users has extended as users become more aware of what they want to buy, how to search for it on the web, and the specification of the product. The survey showed only:

 25% of searches are successful at the first attempt

 42% of all search queries need refining

 44% of all search queries postpone their intent to buy for more that a day, week or month

Email marketing has enjoyed a dramatic increase in usage as a result of using blogs to increase visibility. Blogs have been designed to capture email addresses due to the targeted, useful and pertinent content of the blog. There has been a dramatic increase of 28% (ExactMarketing 2010) and that‘s been dominated by mobile users at 41%.

The number one task a marketer, a sale person or an executive does every morning is checking his inbox. So that must be the best time to grab his or her attention. Get you promotion material to inboxes just before coffee time.

A study showed 58% of users check email while having their first cup of coffee, 20% checks their portal or search engine and 11% check Face Book. The study (ExactTarget 2010) went further and said:

 93% of internet users subscribe to an email or newsletter

 38% of face Book users subscribe to Brands

 5% of Twitter users subscribes to brands

Email is an incredibly strong medium when compared to other social medium channels and should not be overlooked in your overall strategy.

YouTube as a Social Media Channel

Although Google does not term YouTube as a search channel, preferring to call it a video search channel, it is nevertheless:

 The third largest website in the world

 The second most popular search engine in the world

 Gets four billion views every day

 Gets sixty hours of video uploaded every 60 seconds

 Three billion hours of video watched every month.

When do you Use YouTube as a Social Media Channel

There are enormous traffic flows into YouTube but when do you use it:

 To see it to believe it – good to demo new products and lastest gadgets

 To get highly visible traffic – good humorous videos get thousands of viws

 Portable video – copy and paste code to embed video onto websites, Face Book and other media

 Re-publishable – can present different layers of the same topic (repurposing). It may be easier for the video to rank instead of the website

 Influences search results by Google

 Presents content in different methods

 Extended reach – will reach out to multiple sections of the market place.

 Extended media content

When you combine YouTube as a social media channel with Google search your video and website will automatically gain greater visibility. Other benfits are”

 Increased rankings in search engine results

 Important additional channels for rankings and visibility

 Influences search results – captures attention

Is Social Media Right For Your Business?

Remembering that social media interaction although great for exposure and awareness brings little conversions and profits. Studies show around 2% of revenues is generated by social media channels. However it’s difficult to measure the impact that social media channels have on websites due to timing of a recommendation to visitors actually visiting the website as your analytics will show a direct brand query rather than from a social media referral. It has a place in your arsenal. It will bring results if used wisely and by directing your messaging via the most effective channel to maximise the greatest responses.

About the author

Vincent Sandford works for SEO Synovation a European web marketing agency helping small to medium sized organisation gain greater visibility in their market space. His passions are Search Engine Optimisation, Online Reputation Management and Internet Marketing, He writes for numerous blogs on Italian wine and food, and Real Estate.  

Off Page Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be misunderstood but there is a methodology, even some would say, a science but it is, most of all, a process . You need to understand that an SEO project should include efforts in the two primary areas that contribute to a site’s search rankings by search engine algorithms:

1. On-Page SEO Factors: What search engine crawlers can discern from the content and structure of your site.
2. Off-Page SEO Factors: What search engines can determine about the linking structure of other sites, and the sites inter-related to those sites, in relation to your site.

On Page factors include optimising your site with original content, placing keywords related to your page in the Meta tags and good internal structure. SEO for off page factors have a wider definition but can be grouped together under one word: linking.

Google Ranking factors for Off Page Search Engine Optimisation.

Before I discussed some of the off page SEO tactics, you must first understand the factors that Google thinks is necessary to rank your website.

1. Number and quality of backlinks is very important. Google show you only a limited number of link (use this command link:www.yourwebsite.com to find competitor links). MSN show you more and Yahoo show you the most links of all the search engines.
2. Speed of acquiring links. Too fast seems artificial so to it slowly or you might get penalised.
3. Anchor text of the backlink must be relevant to the page linked to.
4. The age of the backlink is very critical; an older link shows stability of the website. However frequently changing the anchor text can damage your ranking.
5. Backlinks from directories like DMOZ, YAHOO, LOOK SMART can boost you rankings and provide good link juice.

The above are some of the most important factors Google tracks for ranking your website.

Off-Page Search Engine Optimisation

But where can you get good links from that Google will recognize. Here are some examples:

1. Social Networking Sites

Social Networking means getting involved with social media sites and is the fundamental step with which you begin to advertise your product or service, market awareness of your brand and build your online reputation within your niche. You need to sign up to the most popular social networking sites, such as; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, etc., and create yourself a profile of your own.

2. Blogging

Blogging is one of the best ways to promote your website. Most blogs will give you a follow link that transfer link value as opposed to a no-follow link that doesn’t give you any link value. By writing a blog for your website, you give a reason for visitors to keep returning to your site and keep up to date with your latest posts. It also helps search engines to crawl your site more frequently, as they have to update your latest blog post entries, which ultimately helps you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). You need to produce and include lots of unique content for your blog, such as; Infographics, Top Lists, How To…Tutorials, and Viral Videos.

3. Blog Marketing

Post comments on other blogs within the same niche as yours, which allow you to add a link in the comments section. These links can then be crawled by search engines, helping to point them towards your site. These blogs are commonly referred to as “Do-Follow” Blogs (Just like ours, where you can comment below!).

4. Forum Marketing

Find forums online that are related to your sites niche and get involved within that community. Reply to threads, answer peoples questions, offer advice, etc. This all helps to build up your reputation as someone who is an expert within that niche. Try to use “Do-Follow” Forums so that you can include a link to your site within your signature, which helps search engines crawl your site.

5. Search Engine Submission

Search engines will eventually find your site online, but that can take a while. To speed everything up, you should submit your website to the most popular search engines like Google. Use Google Webmasters Tools and the functionality under the Heath section as “Fetch as GoogleBot.

6. Directory Submission

You should submit to general directories like DMOZ and Yahoo, but for maximum effect, you are better off submitting to niche directories as well. The results take longer to appear but they do appear eventually.

7. Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking is another great way of promoting your website. Submit your latest blog posts and pages to the most popular bookmarking sites, like StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, etc. Search engines really like these types of sites because the content on these sites is updated very frequently.

8. Link Baiting

Link baiting is another popular way of promoting your site. If you produce a really popular unique post for your site, then other people may want to link to it. If you have post the article on your website then that article will draw traffic.

9. Photo Sharing

If you have used any of your own photos or images on your site, then you can share them on many of the major photo sharing websites like Flickr, Picasa, and Photo Bucket. Other people will be able to see them and comment on them, hopefully following a link to your site.

10. Video Marketing

Just like photo sharing, if you have any videos that you have used on your site, then you can submit them to sites like; YouTube, Vimeo, etc. allowing people to find your content in other ways.

11. Business Reviews

Write reviews about others businesses or ask your friends/clients to write a review of your business in major business review sites like RateitAll, Shvoong, Kaboodle, and Stylefeeder.

12. Local Listings

Depending on your site’s niche, you might find that listing in local directories may be useful. You may have a website promoting your local business, therefore instead of going global and facing huge competition, listing your website locally, so that search engines can easily view your website and fetch the content, will be much better. This will help you to reach a targeted audience. Submit your website to sites like; Google Local, Maps, Yahoo Local, telephone Advertising Directories.

13. Article Submission

If you write your articles yourself, then you can submit them to popular article directory sites like; Ezine Articles, Go Articles, Now Public, etc. This can help drive traffic to your site, whilst you can also gain some links to your site from other people (though it’s usually a slower process).

Want To Learn More About SEO?

Then watch the video to grasp the essentials of search engine optimisation.  Alternately you can email me Minke Oving SEO and Online Reputation Manager at SEO Synovation.

We at SEO Synovation have a passion to help small and medium sized organisations reach their goals. Call us now.

Inbound Marketing – Guest Blogging and Article Writing

Inbound marketing makes it easy for your website to be found and a decent tactic to achieve this is through correct link building is guest blogging and article writing one of many channels of Inbound Marketing

Guest Blogging and Article Writing

Since Panda and Penguin algorithm updates the search engine optimisation of on page factors are still very important but must be part of a wider content distribution and inbound marketing strategy – more off page optimisation is needed.

Search engines after Panda and Penguin are better at distinguishing tricks like keyword stuffing and punish you for them. Poor and poorly written content, imperfect site optimisation and improper linking are degradable offences in Google eyes. This has been true for a long time and the SEO business has reacted favourably and most reputable companies follow the on page recommendations well.

Off Page Factors Have Gained Prominence

Many webmasters having optimised their websites for on page factors turn their attention to off-page factors to gain relevant links – many choose guest blogging as a means to acquiring relevant links to their websites.

Link Building

There are as many ways to get links but in the aftermath of Panda and Penguin submitting guest articles or guest blogging is slowly becoming best practice. The trend is driven by a desire to follow the pack. Guest blog posts, all by themselves, do increase rankings.

Guest Blogging – writing blogs or articles for other sites

The strength in guest blogging to blogs or websites that have a decent following is that the posts are read immediately and it can be launched without delay avoiding the embarrassment of blog posts that no one comments on. However, the guest-blog-only strategy has two fatal weaknesses:

• There is an obviously fixed ratio of one linking domain per article placed,
• You reach rapidly diminishing returns.

 Furthermore, using the ideal blog to post is difficult to find. They are a scarce resource. You can post to lesser blogs but expect lesser returns.

Content Strategy

A pure content strategy can be frustrating simply because the results and rewards are slow to be recognised. The best strategy is to create great content and to distribute it using all the marketing channels available: that means using inbound marketing as depicted in this info graphic – courtesy of Hubspot:

  

With great content, your guest posts will be more effective. So will your email marketing campaigns, paid search traffic, and referral traffic. We can think of content as a multiplier that adds to almost any other marketing tactic.

The advantages of unique content happen with guest posting or article writing are:

• Bloggers will be more likely to accept posts and talk about/to you if your target site has its own credible content.  
• Users from the host blog will share and re-share your content if your site offers something they can be excited about. 
• People will want to link to you.

 Make Content a Pre-Requisite 

Where are we headed, and what should we do next?

You should not publish and wait. Building relevant links through blogging and guest blogging matters. You must engage in other channels to distribute your unique content. Use all the channels in the info graphic that’s appropriate to your business and raise your precious content out of obscurity.

SEO is growing, link building is essential and inbound marketing is thriving. The Search engine optimisation industry is moving towards sustainability growth and capable of providing solutions, recommendations and results that are going to have a far bigger impact than raising the rankings for a couple tracked keywords.

It seems highly unlikely that Google will penalize guest posts or articles writing or for that matter any form of distributing good relevant content. After all distributing good content does increase users experience.

About the Author

Minke Oving is an Online Reputation expert at SEO Synovation and guest blogger for a number of clients.

She is a regular contributor to this blog and can be contact at m.oving@kpnmail.nl

Brand Image

Brand Image is an essential ingredient in managing your business profitably. It’s not only manifested online but also in products and in the opinions of other market leaders. There is a very close relationship between the Search Engine Optimisation, SEO in other words, and building a brand image to enhance your online reputation. The techniques and the tactics adopted in SEO can be and are applied in defending and repairing your online reputation.

Premess

Say you are an ecommerce merchant or a multi national conglomerate with an angry customer. The customer is so angry; he posts bad, negative reviews on the Internet about your company that are not true. Your online reputation is damaged. Your brand image is dented. What can you do? How can you combat it? What would we do about it? When your online reputation is damaged there are four actions:

 Do nothing 

 Defend it 

 Repair it 

 Monitor it 

First you employ a specialist agency like ours. Secondly we will defend, repair and monitor your online reputation. Thirdly on your behalf we will create a strategy to repair your online reputation and lastly in the following paragraphs we will show you how we do it that and how that links to search engine optimisation projects. 

Our professionals at SEO Synovation can suppress those negative listings or reviews and push them back in the search engines, where no one is ever going to see them. Statistics show that 85 percent of online searches never go past the first page. We create positive, truthful and legal online messages so that harmful listings are never seen on page 1. This is often very effective. 

Personal Approach. 

Research shows that only 85% of internet users go beyond the first pages of search engine results. Our strategy and goals are to decrease the number of negative comments that appear on the first three pages of a search engine results page. We do this by attacking negative comments of three fronts:

Existing and future websites 

Engaging in Social networks 

Promoting the brand and product 

This is the same approach adopted by SEO Synovation for a search engine optimisation project. Our team of fifteen professionals based in five countries and operating in eleven markets have the accumulated experience of more than one hundred and fifty years in marketing, internet marketing and online reputation management. 

Our Principles 

Our activity is founded on four overriding principles that guide us through every project namely:

Legality – we respect the letter and the morality of laws in Europe and published Google guidelines. 

Honesty – we tell the truth and nothing but the truth and avoid ambiguity.

Transparency – we show clients what we do and what the consequences of actions are.

Privacy - what we learn about your company, patents, and forthcoming projects is never made public, is never discussed, and never mentioned in general terms unless expressly approved in writing. We will sign a confidentiality agreement to that effect. 

Tactics of Search Engine Optimisation and Online Reputation Management -typical tactics we employ to suppress negative comments: 

1. We will optimise existing websites. 

2. We will create additional, promotional and positive websites to increase visibility of product and brand. 

3. We will create blogs to positively promote the brand. 

4. We will proactively engage in social networks to positively promote the brand and respond to negative comments. 

5. We will create videos to promote on influential video marketing sites. 

6. We will create presentations to promote the product on sharing platforms. 

7. We will create photographs to promote the product on photo sharing platforms.  

8. We will re-write and re-promote articles detailing the performance of the product. 

9. We will create linking strategy and obtain links to increase visibility of product and brand. 

10. We will engage with News Contributors and post contributions about the products/service. 

11. We will create press releases to increase visibility of product and brand and decrease the effects of negative comments. 

12. We will engage bloggers to engage in opinion sites to express an alternative view to negative comments. 

13. We will publish and provide clients a monthly status report of activities performed and the status of negative comments for the keywords agreed for the projects.

When your online reputation is damaged there are four actions: 

a. Do nothing 

b. Defend it 

c. Repair it 

d. Monitor it 

Our professionals can suppress those negative listings or reviews and push them back in the search engines, where no one is ever going to see them. Statistics show that 85 percent of online searches never go past the first page. We create positive, truthful and legal online messages so that harmful listings are never seen on page 1. This is often very effective.

Personal Approach To Projects 

What separates SEO Synovation is the personal approach to removing negative comments. There is no standard approach. Each Project is unique. Each campaign has its own set of peculiarities, such as the gravity and structure of the comments, the authoritativeness of the sites from which negative listings are coming from, and the depth of negative listings in search engine results pages.  

Creation of New Content. 

We create and launch new websites with content often with competing content. There are many components in these campaigns and are just limited to creating new websites. SEO Synovation copywriters create compelling content, relevant to the industry and to the company itself. We work with businesses in all sorts of different industries and we know what the search engines are going to view as compelling and relevant.  

After consultation with the client, about the marketing message that they want to portray and the branding efforts they want to disseminate we write the content for them, and then we promote is on the through the different sources, as quickly as possible and in a way that is not going to be flagged by any of the search engine’s spam teams. Then we create a linking strategy to the content created to effectively strengthen their presence. 

Is Every Company Defended? 

We are not lawyers that neither defend reputations in court nor judge the legal consequences of acts. We take the situation as it presented to us and appraise it on two fronts:

A. Is the potential client performing an illegal act?

B. Is the situation repairable?At SEO Synovation we have a strict code of ethics that we work with That code of ethics basically states that if what we do is going to perpetuate a crime or what we view to be unrealizable in any way, shape or form, we will not take on the campaign.

Opinion Websites 

There are many consumer complaints sites, where individuals can post complaints about a company. Anyone can post a complaint on those consumer complaint sites, and they are often untruthful, libellous and unverified. Their sources are often an unscrupulous competitor, a disgruntled ex-employee or just an unreasonable client.  

These comments get exposure, often on page 1 of search engines result pages due to the fact that within the search engines ranking algorithms, the websites are relevant and high ranking, and provide users with a useful, pertinent and valuable experience. 

When these negatives comments are posted online there’s no way for the business owner to protect himself, unless they contact a company like ours, to give them control, and give them the ability to formulate the correct message about their business.

How much does the service cost? 

The cost of campaigns depends upon the gravity of the situation. Our lowest priced campaign starts out at €950 per month. Contact SEO Synovation to learn more or receive a no obligation and free check of your online reputation.

About Vincent Sandford and SEO Synovation 

SEO Synovation is an agency specialising in Search Optimisation,  Online Reputation Management and Web Marketing. We help businesses and individuals fortify their web  marketing and personal or brand names online. What we do is we give people control of their online reputation. We train them in techniques to monitor their own reputation and web marketing, become aware of what’s out there. We show them how to create an effective marketing message to accurately portray their image and use it to increase search engine rankings. 

SEO Synovation was founded in 1993 originally as Synergy Innovation, marketing and IT consulting group. Since 2001 it has expanded into web marketing sphere as DukCon, the search engine optimisation SEO market as MarcheRustico and in 2010 as SEO Synovation with special focus on defending online reputations to serve the expanding markets of Europe. We are headquartered in Assen, The Netherlands and have representations in The Netherlands, Italy and England. At present we are a group of 15 professionals providing Online Reputation Management, Web Marketing and Search Optimisation.

Link Building, How To Link Build and Calculate The Pagerank Weight of a Link

Not all links are equal. You need to examine the pagerank of the website and the number of outbound links from it in order to value the worth of the transferred link. Links should be relevant to the webpage you’re linking to. Do not use link farms or irrelevant websites with low quality content. This post explains how to calculate the pagerank of a link to gain maximum transferable value.
Introduction
A recent Google algorithm update highlighted the fact of good quality links. Google Penguin is a code name for a Google algorithm update that was first announced on April 24, 2012. The update was aimed at decreasing search engine rankings of websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines by using black-hat SEO techniques such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, participating in link schemes, deliberate creation of duplicate content and others.
What are Link Schemes
A website Pageranking is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking; disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

•  Links intended to manipulate PageRank 
•  Links to web spammers or bad neighbourhoods on the web 
•  Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.") 
•  Buying or selling links that pass PageRank 

The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it. Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question: Is this going to be beneficial for my page's visitors?
Relevance in Link Building Works Best
It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the buzzing blogger community can be an excellent place to generate interest. 
How to calculate the Pagerank Weight of a Link
To increase the popularity of a web page, website owners need to link it to other relevant quality sites. Any back link from any webpage increases your website's Pagerank (except with no-follow links). There are two measures that need to be defined:
 (a) Pagerank and
(b) the weight of a webpage.
What is Pagerank?
 Pagerank is the overall ranking of a webpage where as the weight of a link from that page is diluted by the number of outbound links. 
So there is a difference between a passed PR weight from each web-page, depending on its PR and number of outbound links it has. The higher the number of outbound links on a webpage the lower the transferred weight of the link to your webpage.
Get Links
The best way to increase your website Google Pagerank is to get links from webpage’s that have a low number of links from them and their Pagerank is high. This weight is calculated based on the Google PageRank Formula. For your convenience, below SEO Synovation have provided a simplified explanation of Google Pagerank formula.
An Example of How to calculate the Pagerank Weight of a Link
Google’s Pagerank formula uses a standard weighting factor for each Pagerank. Re-produced here:
Pagerank Standard Weight
PR 0 = 1
PR 1 = 5
PR 2 = 25
PR 3  = 125
PR 4 = 625
PR 5  = 3.125
PR 6 = 15.625
PR 7  = 78.125
PR 8  = 390.625
PR 9 =  1.953.125
PR 10  = 9.765.6256

 The simplified formula used by SEO Synovation Web Marketing Agency looks like this and has been approximated:

Page Rank Weight of the Webpage of the Link

The number of links on the page plus 1 *85%
Values in the example:
An example: Your webpage page rank = PR 2
Link page rank = 6
Number of outbound links = 25 plus 1 = 26
Applying the formula: PR 6 = 15.625/26 *85% = 510.81 added to your existing page rank weight for PR 2 (25) = 535.81 or PR 3 as total value is less than PR 4 (625). Page rank of your page would increase PR 3.
Damping Factor 
The damping factor is a number representing the probability that an Internet surfer randomly clicking on links will eventually stop clicking. And according to the original paper on PageRank by Google it’s set to 0.85. This means that only 85% of the total links to that are counted in the calculation.
Pagerank Weight of a Link 
This is value in terms of amount of Pagerank that will be passed on to your each web page linked to from the web page you’re checking.
Conclusion
This formula has been simplified for convenience but gives an accurate approximation of the Pagerank weigh of a link. It shows very clearly to get links from Web Pages with high Pagerank (always difficult as most links are from home pages) and few links from them (also very difficult). The Pagerank weight of all links is then added together to ascertain the Web Page ranking. The more you have the better it is. There is just one caveat: Google only re-calculated and updates