Starting a blog can be such a fun project, especially if you are writing about your own interests and hobbies. Many people have started a blog to support their aspirations and create excellent content for other people interested in the same topic.
If you want to start a blog, then some of the many questions in your head would be Is there a way to differentiate blogs from each other? Are there different types of blogs? How do we separate different blog types?
YES! There are many ways in which to find out the differences between blogs. And, it’s not difficult… Every kind of blog has its own characteristics.
One way is to find out to which category the blog belongs. (If you can’t understand what I’m saying, don’t worry.)
In the world of blogging, many blogs are created for many reasons. There are different kinds of blogs and bloggers, who have a fixed goal to achieve. There are reasons why they start out blogging.
Finding what kind of blog you want to create is a hard task. But it’s important to know because it gives you an idea of what to blog about.
In this article, you will know about the 8 different kinds of blogs with examples of a well-established blog (of that kind). Let’s start…
Different Types Of Blogs Explained (With Examples)
Personal Blogs
Personal blogs were the first type of blogs that were created. When it began in the ’90s, people were only having blogs as a hobby. These blogs were started to share personal experiences, feelings or day to day activities with an audience.
Unlike other kinds of blogs, personal blogs have no rules to follow. The owner of the personal blog can do whatever he (or she) wishes to do, without following a proper format. These blogs are made when someone wants to express their views.
The reasons why people start personal blogs are – to communicate with people, share their views, etc. Personal blogs have a human touch which is shown by the way it’s written. You will always feel emotions in the writing of personal bloggers.
Example: The Positivity Blog
The Positivity Blog by Henrik Edberg is a great example of a personal blog. On his blog, Henrik shares the lessons which he has learned with his readers. This blog has all the elements that make personal blogs a success.
You can connect with Henrik has to say, and it’s his thought-provoking content that makes the blog much more popular. If you’re someone who needs some positivity, we recommend you to read his blog. It’s one of the best personal development blogs.
Review Blogs
Review blogs (as the name says) are filled with reviews of products. These blogs promote affiliate products rather than having some product of their own. You use many products on weekly basis, and write about them, that’s review blogs in a nutshell.
The aim of these blogs is to generate more revenue. And, this is the kind of blog that most people work in the wrong way. If you’re someone who’s looking to make more money with blogging then going with review blogs is a good choice.
There’s a cut-throat competition as all the newbies looking to make money start with them. You can be successful with review blogs if you have amazing skills and can promote your content effectively. It all depends on the marketing strategy.
Example: The Wirecutter
The Wirecutter (now sold to The New York Times for a whopping 30 million USD) is the best example of a review site. Even though they use affiliate links for making money online, they are unbiased and only recommend the best product.
The best approach for making a review site (or any site) is being unbiased, and not promoting products for higher commissions which is the usual case with most of the blogs. You can make money only once by recommending a bad product.
Business Blogs
Business blogs are run by people who blog to grow their businesses. It’s no secret that businesses which blog receive more traffic than businesses which don’t. These blogs are usually integrated into a website which offers some products.
If you own an online business and don’t have a blog then you’re missing out on a lot of traffic (+ sales). With business blogs, you get more traffic, which can be easily converted into permanent customers. The blog posts are created to attract more customers.
Business blogs create content regarding the industry they are in. Say, you own a web hosting company then you will have to get writers to create articles related to web hosting. Any person visiting your blog will check out your product.
Example: SEMRush Blog
The SEMRush Blog is an excellent example of a business blog. In their blog, they share data-driven guides and the articles are written in such a way that you will surely check out SEMRush. They have a great team of copywriters.
There are many other examples of business blogs, and you can learn from all of them. Having a blog is a need for online businesses. If you won’t then your competitors who blog will be ahead of you all the time.
Professional Blogs
Now blogging is more of a career than a hobby. Professional blogs are the ones which make it possible to earn a living and become an expert in a niche. Bloggers can monetize them in any way they want to, and these blogs are more niche specific.
There is only a big line between personal blogs and professional blogs. And that’s the reason for their creation – Professional blogs are created for earning money and personal blogs are made for expressing yourself.
However, nowadays it’s impossible to find someone who has a personal blog and doesn’t want to earn from it. But a professional blogger will always talk about the niche whereas, personal bloggers can talk (write) about anything.
Example: Smart Passive Income
Smart Passive Income blog by Pat Flynn is one of the best examples of a professional blog. Why? Because why not? Pat is one of the best internet marketers and shares all his knowledge. You should definitely check it out. (If you haven’t.)
Professional bloggers want to achieve success with their blogs. They want to become one of the best bloggers, treat their blogs as business, and earn money with their blogs. Professional bloggers are very serious when it comes to blogging.
Reverse Blogs
Reverse blogs or guest blogs are unique, as most of the blog posts in it are written by the contributors. A reverse blog is made by users rather than a single blogger. Reverse (Guest) blogs are a modern type of blog.
Most of blogs are usually written by a single blogger or a team of writers. This isn’t the case with guest blogs, sure, the owners will have some articles of their own but 80% of the blog posts are written by guest bloggers.
However, to start a reverse blog and make it a success you need to have a great reputation. If you don’t have it no one will be interested in writing for you and will decline your invitation for writing a guest post on your blog.
Example: Moz Blog
Moz blog is an example of a great reverse guest blog. By utilizing guest posts they’ve grown to 4.7m visitors/month. Also, only allowing bloggers who have a great reputation to submit guest posts is essential for a reverse blog’s success.
Reverse blogs make use of a technique we bloggers call reverse guest posting. There are many benefits to it like – free high-quality content, bloggers will share their guest posts with their followers, etc. Make sure to apply it the right way.
Niche Blogs
When you write solely focus on a single topic that’s niche blogging. Instead of writing about anything, on a niche blog, you have to write only about the subject you have picked up. For example – there are many food blogs, marketing blogs, etc.
The niche blogs can be a little broad or more specific. Marketing is a really broad niche, whereas, SEO which comes in marketing is more specific. It’s totally up to you, there are a lot of benefits to working on a niche blog.
With a niche blog, you will be more focused on the topic of your interest. Thus, selecting a niche before starting a blog is crucial. Many of newbies when starting a blog don’t give it much thought at the start, which starts their road to failure.
Example: Social Media Examiner
Social Media Examiner focuses only on one topic i.e, writing about social media marketing. Everything you will find on their blog will be related to social media sites. Our blog is also a good example, here we focus only on blogging.
When selecting a niche for your blog, you must keep in mind the size, your interest, and profitability. Niche blogs are only successful when you do proper research, else your blog will fail. All three things are must which you should not ignore.
Media Blogs
Media blogs are known by the type of content they create. There are many different kinds of media blogs such as vlog – consisting of videos, linklog – consisting of links, photoblog consisting of photos, etc. They are truly unique.
If you’re someone who loves gaming and want to share the gameplay with your friends you should start a vlog. But the ones who start the most vlogs are travelers, sharing their journeys and connecting with their audience.
Photographers can share their photos on their photoblogs. If you want to start podcasting then you can also start a blog and put your podcasts on it, there are many people doing it successfully. Media blogs can easily go viral.
Example: PostSecret
One great example of a media blog is PostSecret. It’s an online community where people anonymously share their secrets. It’s just pictures, some text and it’s great. Sharing your secret images without any worry, a great idea.
You too can start media blogs but keep in mind you will need a good web host with large disk space cause there will be a lot of files. Media blogs are great for those who want to build something unique than others. Or, just blog for fun.
Micro Blogs
Microblogs are known by the small pieces of content they produce. The digital content can be of any type – text, pictures, short videos, etc. Usually, microblogs are started on a social media platform and the content is produced by the users.
It’s a great way to communicate, the blogs feel organic and more authentic. These blogs are loved by the public as short posts are easier to read. Friends make use of them to keep in touch with everyone or share internet gossip.
Even businessmen use them to coordinate meetings, share information, etc. On these microblogging sites, you can join a community of your interest and find like-minded people. These sites can be used to increase one’s knowledge.
Example: Reddit
Reddit is one of the most popular sites in the world. Its global rank is #25 and is one of our favorites. There you can join the subreddit of your interest, post your views, information or experiences and upvote/downvote others.
To make a successful microblogging site, you will need to promote it in such a way that users keep coming back. Managing these blogs is costly as compared to simple blogs. You will need a whole team to make it a success.
Conclusion
These were all the important kinds of blogs you needed to know about. However, there are more like podcast blogs, not-for-profit blogs, etc. We will cover all of them in the future. (That’s a promise!)
Knowing the different kinds of blogs helps in finding your blog’s niche. And you should know that proper niche selection plays an important role in your blog’s success. Every successful blog focuses on a single niche. So, you should also do the same.
After selecting your blog’s niche you should think of selecting the right blogging platform (which is obviously WordPress). Then select the right domain registrar or get a domain name and web hosting from SiteGround.
Your blog will be up and running in less than 15 minutes. Then what you need to do is put effort on your blog to make it one of the best. It will take time and you will have to learn a lot (we will help you).
So, what kind of blog do you own? What’s your favorite kind of blog? What kind of blogs you don’t like? Let us know in the comments below.