Tips on Blog Writing: 3 Kinds of Blogs - Which One Is Best for You?

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

Do a quick search for tips on blog writing and you’ll discover there are dozens of different kinds of blogs out there.

And thanks to WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, and other blogging platforms, anyone can create a blog.

Why would you?

When it comes to starting or writing a blog, that’s a key question. Hence these tips on blog writing for the freelancer or content writer.

The Biggest Blog Writing Tip

Why do you want to blog? I ask you this question because a successful blog requires some time. Before you dive in, it’s a good idea to consider the cost of blogging. (Blogging FAQs here.)

Otherwise you may launch your blog with great enthusiasm, throw some content on the screen … and then a few months down the road struggle to regularly post consistent, quality content. Or worse, simply drift off into cyberspace leaving an unfinished project in your wake.

That’s why biggest blog writing tip is this: identify what goal you want to achieve with your blog. 

 Which of these best describes what you want to accomplish by blogging? 

1. Your goal: self-expression. Your blog shares your personal experiences and insights with readers. 
2. Your goal: marketing. Your blog educates readers about your business and industry.
3. Your goal: personal benefits. Your blog provides readers with information about a very specific topic and earns you some money in the process.

Not coincidentally, the three most popular types of blogs each achieve one of the above three goals.

Three Popular Types of Blogs and Tips for Writing Them

1. The Personal Blog

A personal blog is a place to share your ideas online. It’s an open, online journal. 

Blogs (“web logs”) emerged in the 1990s. Those first bloggers wanted to take advantage of budding technology and share their experiences and thoughts with an online audience. 

Poof! All of a sudden, anyone could develop a platform. That in turn led to business blogs and niche blogs. But I digress. 

A personal blog is different from a business blog or a niche blog in that the content is about you – your personal interest and struggle – rather than about your industry or a specific topic. The goal is self-expression. 

Content? You can write about anything. You can blog about your challenges in parenting quadruplets to writing a tell-all as you walk through law school or your adventures in day trading or your battle with leukemia. 

Many personal bloggers start their blogs as a way to process their thoughts and converse with others along the way, drawing in readers who share their struggle or interest. Personal blogs can make money, but these bloggers usually don’t set out to do so.

Tips on Blog Writing a Personal Blog

• Make sure your readers understand that your purpose is in sharing your thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
• Know that you may take a while to develop a following – or your following may largely be those who relate to your personal situation.
• Brand your personal blog with your name and your personality

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2. The Business Blog

Your business may choose to operate a blog as part of its marketing strategy. By business, I mean anything from a local mom-and-pop to a large corporation or anything in between. A nonprofit or ministry’s blog also falls into this category, as does your blog if you’re an entrepreneur or solopreneur.

As a business blogger, you post regular content related to your products or services. The blog’s goal is to provide content to your readers about your industry, which educates your reader thereby building exposure, traffic, and ultimately sales. 

In business terms, this kind of blog is a “lead generator.” You are able to identify your ideal reader, understand what kinds of content are important to her, and then produce that content. Your reader looks forward to your posts because she knows you’ll answer her questions. When she gets to the place when she is ready to buy a product or service in your industry, you become the natural provider because she trusts you.

Tips on Blog Writing a Business Blog

• Write about topics that interest your ideal customer. If you’re a counseling center, you may write posts like “5 Signs of Depression in the Elderly” or “How to Avoid Car Conflict with Your Teenager.”
• Identify questions your customers ask most often and create content that answers those questions. Share the most challenges you have faced in your business and how you have overcome those challenges.
• Invite readers to share comments and feedback to build buzz.

3. The Niche Blog

A niche blog shares information about an ultra-specific topic. 

Instead of merely focusing on a broad subject, a niche blog drills down. Pretty much any topic goes from sudoku to drapery cleaning to data security.  Your niche can also focus on a particular group of people, a geographic area, or a specialty industry. Think camping vacations in the southwest US (ultra-specific topic) versus camping (general topic) or traveling in the US (general topic).

Why operate a niche blog? Many of these sites start as hobby blogs and turn into small personal business blogs or even significant businesses. Your passion for the topic keeps you motivated. The niche blogger shares info and gets something back in return: revenue from affiliate or product sales, satisfaction in sharing about her interest, or a new community interested in a common topic. I operate a niche blog, Tomato Dirt (www.tomatodirt.com), that provides tips about growing tomatoes for home gardeners. Yep, I love to garden. The site gives me a lot of satisfaction along with a nice little extra income stream from affiliate sales.

Niche blogs topics include lifestyle blogs, health blogs, parenting blogs, faith blogs, food blogs, pet blogs, personal finance blogs, technology blogs, DIY blogs, fashion blogs, personal development blogs … pretty much anything. The distinguishing factor is that you provide useful information about a specific topic.

Tips on Blog Writing a Niche Blog

• Choose a topic that interests you or you’re comfortable with. This way you’ll be able to differentiate yourself from other related blogs.
• Conduct thorough keyword research in order to identify your niche’s keywords and create content using those keywords.
• Produce valuable, quality content consistently to generate regular and return readers.

Other Popular Blog Types 

There are plenty of other types of blogs out there – almost as many different types as there are blogs – including:

• Affiliate Blogs: posts offer content, tutorials, and product reviews promoting products and services, with links for readers to buy the product or service.
• Artist, Author, Photographer, or Writer Blogs (or Resume Blogs): act as an online portfolio to showcase the blogger’s work. The artist posts new content regularly.
• Counter-Culture Blog (also called a Rogue Blog): creates discussion or controversy about a particular issue in order to generate awareness.  
• Guest Host Blogs (also called Collaborative Blogs or Reverse Blogs): curates posts from other writers to generate content, rather than creating 100% original content from the blog owner.

Other popular blogs include news blogs, podcast blogs, freebie blogs … I could go on, but you get the point. And in my humble opinion, each of these is simply a variation of one of the most popular blogging types.

What about you? Ask yourself, “Why do I want to blog?” Make sure you define the goal you want to achieve.

And you’ll be on your way to hosting a successful blog.

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