Blogs come in many forms. Some are diaries while others provide information. Most have the potential to make money, but some formats can lead to income faster than others. Here are few of the different types of blogs you can start.
Day-in-the-life: These blogs are diaries in which the author is sharing personal information about her life. It’s like reality TV online. The success of this type of blog is less about what happens in life and more about how the blogger writes about what’s happening in life. Bloggers with popular day-in-the-life blogs have a unique writing style that is usually funny and maybe snarky, but always engaging and entertaining. These blogs take longer to make money than most other blogs because they’re read for entertainment (as opposed to information, which is what most people jump online to get) and have a limited audience. But if you can create buzz and get readers to share your content with their networks, you can have a profitable day-in-the-life blog.
Information: Everyone is an expert at something and there are other people who’d like to know how you do it. The topics for information sites are limitless and can include anything from keeping the house clean in 3 minutes a day and feeding a family of 4 for $10 a month to how get your voice heard in local politics and ask the boss to work at home. Information blogs have great potential for making money if you’re sharing information others want to know about. Since most people go online for information and many are willing to pay for stuff to solve their problems, by sharing the information and the resources you’re providing a service and getting paid.
Reviews: Some review sites are terrific and others are just trying to make a buck off of every new product that comes out. For a review site to be profitable, readers need to trust that you have experience with the product or service you’re reviewing and that you’re telling the truth. If you’re good at reviews and build a loyal following, you could end up with companies sending you free stuff to review. Just remember to include a disclosure about getting free stuff.
Communication: Blogging is frequently lumped in with social media because of its ability to engage readers. As a result, many businesses use blogs to inform and educate customers about products and services, provide news and updates and respond to customer complaints. If you have a business, creating a blog can improve your customer relations and act as a marketing tool to boost your business’ bottom line.
Niche Blogging: Most niche bloggers I know have many (50 or more) highly niched blogs that provide specialized content and promote at least one affiliate product. Niche simply means a laser targeted market. Blogging is a wide market. Mommy blogging is a more specialized market. Military mommy blogging is a niche. The success in niche blogging comes from choosing a topic that lots of people want to know about AND will pay money to buy the suggested solution. In many cases, a niche blogger will set up 50 or more articles that recycle over time. While niche marketing does work, niche blogs often make only a few dollars, which is why niche bloggers have many blogs ($5/day X 50 blogs= $125/day). And if your niche is a fad, it will eventually run its course and stop making money. As a result, niche bloggers need to stay on top of trends and work to create new niche blogs.
Great round-up!
I considered niche blogging for a while, but I just don’t have the time to keep up with that many sites because I tend to want to spend so much time on the sites I have. I agree though, if you have the time and patience, it’s a great way to generate an income.
I agree. I’m not sure how people manage tons of blogs without a competent VA or two. Thank you for posting.
I love to blog and would love to do it full-time, but just not getting anywhere with it.
Hi Rebecca, Blogging is a viable home-based business, but it takes a lot work to get up and running. Money blogs have visual appeal and ease of use (something I’m constantly working on), great content your market wants, and marketing, marketing, marketing. Along with content, I spend much of my reaching out to exciting and finding new readers. It looks like you have a food blog, so you might want to check out Pinterest. I’ve getting a lot of traffic from there and I’m not even the top market for Pinterest. Good luck!