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Two Ways to Blog
Based on my research and a general understanding of blogging I believe there are two ways to blog or two types of bloggers. One person may introduce themselves as a blogger to another blogger, yet they may have completely different styles and strategies.
The first type I would classify as mommy blogs, craft blogs, and blogging brand businesses.
The second type of blogging is often referred to as niche sites or niche site creators.
You can create a hybrid of the two styles, but I think at first you often fall into one category.
There are more types of blogs than these, but the average individual who starts a blog seems to fall into these two categories.
Blogging Brand Business
This first style is what I consider the blogging brand business. Here are a few quick things I think of related to this style.
- Mommy Blogs
- Lifestyle Blogs
- Female Run Blog Businesses
- Run One or Two Blogs at most
- Sponsored Posts and Products
- The Blog is Their Baby-Never Start Out Intending to Sell
I am in no way putting down this type of blogging. In fact, it is my style.
The blogging brand business approach is a great way to run a blog. You love your blog. You promote it on Pinterest and social media platforms. If you need help getting started with Pinterest checkout my Helpful Guide to Publishing Your First Pin on Pinterest.
Your sole focus is running your first blog. It is your baby. You slowly work on monetizing it with affiliates, ads, and sponsored content. You may create small products to sell depending on your topic.
The intention is never to sell your blog. It is too personal.
Then you may decide to create a second blog that is the business side of things. For example, your first blog might be about packing easy or healthy lunches for school. Then your second blog is about the business side of things and how you created an online business to teach others how to do so.
You are constantly looking for ways to grow your business. Your face and name may even become your brand.
You focus on creating a relationship with your readers. This can be done with email newsletters. You may use comments and social media to connect as well.
Retaining your audience is key!
The plan is to take you audience along for a journey.
Niche Site Blogging
Ok now let’s talk about the second blogging style referring to niche sites. Bloggers that refer to themselves this way have some general characteristics you may see. Let’s take a look.
- Build and Sell Blogs
- Create a Portfolio of Blogs
- Male Dominated Blogging Style
- Traffic Based on SEO
- Monetize with Ads & Affiliates
Niche site bloggers are concerned with creating content that will be searched. The goal is to not get traffic via social media, but rather organically with search.
To do this they spend more time deciding what keywords they are going to write about. They want to make sure their article will be at the top of search results. They do not intend to spend much time promoting their content.
They are not necessarily concerned with comments or subscribers. They don’t care to keep their audience as much. People can get their answers and bounce.
The main forms of monetization are ads and affiliates. Niche sites previously were focused on affiliates, but have become more balanced with ad revenue. Google doesn’t just want product reviews that are pushing for affiliate sales. That is where answering a question and helping the users is better than just pushing a product.
Niche site bloggers prefer to have a larger portfolio of sites. One site could be about Christmas tree farms, which will get a lot of winter traffic and another could be about caring for a pontoon boat which will bring in that summer traffic. Another idea could be caring for houseplants, which could be searched year-round.
The point is they don’t put all their eggs in one basket.
The writer is not concerned about creating a relationship with their reader. It is easy to remain quite anonymous with this style. You are not creating a brand.
You may also build sites with the purpose to sell them for a large amount. There isn’t as much of an emotional tie to the blogs.
Niche sites are often built with paid writers. The owner of the site outsources some of the content creation.
You see your sites as more of an investment or asset rather than a business. Your portfolio as a whole is your business. Your individual sites typically are not.
Pros and Cons
I am not going to pick apart every little aspect of what makes these styles good or bad but I will pick out a few.
The blogging brand style spends way more time promoting their blog to get traffic. I see this as a negative because it requires constant work. Social media disappears after a moment. Even Pinterest, though it is more like a search engine, requires a lot of work. Pin creation takes time.
The niche blogger spends time researching their keys words for SEO and ranking, but after doing so they write the article and are done. This is one-time work, rather than constant upkeep.
I see the traffic sources as a positive for niche site blogging. However, the other style can implement the same strategies they just aren’t typically as good at it.
A positive to being a brand blogger is that you focus on one thing and work to be great at it. You create what your readers want and try to help them solve their problems.
With niche sites, you often bounce between creating content in multiple areas. You have to decide which blog deserves more time or effort put into it. One day you will be working on your hiking blog and the next on your pet blog. Your thoughts and focus bounce around more frequently.
The list could truly go on, but those are the ones that stand out the most to me.
Why Does Blogging Style Matter?
Knowing your blogging style will not make or break you. It is however helpful in certain ways.
If you know your style then you know what your strategy is which in turn helps you know what to focus on. Knowing your blogging style can help in decisions making. It can help you know where to invest and what to do to move your blog forward. It can help with expectations.
Niche site bloggers don’t expect immediate traffic. They know it takes time to rank on Google.
Brand blogs that promote on Pinterest expect to start getting traffic immediately.
If you decide to purchase a blogging course or resource you need to know what style they are promoting and teaching. A mommy blogger may not enjoy the information and strategies covered in a course designed for niche site blogging.
Conclusion
You can blog however you like. Creating a hybrid of the two styles is very possible. Hopefully, you better understand the ways you can go about blogging and can decide which route sounds more appealing to you.
If you are ready to dive into blogging consider using my Bluehost link here where I can earn a small commission if you decide to start your own blog.
Let me know if this helps!
Comment down below what you think of these two blogging styles.
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