Types of Blogging I never really wanted to take up blogging, but I was wanted to earn money online. I never really made the connection between the two.
I think “blogging” is a label that often gets used incorrectly, as there are many different aspects of writing online and for different purposes, so it is hard to give them all the same label.
Personal Blogs
The thing that most people think of when they use to hear the term “blogging” is a personal blog. This is probably blogging in its purest form as well since it is almost like an online diary or the thoughts, rants, experiences, and frustrations of individual writing for others to see.
Most of these blogs never get seen except by somebody’s social circle and perhaps their extended circle too. Unless you are the owner of Perez Hilton or some other highly successful blogs, you are probably going under the radar.
In some countries, mostly Asia, blogs are often well-read, because search engines support them and use them as some of the higher rankings. The few countries where Yahoo is still king (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan) are examples of this. Many “food blogs” dominate the search results when looking for local restaurant information.
Blogging For Money
Internet marketers (another label often misused) on the other hand, will write their blogs for the purpose of earning money. They might choose a topic or “niche” for their blog, write about it, develop themselves as an authority on the subject, and hope to earn commissions by recommending and reviewing products that their visitors can benefit from.
This is the world I ended up in, and it is actually more fun than I expected. I always thought internet marketing was more along the lines of spamming, scamming, or writing lots of sales copy, when in fact, it is basically getting paid for helping people find solutions to their problems.
Cause Blogging
What I refer to as “Cause” blogging is when people write a blog neither for money nor for just writing a diary about their personal life. there are many humanitarians or people who believe strongly in a cause, who write simply to raise awareness, change laws, or promote something that they deem worthy of their time.
This type of blogger probably knows little about search engine optimization or promoting their website, yet because their passion is strong, their cause is a good one (hopefully) and others support them, they can become massively popular and some of the most visited sites on the web are this type of blog.
There are probably more types of blogging besides those three, but I would say they are the most common and easily distinguishable.
If I’ve learned anything in a year of blogging, it’s that the key is to just keep writing, keep being interested in your writing, and keep engaging your visitors.
It doesn’t matter how “technical” you are, as long as you know what you believe in and want to help others who share your beliefs, regardless of what type of blogger you are.
