The 8 best types of blogs and tips how to find the right one for you

Blogs connect you with customers in an informative and helpful way. Companies and individuals alike utilize the power of blogs to educate, share, and build relationships with current and prospective customers, all while serving as a valuable tool for search engine optimization, social media, email marketing, and many more digital marketing aspects. 

Choosing the right blog for your business is the first step to successfully harnessing its power. Read on to learn more about the types of blogs you can use to promote your business and our tips for selecting the best blog type for your goals.

Although it can be hard to find your blog niche, there are some great perennial choices for the topic of blog you can choose. For example, year after year, food blogs continue to be among the most popular blog types. Whether it’s reviewing restaurants, trying new recipes, or exploring a specific diet such as vegan food or gluten-free food, there’s certainly something for everyone out there.

Similarly, readers hungry to find things to do “off the beaten path” are constantly on the prowl for new activities, and many search for travel blogs to get ideas. These blogs are an excellent way to showcase your own experiences trying new things around the world.

Likewise, millions of businesses utilize a blog on their website to promote products and services. This gives them a platform to share their point of view, distribute important announcements, provide essential information to current clients, and introduce prospective ones to new concepts.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Types of blogs you can launch for your business

Before you start blogging, think about the type of blog you’re passionate about producing and managing. Most blogs fall into one of these eight general categories.

1. Business or company blogs

A company blog or business blog can be a part of a business’s overall marketing strategy. This blog type focuses on the features and benefits of the product or service offered while highlighting and discussing key issues and pain points that their customers may face. Many businesses use their blogs to help drive traffic, convert visitors into customers, boost visibility on search engines, and market material for social media, email marketing, sales, paid media, and more.

2. Personal brand blogs

If your brand is built on your personality (or on the personality of your founder), a personal brand blog may be best for your business. This type of blog blends elements of business blogs with parts of your personal brand. Since this blog is designed to promote a product — in this case, the main person’s brand — there will be elements of promotion and problem-solving among stories about the person’s day-to-day life or noteworthy experiences.

3. Professional blogs

If your whole goal is to make money blogging, a professional blog is the way to go. With you as the professional blogger at the helm, you’ll produce content designed to earn revenue, whether through ads, affiliate links, promoting products on your site, lead generation by capturing contact information, or other monetization opportunities. Professional bloggers may focus all their attention on a single site, or they may own and manage content for multiple blogs. You can create a professional blog in any number of sectors and specialties — your imagination is the limit!

4. Guest host blogs

Guest host blogs are those that you don’t own and operate yourself. Through these platforms, you have your own account on another website and contribute to the blog there. Some blogs are open for anyone to make an account, while others are invitation-only. Medium is a good example of a popular guest host blog.

5. Lifestyle blogs

This blog type is hyper-focused on your everyday life through the lens of a particular topic that others can relate to. Some of the most common lifestyle blogs include:

• Food blogs: You can focus on cuisine you enjoy, recipes you try out, or even a beloved ingredient.
• Travel blogs: This blog type follows your journeys around the world, highlighting where you stayed, what you did, what you ate, and who you met.
• Fashion blogs: This type of blog, which can be closely tied to a personal brand blog, catalogues your outfit choices, current trends, and more.
• Family blogs: These blogs touch on many aspects of parenthood, diving into the day-to-day developments and challenges of raising a child.
• Beauty blogs: Chronicle your adventures trying new makeup, nail art, or hair styles.

6. Niche blogs

This blog type delves narrow and deep into any kind of topic, from news and developments about your chosen profession to your favorite hobby to financial matters. Name the topic, and you can build a niche blog around it. 

Not only do niche blogs give you a solid framework upon which to build your content, but they help you develop recognition in a smaller group. This helps you more easily break through the noise and reach other readers who have the same interests you do.

7. Affiliate blogs

An affiliate blog generates revenue by pairing with companies or brands to promote their products for a fee, earn commission on sales of products mentioned on their blogs, or a combination of both. The blog is centered around getting others to shop for the products mentioned in the blog. You may find reviews or other similar content types on an affiliate blog.

8. Media blogs

Sometimes known as multimedia blogs, a media blog is centered around the content the brand produces. For example, a YouTube channel with a dedicated blog on its website is considered a media blog as its main goal is to promote the YouTube channel. You’ll see similar blogs for podcasts, photography, art, and other mediums.

Photo by Picography from Pexels

5 tips for selecting the right blog type for your business or brand

Before you set out to create a blog with a personal website builder, you’ll need to choose which blog type is best for your business or brand. Here’s how you can choose the best blog type for your needs.

• Remember your purpose. What is your main goal for the blog? Knowing why you want to start blogging will shape the type of blog you eventually choose to pursue. For example, if you only want to generate revenue, you may want to focus on a professional blog or an affiliate blog. If you’re here to share your knowledge of a subject or love for something, a niche blog or lifestyle blog may be better for you.
  
• Think about who’s reading. How, and why, do you want to connect with your audience? Think about what they need and work backward. For example, if your company sells kitchen gadgets, your audience may search for cooking ideas and recipes they can make with your items. Therefore, a food blog that blends elements of a lifestyle blog and a company blog may be the most appropriate for your business.
  
• Consider the timing. Pay attention to the world around you. What’s going on that may influence the eventual success of your blog? A good part of blog success is delivering the content people are searching for, so be sure to strike while the iron is hot. For example, the COVID-19 global pandemic triggered a surge in searches for new hobbies, activities to do at home, and DIY projects as more people looked for safe things to do while staying home. That could mean that a hobby blog started around this time would perform better than a blog about theater or global travel.
  
• Consider the content before launching. In theory, there should be no shortage of topics for you to cover no matter what you choose, but some sectors may be more difficult than others to dive into. Think about the general topics you can write about that are still in line with your brand, and use that general framework to find subtopics that fall into those umbrella categories. If something seems a bit too difficult to tackle, you may want to consider switching to a different blog type that’ll make it easier to solicit, write, and publish content.
  
• Be original. Just because many others are writing about a certain subject doesn’t mean that you should, too. Visitors will flock to you because your content is original, interesting, and of quality. Being unique will also help attract visitors and attention, especially if it helps you stand out in a crowded blogging niche.

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