23 Most Popular Types Of Blogs You Can Start & Monitize

 Many business owners struggle to start a blog because they’re unsure what to write or how to structure their posts. Others feel overwhelmed by the variety of blog types and how they can benefit their business. If this resonates with you, this blog will help. It outlines 23 popular blog types in 2024 and explains how each can support your business.

What Is a Blog?

A blog, short for weblog, started in 1994, is a regularly updated website or online platform where companies, groups, or individuals share content in a conversational and informal style. It consists of individual posts or articles displayed in reverse documented order, with the most recently published content at the top. These posts cover a wide range of topics and often reflect:

• Author’s opinions

• Insights

• Experiences

• Expertise in a particular subject

Blog Statistics: The Numbers Behind Blogs

Today, there are over 600 million online blogs, accounting for one-third of all the published websites. Starting as online personal diaries, blogs have evolved dramatically over the last two decades to become influential sources of information on virtually any topic.

Who Are Bloggers?

Bloggers are the authors of these posts and can be individuals, teams, or organizations. More often, to construct strong security walls for writers and users, most businesses also hide the author's name in blog posts published under the specific brand name.

Why Are Blogs Important? The Benefits of Blog Posts

The interactive nature of blogs allows readers to engage with the content through comments, fostering discussions and community-building. Blog archives are readily available, making it easy for readers to access and explore older content.

Posts are often bifurcated under categories and tags for efficient navigation, ensuring readers can find the topics that interest them most. Thus, blogs have become an integral part of the digital landscape, offering diverse content and perspectives for online audiences.

Why Start a Blog?

Boost Your Authority, Knowledge, And Expertise with a Blog

A blog helps individuals and businesses establish authority in a niche or industry. Consistently writing and sharing blog posts helps owners demonstrate their:

• Expertise

• Knowledge

• Skill to readers

Over time, a blog can help build trust with an audience, leading to more business.

Improve Your Online Presence With a Blog

Whenever you publish a blog post, you create a new page for search engines to index. This helps your website gain visibility in search results, mainly if you use target keywords and optimize your posts. A blog can attract organic traffic to your business’s website and enhance your online presence.

Engage Your Audience with a Blog

A blog allows you to connect with your readers. You can interact with them through comments, and they can share your posts on social media. This engagement helps you build a community around your brand or niche.

Monetize Your Blog

Blogs can be monetized in several ways. You can earn money from a blog by:

• Placing ads

• Writing sponsored posts

• Becoming an affiliate for other companies

• Selling your products

You can even create a blog to document a hobby or interest that you enjoy and monetize it before you even realize it’s happening.

Use Your Blog as an Educational Tool

A blog is an excellent way to educate your audience about your business and industry. You can use blog posts to:

• Answer common questions

• Provide how-to guides

• Offer valuable tips and tricks

Over time, your blog can become a go-to resource for your readers.

How Do Blogs Make Money? 7 Ways Your Blog Can Make You Money

Blogs can make money in many different ways. Some strategies are more straightforward than others, but they all require effort. Most of these blog income streams depend on precarious conditions, such as search engine algorithms and brand budgets. For this reason, it's highly recommended that you diversify your revenue by choosing multiple methods.

1. Brand Partnerships

Bloggers often team up with brands to create sponsored content. This usually entails reviewing a specific product or incorporating a product mention into regular content. Brand partnerships can be one-off deals or long-term relationships based on your content's performance and mutual interest.

2. Advertising Networks

Advertising networks will pay you to run ads on your blog or when someone clicks an ad. Specific networks, such as Mediavine, require you to have a pretty hefty amount of monthly views (50,000) to run ads, whereas others, such as Google AdSense, have no minimum view count requirements.

3. Affiliate Links or Codes

Bloggers can join what are known as affiliate networks. Affiliate networks allow you to generate unique links to products you talk about on your blog to help you earn a commission when someone makes a purchase. Amazon Associates and LTK are two common examples.

Affiliate codes work similarly to links in that I earn a small commission when someone makes a purchase. Brands may give you a unique code for your readers to enter at checkout when they shop online, and you can promote this code throughout your content to drive sales.

4. Digital Products

If you want to sell products without the logistical hassle of coordinating packing and shipping, digital products might be a better fit. Digital products are a relatively low-effort, inexpensive way to create products your audience wants. Most digital products can be accessed or downloaded by your customers immediately after purchase.

Some examples of digital products you can sell include but are not limited to Printables. These can be anything from:

• Calendars

• Lesson plans

• Budgeting sheets

• Other online courses

You can use a platform such as Teachable to create more detailed lessons or tutorials than your blog provides. An e-book is usually a self-written, self-published title in PDF form.

5. Physical Products

Your blog can be used to sell physical products, whether you already sell things on another channel or want to create entirely new ones. You can insert links to any existing products you sell into my blog posts, or I can create merchandise that aligns with my content and audience. For example, if I have a fashion blog, I can sell items such as T-shirts, hats or tote bags with my blog's logo.

6. Premium Content or Memberships

Blogs are free to read, but you can put exclusive content behind a paywall to create an additional revenue stream. Dedicated readers or fans will then need to pay for access to read it. Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee are two examples of platforms that help creators host subscriber-exclusive content. You can also use these platforms to create memberships, where your readers pay a recurring monthly fee to access premium content.

7. Consulting or Coaching

Your blog is an excellent source of free information, but your readers might want to learn more from you. If you start getting requests for specific advice or guidance, that's a good sign that you could earn money through one-on-one consulting or coaching sessions.

What Are the 2 Basic Types of Blog Services?

1. Traditional Blog Services: A Great Choice for Serious Blogging

Traditional blog services let you create a website for your blog. Blogs created with these services can include sections, categories, and other features that allow you to organize your blog posts. These services also include features that let you permit and manage comments, as well as tools to customize the appearance of your blog.

Traditional blog services are best for creating text-heavy blogs, although you can use them for any content you want. The blogs you're most familiar with likely use traditional blog services.

2. Microblogging: Not Just a Social Media

Microblogging services let you create concise blog posts, often consisting of only a line of:

• Text

• Image

• Link

Most microblogging services are designed to be used in a certain way. For example, Twitter places a 280-character limit on the length of posts. Users can write whatever they want but must do so in under 280 characters. Social networking sites that allow sharing, like Facebook, can also be considered microblogging services.