Did you know there are multiple types of blogs? If yes, feel
free to watch the funny cat’s video at the bottom of the post and skip
everything else. If no, then read through this post. There are five general
types of blogs, each with unique characteristics to them. Each of the five are
listed below with an example of each. To better understand each blog I went
over some of the specifics, strengths, and issues of each blog. Also, watch the cat video, it is hilarious.
NEWS BLOG – News
blogs often look just like a regular online news site containing articles about
the topic that the blog is dedicated to. Typically these blogs have multiple
contributors and heavily utilize social media for propagation.
EXAMPLE
Business Insider is a great example of a news blog focusing
on financial and business news. The blog provides a variety of information from
news, to finance, to some entertainment content related to finance. The mix of
the articles makes it a blog where you can both get your daily dose of news as
well as waste time looking at inforgraphics or Instagram pictures from George Soros’s
wedding. Business Insider is different from many other business news sites as
it rarely publishes any type of analysis. Most of the articles focus on opinion
pieces, highlights of companies and people, as well as business topics trending
on social media.
The blog is updated frequently from multiple writers. The
entire blog follows the same layout, graphics, and a clean, white background.
The buttons are large and easy to navigate. Every page has social media buttons
linking to all major social media platforms.
Every time you open an article the blog suggest more similar articles
that you may like.
Business Insider
does not appear on terms such as “business news” on the first page of either
Google or Bing. Articles within the blog are very popular on social media, I have
personally seen them on both my Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Through the
social media sharing buttons on top of each page allows each post to be easily
shared. The blog gains a lot of its readership by closely following what is
popular on social media and displaying it in the “Trending” column.
Business Insider overall does an excellent job of filling a
specific niche in business news. By shying away from financial analysis and
focusing on trending and interest pieces the blog is drawing a wide reading.
This is validated by the advertising on the site from AMEX, Samsung, and other
companies that advertise various products for small and medium sized
businesses. The major glaring issue for Business Insider is SEO. By improving
their rating on both Google and Bing the blog could greatly increase
viewership.
PROFESSIONAL /
SEMI-PROFESSIONAL BLOG – Professional blogs are usually very high standard, well-polished,
post frequently and focus on the company’s news and features. A semi – professional blog is only different
in the amount of time and material being invested in the blog since there may
be only one or a part time blogger.
EXAMPLE
The US Playstation (PS) blog is “where the people who create
the PlayStation experience meet gamers and fans directly. Conversation here
goes both ways..”. The blog is unique that it asks for PS users and others to
interact with the blog authors both through social media and directly on the
blog. The writers and employees at PS will often reply to comments within the
blog despite the number of posts and comments each day.
Everything within the blog reflects the PS brand and its
current advertising and media strategy. As the release of the new generation
consoles grows closer PS has aggressively advertised the new PS4. The content
on the blog reflects both news about the new PS4 as well as updates readers on
older games and console versions. The blog utilizes the traditional PS color
scheme as well as integrates the PS Plus network into the blog. The blog is
advertised on the main PS webpage and the articles are commonly shared on
social media by both users and other sites linking to the content.
The US PS blog is a great example of what a professional
blog should look like. It fully integrates into the PS advertising efforts and
strives to be as social as possible. The contributors on the blog engage the
readers not only on the website but also on other social media platforms. The
blog can be easily found if you search for PS and blog. It does not appear on
the front page though if you just search for PS. The blog itself has no
advertising but has links to other PS products and services that serve as a
form of self-advertising.
RECREATIONAL BLOGS –
Recreational blogs are the one man shows, somebody posting on their timeline
(whenever they want) about a subject that they love. They typically are not
created to make oney but occasionally can earn a bit. The provide opinions and
instructions from the writers perspective.
EXAMPLE
Food Wishes with Chef John is probably the only small time
blog that I personally follow. Chef John blogs about anything that is food
related, often posting recipes and videos. There is no specific food theme but
really anything goes. John also posts some of his recipes on other recipe
sharing websites.
Food Wishes and Chef John has a unique style of “voice” on
the blog. It is very rare that in any of his recipes you need unicorn tears or
other rare ingredients that you run across sometimes on food blogs. Seriously,
who keeps fennel pollen and coconut milk in their pantry? Chef John also
infuses humor and personal stories through his posts and videos that make each
post both informational and humorous.
Over the past few years Food Wishes has won several awards
as a food blog that drives a lot of the traffic to the blog. Chef John has also
posted his recipes on many other websites such as www.allrecipies.com, however on most of
those websites there is no direct link back to his blog. If you search his name
he is one of the top search results, for a food blog search Food Wishes is a
few pages back. Also the front page lacks any social media or sharing buttons that
hinders the blogs ability to become more popular. Since the blog is hosted on
BlogSpot the archiving system on the front page is confusing.
AGGREGATOR / LINK
SHARING BLOGS – Aggregator and link sharing blogs are relatively new. One of
the biggest aggregator platform that you may have heard of is Tumblr. These
blogs rarely have original material but instead list links, pictures, and
videos to other content. There are companies that are posting on these blogs
with original content linked back to the company’s website.
EXAMPLE
The TJ Maxx Tumblr blog is a great example of both an
aggregator blog as well as a company’s blog that is taking advantage of this
new blog medium. Unlike many of the other aggregator blogs most of the posts on
TJ Maxx’s blog is new and original content. Just like other aggregator blogs
this blog does not post anything lengthy as all posts are pictures with a short
one or two sentence description. All posts reflect the TJ Maxx brand of
shopping for less and still being able to buy trendy clothes.
The blog itself is integrated with the banding efforts by TJ
Maxx. The colors remain constant between commercials, the TJ Maxx website, and
the blog. Words that are associated with TJ Maxx such as “maxxinista” are
utilized on the website.
One of the issues with aggregator blogs is the search rating
of the blog. If you directly search for the TJ Maxx blog the Tumblr page is
found on the first page of search. If you simply search for TJ Maxx then the
blog is relegated to the third page.
The blog itself is overall very well rounded. It has
multiple tabs that are devoted to either fashionable outfits put together by TJ
Maxx designers, user submissions, or new arrivals at TJ Maxx. There are links
to all social media platforms utilized by the company. Since this is a brand
blog there is no advertising, but there is advertising on some aggregator
blogs.
GROUP BLOGS – Group
blogs are blogs that have multiple contributors. They function as a place for
many authors to blog and provide content about a topic. They can be for fun or
revenue producing blogs.
EXAMPLE
Twenties Hacker deals with everything that an average may be
concerned with. There is a set core of writers that submit articles to the blog
and several that guest blog. The blog offers advice from food, to career, to
travel. Are you thinking of quitting your job? There is a blog post about that.
The blog provides others experiences of others about issues that someone out of
college may be struggling with or trying to make decisions about.
The blog is not very well known. In part this is due to the
sporadic posting schedule. Despite the multiple bloggers you may get five posts
one week and two the next. This sets the blog back in search results and how
much social media exposure it receives. There are social media buttons
prominently displayed and many of the articles have more social media exposure
than the website itself.
Bonus Cat Video
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