Types Of Blogs To Cash In On
16. Mar, 2010 
8 Comments
We’ve already discussed how Blogs are a great way to cash in on your passion. The types of blogs you can build are limited only by your imagination and by your willingness to conduct research.
For example, some bloggers focus on general topics, such as cars, while others narrow the scope of their blogs even further to sub-topics, such as luxury cars or antique cars.
Now a blog with a narrower scope would likely outperform a blog with a broader scope in terms of conversions or clicks-per-visitor. So, if your goal is to make money, the types of blogs you can build are somewhat limited.
In terms of actual topics for the types of blogs you can build, there really is no limit, but there are about 9 major areas that are popular for current blogs: business/finance, culture, community, politics, religion, science, travel, online diaries, and gossip.
Most blog directories use similar topical categories to order blogs.
In addition to the topic for the types of blogs you can build, you’ll also want to consider the program used to generate it. This is another way that directories categorize blogs.
For instance, blogs can fall under the category of the tool or software that was used to create them. Some blogs are created using Google’s Blogger. These blogs are often lumped together in directories as the same “type” of blog.
They actually have an auto-surfing system that allows you to jump randomly from one Blogger’s blog to another.
Other types of blogs you can build include social networking blogs, which allow members of the same network to interact with each other using various blog functions.
Examples are Livejournal–which was one of the original social networking blog systems–and Myspace, which boasts of having a base of around 100,000,000 users.
In recent months marketers and businesses have begun using Myspace and many other social networks to introduce their products to potential customers.
Another type of blog you can build is a video blog or “vlog.” These usually contain videos and allow other posts to attach media in comments.
The last types of blogs you can build are geographical blogs. If you believe you have some information you can contribute about your specific region, you may want to start a regional geographic blog.
The Pros Of Having a Blog
Ok, let’s touch on a couple of real issues as it relates to blogs.
Internet marketers, business professionals, and high school cheerleaders have all debated the virtues of a blog.
Even though blogs are relatively easy to update, many question whether or not they provide real value. So what are the pros to building a blog and what are the cons?
The high school cheerleader in the above example may see some serious social value in a blog (the pros), but isn’t sure if journaling her every move is really worth the time (the cons).
The business professional might see the value in keeping in touch with clients and colleagues, but might not want to be tied to yet another responsibility.
And the Internet marketer might see the pros of having a blog as its ability to drive traffic to a new product, but isn’t sure whether she will actually have enough vested interest to continue updating it.
In fact, blogging can be a positive time investment for any of our characters in question; and in my humble opinion the pros do outweigh the cons.
Take the cheerleader for instance. She could open a Myspace or Facebook account and spend a half hour each day updating her blog or wall.
Now all of her friends can find out exactly what she is up to without talking to her on the phone for hours about the same exact topics.
The pros are significant. She can also simply post comments on their blogs and respond to comments on her blog. This frees up a lot of time, which she can now spend working on her cheerleading routines.
Next, consider the business professional. Rather than repeating plans to several different colleagues, he can simply create a private blog; and use it to articulate and update all of his plans and ideas.
He can then provide all of the colleagues in question with access to this blog. In this case, the pros are also significant.
Last, consider the Internet marketer. She knows the blog will be a useful mechanism for driving traffic to her salespage, but she doesn’t think she will have the interest to continue updating it.
Rather than updating it herself, she can hire an expert on the subject to do it for her — or she can purchase material and use that to update it. Since most blogs can be updated without downloading software, almost anyone can do this update for her.
This means that she now has a stable source of traffic generation and some extra time to promote her product.
The Cons Of Having a Blog
By now you’ve heard all of the hype about blogging on the news. You’ve even heard about people who use monetized blogs to rake in piles of cash. You might wonder if everything about blogging really is true–if it really is that good—or if you’ve only heard the pros, not the cons.
Let’s first tackle this from a non-marketing perspective. If you’re not selling any good or service, what are the cons to owning a blog?
Owning a blog can be a serious drain on your time, even if it is a completely casual blog, which you update irregularly. It is yet another thing that you must check; and if you don’t bother checking it and updating, it is essentially a non-functional, casual time drain.
Now some would say, and I can’t fully agree, but you should no their argument. They would say, “from a marketing perspective, there are also the cons associated with a blog, especially when compared to the alternatives, such as a fully functional website.
While a blog might provide you with an easy means to make updates and an easy means to pull in traffic, you can effectively do all of this better with a fully functional site.
For instance, if you want to constantly update content, you can add RSS feeds to different pages on your site. This will look like fresh content to spiders, very much like comments on your blog would appear.
And if you’re looking for a means to communicate with potential customers or to talk about problems with current customers, you are probably better off either using a support ticket system or creating a forum, which, if done properly, will yield more fresh content than a blog, but will require significantly less effort on your part.
Additionally, as a marketer, a blog that significantly detracts from your time can also put you in a bind to add fresh content to a site that might be better off with a static, optimized sales page.”
Now as I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions, the times have changed and adding fresh, new, relevant content is what the marketplace is demanding today.
All you have to do is ask anyone with a static website, how long are they able to engage and keep visitors? What are their conversions from visitors to customers? What relationship do they have with their market?
If these questions are answered honestly you will see that overall, a blog can be an excellent platform for launching your hobby or passion into a business that you can cash in on.
Tomorrow, I will share with you a few ways to ‘Make Money With Your Blog’.
I still get quite a few emails about what people read hear, but since you’re going to be starting your own blog soon you might as well get used to posting comments here.
Don’t worry about not saying the right thing…just let me know if this is helpful and what you want to learn next about Building a Business Online…
Talk to you tomorrow!!!!
Very insightful…Next topic I’d like to learn next is about websites, and do you need to spend a lot of money on them.
Lawrence, that is the main reason why I started this brief series on blogging.
A blog in many cases is more than sufficient to handle web operations. One of the my coaching clients recently expressed to me how they were in so deep with a web designer and still was not satisfied with the work and the time it took.
Now if you have a business that requires you to have a standard website then you just may have to go that route, but I would encourage anyone to just look and see how many businesses are doing well, very well using a just a blog or a website/blog combination.
A good way to do some research is to Google your subject or industry and behind your keyword or your search term put blog and see how many sites come up and then visit them to see how they funtion.
Advancement in blog technology has made it where sometimes you don’t know if you are on a blog or a standard website.
Do a little research and let me know what you find.
Hi Bro Bedford it’s been a while now since I sit in on one of your life changing classe for me however I have not been able to launch my jewlry business. I thank you for this great information that you are passing on once again and will work harder at making this happen for me. I did sign up with a web site but end up cancelling because I could not get it started on my own. I will give the Blog a try. Debra
Hi Bro Bedford,
One question I was going to ask, I notice a person asked about cost in building web sites. Maybe you could venture toward showing diferents in having both or one or the other for cost sack.
Also, how do you sit up you paypal account for generating the cash flow when it starts. I will share forward later.
Bro. Bedford,
thanks for sharing. Great information.
Good information Bro. Bedford and I love your new blogging format. Keep it coming. Stay blessed!!
Hey family,
You can use WordPress to launch a website the same way you use it to start a blog. All you really need is to pay for your domain name ($10), web hosting (~$10/month), and install Wordpress and you have a website. There are themes to help make your website look pretty that are free or ones that you can buy for a nominal fee. It will take very little knowledge to customize it to meet your needs.
@Debra I have a client who owns a very successful jewelry and handbag business, have you tried http://www.etsy.com ? It’s a great place to get started if you make your own designs.
This is very interesting information but it can be very overwhelming. There are companies like Odesk that you can pay by the hour to maintain blogs for you and your company. I have been deciding to do a blog for my company http://www.safetyprotectioncorp.com If you have females in your life that you love and want to protect it is a nice site to visit.