People become bloggers for all kinds of reasons – personal, community, and professional. While a great deal of attention is paid to professional bloggers, or those who derive income from their blogs, the vast majority of bloggers don’t make a great deal of (or any) money blogging.

If you’re thinking about getting into this whole blogging thing, you probably have a lot of questions about what kind of blogs are out there and how you could contribute. The goods news is that there is always room for a quality blog in any niche.

How to begin a successful blog

• Define your goals for blogging: Is it to market a business? Document an important phase of your life? Make money?
• Define your subject: Write about something you know or are willing to put time into learning.
• Know your target audience: Know who you’re writing for and tailor your content towards them.
• Try new things: Experiment with writing style, content, tools, and anything else you can thing of.
• Write consistently and often.

Types of bloggers and blogs

We’ve put together a list of a few of the main types of blogs and bloggers. Keep in mind that these are very general categories, and most blogs incorporate aspects of each type.

Journal bloggers

Many new bloggers start out with a journal blog. This type of blogging tends to be intensely personal and focuses on the daily life and activities of the blogger. It can be an easy way to get into blogging, since all a new blogger has to do is write about himself or herself.

However, journal blogging is limiting in that the only people who are likely to read the blog are close family and friends. If you intend your blog to appeal to a wider audience than your inner circle, avoid making your blog too much about yourself.

Hobby bloggers

Hobby bloggers write about things that interest them a lot. Food and fashion bloggers come to mind as examples of this type of blogger. They distinguish themselves from journal bloggers since they tend to write about a single subject and are more focused on writing for a specific audience of other hobbyists.

Fitness and sport bloggers are other examples this category as well. There aren’t many solid statistics on what percentage of blogs fall into this category, but it’s a good bet that there are many. If you plan on building a blog around a particular subject, you’re probably a hobby blogger.

Marketing bloggers

These bloggers write as a way to support a business or career. They typically use a blog to market a business or establish themselves as experts in a particular field. If you’re a professional and have subject matter expertise, a blog can be a great way to get your name out there.

It’s quite common for bloggers in this category to simply add a blog onto an existing domain (say a business site) or register a domain in their own name (like annsmith.com). Often times, a blog will come up in search engine results near the top, making it a good way to control what people see when they search for a business or individual name.

Some journalists keep blogs as alternate ways of publishing and marketing their print articles. While there can be some debate on whether or not blogging can be true journalism, it is becoming increasingly accepted by mainstream media.

SEO bloggers

Search-engine optimization (SEO) blogs focus on writing content designed to push the blog high up in search engine results for a certain topic or set of keywords. These blogs usually focus less on quality and more on keywords.

Bloggers in this category are in it to make as much money as possible from adsense revenue and sometimes affiliate sales. You can usually spot these kinds of blogs by their highly optimized headlines and prominent ads. The problem is that with poor content, there is little opportunity to build a community.

Lifestyle/community bloggers

Most professional bloggers fall into this category. They have built a community around their topic and are writing to a very specific target audience. Blogs like Lifehacker, Zen Habits, and Four Hour Work Week fall into this category.

Topics for lifestyle bloggers can vary widely, but popular topics can include personal finance and  managing credit. Some personal finance blogs focus on developing good credit and finding deals on credit cards, while others focus more on frugal living. However, credit card or personal finance blogs can be tough to make work, since the niche is highly competitive.

Successful bloggers in this category usually make money from a combination of sources. They may sell advertising space, publish ebooks and guides, promote affiliate products, or make money as a speaker. Many bloggers are also being approached for book deals, since publishers hope to capitalize on an existing market for their writing.

Overlap

As you might guess, there is often a lot of overlap between categories. A lifestyle blogger will generally implement lots of SEO into his and her blog. A hobby blogger might go pro and build a community around a popular blog.

Tips for getting started blogging

• Write on a regular schedule
• Develop a theme or subject for your blog
• Don’t worry about making everything perfect – just write and publish
• Comment on other blogs in your niche to build an audience
• If you already have a firm idea, invest in your own domain name
• Don’t spend tons of money on a custom blog theme

Katheryne Taylor is a social media advocate and blogger at CreditDonkey.  She hopes this post has given you a good understanding of the various types of bloggers out there and how to begin blogging yourself. Don’t worry too much about deciding what kind of blogger you are at the beginning. Just write, make some connections, and stick with it.