What is a personal blog?
A personal blog usually has these 5 key elements:
The blog's URL is the bloggers name
The blog posts and blog content are from their unique perspective
Personal pictures of themselves on their own blog
Emails or any communication will come from the blogger's name
The content they write about is a real passion of theirs
What is a professional blog? (Company blog)
A professional blog usually has these 5 key elements:
Website URL is a business name
The content doesn't have a specific person it is from (Although it can have a perspective)
No personal pictures on the website
Emails or any communication come for the companies' name
The content the business writes about is usually from industry knowledge, not a passion
This is where it gets tricky - Can you have a personal blog and professional blog in one?
Yes! For example, this blog you are on. Is a personal blog about my professional experience. Making this blog a true mix of personal and professional.
Attaching a personal story and founder to a brand or blog can be really powerful.
I think the reason you start it and your unique goals help define what type of blogger you want to become.
The blog type you chose to start with doesn't matter. Just make sure whatever you choose, that it is something you can stick with for years to come.
What blog types exist?
Media blog
Affiliate blog
Corporate blog
Business blog
Personal blog
Professional blog
Niche blog
Why would you start a personal blog?
Before starting a blog, I like to have a specific measurable goal that I can aim for and a purpose.
My personal blog purpose:
I want to help more people build an online income so they can go golfing with me during normal work hours. I know, it is a selfish goal.
How will I achieve my blog purpose?
I will be documenting and teaching what has worked in my eCommerce business, my email marketing agency, and now this blog. If I put out great and valuable content, I hope my readers will be inspired or at least see a different perspective.
What are my personal blog goals?
Build an audience of 10,000+ email subscribers
Driver 100,000 unique visitors per month
Generate an additional income that can pay for my golf membership, and as many golf trips as I want! Maybe even buy a golf course. You gotta dream big.
Why would you start a professional blog?
For my online store I also had a blog that was purely professional. (although I was a part of the brand). I told you the lines can be really blurred.
Professional blog purpose:
Build brand awareness and attract my potential customers via organic traffic.
How will I achieve my professional blog's purpose?
Writing very specific long tail keywords that my target audience is searching for. Doing this consistently will help drive awareness for the brand and hopefully get them into the top of the funnel.
What are my professional blog goals?
To sale enough golf clubs to drive a high ROI from blog posts
Increase organic traffic sales to offset paid marketing efforts
To continue to increase overall brand awareness while being profitable
Blogging success takes to time and focused effort
As I am learning, blogging is like anything in business. You need to know what the truly big levers are and only focus on them.
For my blog, there are two levers I try to focus on:
1- Content
2- Links
My goal each week is to consistently write compelling content that can be seen by search engines. Doing this over a long period of time is the only way to build a niche blog, personal blog, professional blog, really any blog!
Being a new blog owner, there are so many distractions. Focusing on the actual content output and having a basic framework for SEO makes it seem more manageable.
Why I like personal blogs over a niche blog
I like having a personal blog instead of a business or niche blog because you can pivot. If you are too niche for your blog name and what you blog about you can't pivot. For example, let's say you love to ski and you make a blog called SkisReviews well then it will be very hard to write anything that isn't a Ski review.
You may find out that after a number of ski reviews that the competition is too fierce. And it will take a long time to rank. Whereas if you have a personal blog you can pivot and try different things and let google determine what will work. This is a more fluid approach to blogging that may allow you to go where the traction is.
What type of blogger are you? Let me know in the comments below.