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Ever felt that you are just another blogger in the blogosphere? Have you ever thought of branding yourself for a particular thing you do and become known for it? Keep reading the blog post and you will find 3 different ways by which you can brand yourself. There are more than three ways but I guess you shouldn’t confuse yourself when reading the article. After all, the main aim of this article is to teach you some ways using which you can become known in the blogosphere.
In this article what I’m not going to teach is step by step method for becoming an authority. It is a vast topic and it will take more than 10,000 words to explain it. It can be explained only by writing a book on it if I need to teach you every step.
You will see three types of blogging in this blog post and using one of them you can become famous for it and brand yourself for that way of blogging. First let me just list the three ways so that if you are in a hurry you can read it and bookmark it for later reading.
1. Problem Solver
2. Advice Blogger
3. News Reporter
1. Problem Solver
Problem solver is the one who writes solutions for problems that people are facing. Problem solvers have the advantage of getting more subscribers easily to their blog. If you give a solution for a problem I am facing, I’m going to visit your blog many times and also subscribe to it. Being a problem solver is tough unless you have good knowledge or experience in your niche. You cannot write on “How to setup a website” unless you know how to do it. Problem solvers write more of how-to posts. To get questions for answering in the blog, visit forums. It’s the best place to find problems.
2. Advice Blogger
Advice bloggers are those who give advice on becoming better on anything you know already. Your blog will become more social media friendly if you are giving advices to people. Would you not stumble an article that advices you on how to become better at blogging? Or would you not digg a post that lists many ways to manage your time efficiently? Giving advice is something you can do only by reading more. The more you read, the better you will get. The better you get, the more advice you will be able to give.
3. News Reporter
News reporters are those who write the latest happenings in their respective niche. The blogs that post the latest news get more search engine traffic. If your primary monetization method is adsense, this type should be your choice. Search engine people tend to respond well to the ads. But being a news reporter isn’t easy. You should be the first to write about something. If first is not possible, try to be in the first five. If more people start to write about the same thing, no one will be interesting in reading your blog post. There are so many bloggers who are writing the same news that you are writing. You have to be unique in delivering the news.
Which type of blogger are you? Are you able to find yourself in one of the above types? If yes, I suggest you to work on it and try to become better. One more thing I would like to remind you is that you can write about the latest happenings even though you are primarily a problem solver. The ultimate aim is to find people who are interested in your writing and make them your precious subscribers.
What other types of bloggers do you know? Please share it in the comments.
Hello Ram
every new blog i visit these days are either Advice blog or News report.
these 2 types are easier then the 1st for of blogging (mine is 2nd one) and often money ripper.
nut i dont agree with your point about News blog get the best search traffic, infect they purely survive on social media traffic from sites like digg and stumbleup on, on other hand problem solver type of blogs gets batter organic traffic because of their longtail reach content which is more target specific then news blogs.
Sunil,
News blogs depend more on search traffic. I have never seen much of news type posts getting social media traffic. In my blog and in many of the other blogs, it is the 1 and second type of posts that get more social media traffic. At least from my experience it is that way.
I agree with you completely on the first type of blogs getting traffic from long tail keywords. But in the end, when you have a lot of news type of posts, people are always searching for the latest news and they get traffic. Especially with technology blogs, people come to blog by searching for latest news.
Thanks for your comment.
Ah, but then again there are those of us who fall into none of these categories. My site is funny news, all of which is written purely for fun. There is no niche for which I can report the latest news, and i would argue that there is a small community of humor bloggers who function very much in the same way.
I realize however than there probably aren't enough of us to make up our own category.
I am problem solver probably. Or something around that, I mostly post about software or services that help with specific tasks.
Have to wait few years to report how well it works.
love this post.
Here's the thing; what if you are more than one type of blogger – say, advice and problem solver?
Funny News,
I can see that you write humor posts. This is a niche which cannot come under any of the above three types I mentioned. But I also said in the post that there are many more types of bloggers and I would put you in the category of "Helper". You help people laugh and enjoy the day.
Lid,
That's a good question. I consider myself a combination of 1 and 2. But if you see closely everyone will have a little edge with one type over the other. Though I come under 1 and 2, I'm more of advice blogger than a problem solver.
I always try to find what I'm good at and do them more. I'm bad in reporting news and so I never try it unless I don't have anything to blog about.
I'm curious under which type you come.
Rarst,
I'm waiting to hear your results being a problem solver. As I said in the above comment, try to find what you are doing best and improvise on it. It will get you success in long term.
Hi Ram-
Your effort to identify different types of blogging was interesting and helpful for me. I write two blogs, one that is solidly an advice blog, (www.AuPairMom.com) and another that doesn't really have a category (www.AuthenticOrganizations.com). And boy is it different to write them!
The AuPairMom advice blog gets new subscribers with little effort on my part– moms just pass the posts along to each other. It's really clear that people *want* advice about having an au pair.
My other blog, http://www.AuthenticOrganizations.com, is more of a challenge, because it doesn't fit in a category about solving "a need that people know they have." It's more about offering insights to people who are inclined to be thoughtful about business and organizations. Readers don't know they need or want to think about X, but they enjoy the posts once they read them.
There may be a way that my AuthenticOrganizations blog is a "helper" blog like the one that FunnyNews writes, but maybe there is another category? … I really struggle with how to categorize this blog. Somehow, I imagine that if I had a clearer way to categorize it, it would be easier to focus my writing and also help me target my marketing.
Any ideas? I'd love your suggestions… cvh
Hmm I think I'm a combination blogger (advice/problem) but what's interesting is that Mad is now blogging more on dev stuff – and it feels a little broader than we originally intended.
I don't think I could blog news; too much stuff already being covered – and quicker – although I have blogged events as they happen, so maybe that is news ish?
Thanks again for this post
CV,
I like your Au Pair blog and it surely looks like a problem solver blog. Since you have found the category under which it comes, you can easily attract people to your blog and build a good relationship with them.
Coming to your other blog, I think it is more of advice blog though you write on other things too. If you want to be much clearer, do some experiment. Write some posts under the categories which you think your blog comes. If you have 2-3 categories, write articles on all these categories and start posting them one by one. One category of posts the first few days and then next and so on. The category of posts which gets more response from people and gets more subscribers or link backs to your blog is the main category of your blog.
Every two months or every time you think you need to reconfirm the category, start the test again. TEST, TEST and TEST. It will help you a lot in getting long term success.
Lid,
Your blog is indeed a combination of advice and problem solver type. In your blog, I find these posts like "HTML For Bloggers" and "WordPress Plugin: Simple Image Link" to be problem solvers while posts like "Basic Blogging Tips" shows that your blog also gives advice.
I think writing about blogging events is more like news posts. Have you blogged about latest products or money making programs or about any site that is up for sale at sitepoint? I consider these things as pure news posts. There are blogs that covers news like these very well. In my opinion, it is not easy to be a news blogger. But being a news blogger has its own advantages too.