Blogging has changed a bit though over the years. It is no longer dominated by a loosely connected group of people writing their personal or political online diaries, but it has become a significant marketing platform comprising collections of very organised people who are online for very specific purposes. There are quite a few types of blogger online in 2010, most of which were unheard of five years ago.

What does this mean for the eager blogger who comes online in 2010 and beyond? Simply put, there are a number of key issues to consider and a need to carefully plan their blogging journey.

Essentially, the first step for any blogger is to determine the reason for wanting to be online.

Without putting at least some time into planning and strategic thinking, new bloggers are highly likely to become buried, and therefore lost, in the massive information quagmire which is the Internet, and probably within 12 months of starting their journey.

In 2010 there are around eight different types of established blogger. Here is a quick synopsis of those eight blogger types. If you don’t have the time right now, at least read the three key points near the end of the post.

The 8 main blogger types

Perhaps the most predominant, but often least visible are personal or political bloggers who set out to make their opinions heard and claim a place in the vast landscape of the internet. Their primary reason for being online is usually not to make money but to air their thoughts and opinions. They may end up selling advertising space if they build a big enough following. A parallel to this type of blogger is the newspaper columnist.

Next are the blog coaches whose business is about churning out students who, in turn, try their hardest to “make it online” directly from a blogging platform, often repeating what their coach has done and shown them to do, in the hope of striking it rich. Many students start out with great eagerness but begin to waver once the cold hard reality of creating a sustainable online business becomes clear. Simply put, there is no way to make a regular and reasonable income online that does not involve hard work, skill, planning, strategy and determination.

Another breed of 2010 blogger is the niche blogger who has identified an under-serviced market segment where demand still outweighs supply. He or she has done some keyword research to determine where there might still be a few undiscovered dollars just waiting to be unearthed. There are some who strike gold and there are many who make good pocket money from this activity. They are not highly visible unless you are investigating that specific niche, then you are likely to find their blog on page 1 of Google.

Affiliate bloggers set out to attract large volumes of traffic to their product review and sales pages with the aim of making affiliate sales or other products and services. In this category you would also find many who sell advertising space on their pages, plaster banner ads in every available corner, and some even in corners that aren’t available. Affiliate bloggers are often the graduate students of blog coaches.

Then there are the company blogs started by overzealous webmasters as part of a package to “get their offline businesses online”, sometimes without really understanding the purpose of blogging. Many of these can be identified by their irregular posting schedule and with the last post often dating back months or sometimes years. These blogs exist in the vain hope of extending the reach of the poorly designed company website into the so-called Web 2.0 space.

The entrepreneurial blogger is one who sets out to share techniques or tips via posts, an ebook or video series, often with the aim of putting together one or more products with sufficient inherent value that they can be exchanged for food and electricity, or at least money to pay for such . I partly fall into this category. The tips are most commonly based on recent and personal experience, and are aimed at helping others to either repeat favourable actions or avoid unfavourable outcomes.

The creative blogger is one who produces one or more unique products or services and promotes them directly or indirectly via their blog. This is the domain of the software developer, such as plugin authors and creators of other software tools, usually for very narrow and highly specific purposes. I mostly exist in this domain (at least in my 12 month strategic plan) with a range of products coming through my development pipeline.

The combo blogger (a term I just made up) is one who selects a combination of two or more of the above blogging styles and combines the styles into what he/she hopes to become an effective commercial operation. The most common mixes I have observed involve a combination of niche, affiliate and entrepreneurial. The combo blogger is usually attempting to get the mix just right so as to make money in the shortest possible time frame. During my time online (5+ years building sites, not just browsing) I think the combo blogger is where the majority of new bloggers start out. They have read a cross-section of ebooks, articles and blog posts about making money online and kick off a blog with a banner or two, Google ads and an affiliate link or three.

Keys to success for any blogger

A key to the success of any of the blogging models listed above, regardless of the financial outcome being sought, is to create key points of differentiation, that is, characteristics that help the blog stand out from the crowd. It is a big crowd and to be different requires 3 big P’s – planning, personality and perseverance.

KEY POINT # 1

A saying of which I am quite fond is ‘Failure to plan is like planning to fail’. Effective planning will be one of the key differences between a blog that is ‘going places’ compared to one that simply ‘exists’. Without planning, a blog is most likely going to end in failure. If you haven’t already got a plan, sit down away from your blog and write down a plan for the next twelve months. If you find that too challenging, make it a one month plan. Then stick to your plan, and keep updating it going forward. How many times a week will you post and what will you blog about? What are your financial goals? What will it cost to get going? What support do I need?

KEY POINT # 2

Personality is what shines through after the blogger starts to realise that regurgitated advice read on another site is not going to be enough to make it long term. Let ‘you’ be the main flavour of your blog. Don’t try to be like your coach. Don’t even try to be like some of the ‘pro-bloggers’ you read about. That is not differentiation, that is copy-catting. Copying others may help to get you started but as soon as you can, develop your own voice and let it shine through.

KEY POINT # 3

Perseverance is what will help you through the cash-less early days (if you’re in it for the money). Very few, if any blogs, will be making $1000 a month with 100′s of subscribers after just one month online. Those sorts of figures will take at least 6 months, and that is for the highly ambitious and very active blogger with a detailed plan. Start with a realistic plan so that you can experience success but, like I have said before…

If a plan is the roadway to success then
action is the vehicle that will take you there.

You can make a success of your blog, but it requires consistent, quality effort on your part.

Some things to consider going forward:

1. What type of blogger are you? Deciding now will help you moving forward.

2. Do you have a plan, any plan? Without some sort of plan you are up against the odds.

3. Are you using your own voice (personality)? and …

4. Do something today that builds value into your blogging enterprise.

Related posts:

1. All internet businesses need support
2. Four Action Steps To Internet Business Success
3. Looking for great blogging advice