04 Successful Blogs in Every Topic Imaginable
One misconception that forever bothers me is the belief that blogging doesn’t work unless it’s meta.
People don’t believe blogs can be successful unless they are about blogging, marketing, or social media.
What they don’t understand is that it’s only the marketing blogs that publish things like “income reports” and the like.
Regular blogs in traditional topics don’t do this, yet they are still out therekilling it.
Today I’m going to bring you 50 successful blogs, often built solely through publishing great content + guest blogging, that span a huge variety of topics, to prove once and for all that blogging can be used to build an audience in nearly every topic imaginable.
What Are The Guidelines?
Any blog featured here can NOT have any of the following characteristics:
Focus on blogging/marketing/social media
The blog cannot be tied to another popular site
Must have an involved community
No “mega” blogs or magazines
I’ve included data on the approximate (~) subscriber count (when available) and what the major income source seems to be (when applicable).
For sites that have no subscriber count available, I used the Google Reader browse feature, which shows the number of Google subscribers only, so keep in mind that those RSS counts are likely much higher.
Enjoy!
1.) Help Scout blog [Customer Service]
URL: http://www.helpscout.net/blog/
Approx. Subscribers: 65,000+
Main income source: Software
The blog I’m responsible for! This is the main acquisition channel for the Help Scout help desk and knowledge base. Help Scout is support software that is trusted by thousands of small businesses.
We run the gamut over on the Help Scout blog, but our bread-and-butter will always be customer support.
Here are a few of my personal favorites:
Phrases to Improve Every Support Interaction
How to Talk to Your Angriest Customers
15 Timeless Customer Service Tips
We also use a large selection of resources to grow our traffic and subscriber base.
2.) Digital Photography School [Digital Photography]
URL: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/
Approx. Subscribers: 846,000+
Main income source: Advertisements, affiliate links, e-Book sales
Run by ‘the Problogger’ himself, Darren Rowse, this blog is actually his real money maker, not Problogger.net.
This thing is an absolute monster, a huge blog in a very profitable niche (people buy cameras… a lot, and they are expensive).
All of the tips that Darren writes about on Problogger are put into action here, so if you want to watch the Problogger at work, follow the strategies that this blog utilizes, rather than reading the next Problogger post.
3.) Freshome [Interior Design/Architecture]
4.) PsyBlog [Social Psychology]
URL: http://www.spring.org.uk/
Approx. Subscribers: 53,000+
Main income source: e-Book sales, advertisements
You can probably guess that this is one of my personal favorites, but it’s easy to see why any reader can enjoy this blog.
The author takes psychology studies that they come across (they happen to be a psychological researcher), and relates them to real world issues and in laymen’s terms, so that anyone can gain the information that they have to offer.
That’s the big emphasis I’d like to make on this blog: you should always be mindful of beginners, it’s not that you have to appeal only to beginners, but taking more complex information and boiling it down into something interesting that anyone can read is a formula for a winner, as long as the audience is there.
