Lifestyle vs. Personal Blog – What is the difference & which is better?

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It’s never too late to join the blogging game and earn some coins! Back in the day, blogging was no different from a diary – it’s an emotional outlet for many people. People used to blog about their day, their gripes, and whatever was on their minds. These days, blogging is used to cover a wide variety of topics. While blogging’s popularity has declined over the years, it’s still one of the best ways to build an online following.

In terms of moneymaking, blogging remains one of the top ways to earn money online. The money earned through blogging will vary, but as long as you have a decent following, your blog can help you make a respectable income. 

Blogging comes in various types, but lifestyle and personal blogs are the most popular. Which one should you choose? What’s the difference between them? More importantly, which one is more popular? Let’s dive deep into blogging with this guide:

What is a Lifestyle Blog?

A lifestyle blog is a niche blog promoting a way of living. You’re not just talking about your feelings as a blogger; it’s more about sharing a particular lifestyle with your audience. Through a lifestyle blog, you can give personal insights into your way of living, open up discussions, share ideas, and encourage others who share a similar lifestyle. 

For example, if you love yoga and it’s part of your everyday routine, you can focus on this topic on your lifestyle blog. You can share your insights on yoga, what your experiences have taught you and what tips first-time yoga practitioners would find helpful. 

Another example would be gardening. If you love gardening, you can create a lifestyle brand promoting your hobby. Popular topics to cover include:

• Travel
• Makeup and beauty
• Wellness
• Technology
• Home Improvement
• Home design

Essentially, writing anything promoting a specific lifestyle is considered a lifestyle blog. Because you’re already living the lifestyle, researching the topics is much easier. 

What is a Personal Blog? 

As the name implies, a personal blog covers the author’s personal life. A personal blog was the first type of blogging that appeared online in the late 90s and early 2000s. 

Regarding the topics, there are no rules or themes to stick to. Personal blogging is no different from a diary, where a blogger shares their feelings and innermost thoughts with an audience. That said, some bloggers would focus on a specific topic that they are passionate about, like makeup, photography, politics, etc. 

The difference between a lifestyle blog and a personal blog would be how the topics are framed from the blogger’s perspective. Taking the example above, a personal blogger could talk about yoga, but the focus is more on how it made her feel or how doing yoga affects them.

Profitability: How to Make Money Off Your Lifestyle or Personal Blog

There are different ways of making money through lifestyle and personal blogging. These are: 

• Selling your own products
• Ads
• Affiliate Links
• Sponsorship
• Collaboration

Selling your own products

You can create digital products like ebooks, mini-courses, coaching services, etc., and sell these on your blog site. For example, if your lifestyle blog is focused on home decor, you can create an infographic or mini ebook about transforming spaces to earn money online. 

If you’re a personal blogger, your experiences and stories are unique, but some products might not appeal to the masses unless you’re a well-known influencer.

Ads

Displaying ads on specific websites or blog site areas is one of the oldest ways to earn a living through blogging. And it doesn’t matter what kind of blogger you are – as long as you have a decent following, this strategy can be profitable. You just have to sign up for an advertising network such as:

• AdSense
• AdThrive 
• Mediavine 
• Ezoic  

As long as the minimum requirements for page views are met, lifestyle and personal blogs of all kinds can start displaying ads for profit.

Affiliate links

Promoting affiliate products can earn you a small commission after every sale. To do this, you need to join an affiliate network and choose the products you want to sell. You will receive affiliate links that you have to embed on your blog posts. Readers who click these links and make a successful purchase will earn you a small commission. 

The products to promote must be relevant to your blog; otherwise, you risk putting off readers with the constant product marketing. Unless you are an established blogger that’s respected and trusted in your niche, you can promote products based on your opinion. 

Sponsorship

This strategy only works if you’ve gained a decent following online (blog and/or social media) because most companies are only willing to sponsor popular influencers and bloggers. 

To create sponsored content, a brand could either reach out to you, or you could reach out to a company to provide products to review. You’ll make one or a series of sponsored blog posts and sell their products. If the product you’re selling is getting a lot of attention on your blog, you could earn more money.

Collaboration

Like sponsorship, a collab only works if you have a decent online following. You can team up with fellow bloggers, influencers, or brand ambassadors to promote a unique piece of content (a product, a service, a show, etc.) to appeal to your collaborator’s audience. This is a great way to reach out to audiences that you might not otherwise reach on your own. 

A sit-down interview with a market leader or popular personality, a branded collab product, a collab online course or workshop, or a joint podcast are just some of the many forms of collab content you can promote on your lifestyle or personal blog.

Lifestyle or Personal Blog: Which is More Profitable?

A blog’s profitability will depend on several factors, such as your popularity as a blogger, the size of your viewership, the level of engagement between readers or followers, and the quality of your content. 

A personal blog can be profitable, but only if the author is regarded as a market leader or a popular personality. That’s because personal blogs have very broad topics. Unless the readers are emotionally invested in these stories, they might not relate to some topics. 

This makes lifestyle blogs more profitable than personal blogs in general. Lifestyle blogs will generate more profits because the topics are more defined, which makes attracting particular groups of people easier.

Ranking on search engines is easier with a lifestyle blog too. A lifestyle blog has a broader target audience, so search engines perceive the content as more valuable. You’ll be presented with more moneymaking opportunities when you’re generating more traffic because you’re topping the searches. 

A niche blog with a smaller target audience is more likely to top the searches. Niche blogs, like lifestyle blogs, have very little competition, so standing out is easier. Also, lifestyle blogs can suit any niche, and you have the freedom to choose what niche to focus on and boost your chances of earning more.

Can you have a Personal Lifestyle Blog?

Yes you can. An example of this would be My 100 Year Old Home by Leslie Saeta. I would class this as a lifestyle blog as she has such a specific focus – hosting – but it’s also a personal blog as it’s all about her and her family and her experiences. A blog like this will be the most profitable as it will attract fans, not just Google search results. She will also get paid more for collaborations as her audience trusts her as a figurehead so she has a lot more pull when it comes to brand recommendations.

Blogging is one of the best ways to earn money through a website. But like anything in life, not all blogs do well if you don’t put in the effort. Between lifestyle and personal blogs, the former tend to do better because the content is more popular and standing out is easier with less competition.

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