Blogging as a Publishing Business: Subject Matter Blogs

June 26, 2007 by John Hewitt

Subject matter blogs are about a single topic or a series of related topics. Often the topic is technical, financial, professional, or cultural. Examples of topics include: consumer products such as cameras or phones, celebrities, career fields, and investments. Virtually any topic can become a subject matter blog, but if you want to make money at it you will need to find a topic that is at least moderately popular and has some appeal to advertisers.

The distinguishing characteristic of a subject matter blog is that the blog is about that subject and only about that subject. This makes it easier for search engines and directories to list the site because it is clear what the site is about. It also makes it easier to generate revenue because you can narrow down the ads to products and services directly related to your topic.

Subject matter blogs are at the heart of blogging for profit. This is because advertisers are more prone to support a blog that provides information related in some way to their product. A blog about travel is a logical place for hotel and real estate ads. A blog about fashion is a logical place to advertise clothing. A blog about arthritis is a logical place for ads about treatments and pain medications.

My primary web site, for example, is about writing, freelancing and publishing. Those three topics are closely related and of interest to the same extended group of people and advertisers. Here is a list of content-based blogs that I check in on at least once a week. These blogs aren’t necessarily trying to blog for profit, but they present quality information about specific topics.

Buzzmachine, a blog by Jeff Jarvis, is about the media. While the author sometimes wanders off into subjects such as politics, most articles tie back into how the media works and the emerging importance of blogging as a new media.

Gizmodo, a blog published by Gawker Media, is dedicated to new gadgets of almost every kind. It serves as a catalog of the bleeding edge of technology.

TeeVee is a blog about television that is produced by a small group of television obsessed people who call themselves the Vidiots. Every article is about television with most articles covering specific TV shows.

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