Let’s talk about nine types of blogs that make money.
When gunning for viral articles online, choosing the right topic is always half the battle. Below I’ve listed nine different topics that tend to perform well online along with a few examples. If you target these topics consistently, it’s only a matter of time before you have a viral hit on your hands. Let’s get into the types of blogs that make money online.
I also have examples of blogs that make money embedded inside each point, too.
1. Articles that teach you how to be more like-able, respected, or attractive.
Human beings want to be liked. We want to excel in social situations. We typically want to be the person that everyone looks up to. We want to have self-control and be attractive. Tapping into this desire to be liked and showing people how they can find more success in their social interactions is a great place to start when gunning for a viral piece. Here are a few examples of blogs that make money in this topic:
7 Magic Phrases That Instantly Make You More Likeable On Video Calls
5 Ways To Become More Attractive
How To Win Friends And Influence People has been a best-selling book over the last hundred years for a reason. It teaches a skill that many people want to learn.. How to be more likeable. Tap into that and you’ll find a gold mine.
2. Talk about “mistakes” good people stay away from
Years ago I wrote an article called “Don’t Make These 3 Mistakes While Blogging.” It went mega viral. After pondering why it did so well, I realized something big: people hate failure. People hate making mistakes.
Furthermore, they want to know if they’re doing anything wrong. It’s irresistible for some reason. Here’s a few articles from Nick Wignall that demonstrates this so well:
4 Things Emotionally Intelligent People Don’t Do
5 Things Confident People Don’t Do
4 Things Productive People Don’t Do
Are you getting the trend yet? Talk about what successful people “don’t do.” It’s the opposite of the “how to be successful” advice. It’s telling us how to not be successful. It’s illuminating stuff we should stay away from. Do the same. This is one of the best types of blogs that make money.
3. Case studies involving mistakes made by big businesses
Here’s a popular article from my friend Stephen Moore:
Gap’s Million-Dollar Rebrand Lasted 6 Days
It received 5,000 claps and went mega viral. Here’s another from Nik Goke:
The Worst Rebrand In The History Of Orange Juice
The lesson is simple here. Talk about a huge mistake a major business made. Talk about the “new Coke” disaster. Talk about why Blockbuster went out of business. Better Marketing seems to be a haven for these types of pieces and it’s common that they do quite well, too.
4. What we can learn from business moguls
Steve Jobs. Mark Cuban. Bill Gates. These are the holy trinity for some reason. Instead of linking to a particular article, I’ve included a link for you to see the search results for “Bill Gates” on this platform. There’s tons of articles talking about the books he reads, his business secrets, and important lessons we can learn from him.
Leverage that same energy. Write about any household name you can think of. Warren Buffet. Tim Cook. Don’t stop at business moguls. Think influencers. To talk about one of the best examples of blogs that make money, I wrote an article about Gary Vee recently and it got me 30,000 views. Leverage the star power of big names to go viral online. It could be business moguls, celebrities, influencers, athletes, whoever.
5. How to make money
Investing. Personal Finance. Side hustles. Entrepreneurship. All of these topics can do well online. Money makes the world go round. People are generally interested in 1 of 3 topics..
How to make more money
How to be more liked
How to be more healthy
I’ve seen some articles about side-hustles go viral for my publication. Here are a few examples..
How To Make Enough Money To Retire In The Next 5 Years
My Exact $2,000 A Month Online Side-Hustle Routine
If you haven’t made significant money investing or creating a side-hustle, just do a case study talking about somebody who has. This one of the most powerful types of blogs that make money.
6. Writing advice
This platform is a community of readers, sure, but many of us are writers as well. We’d kill to get our hands on great writing advice, and when you talk about things you’ve learned in your writing journey, those stories tend to perform admirably. Here’s an example from me:
A 2-Minute Trick To Write Better Headlines
7. Extremely personal relationship-related articles
To me, Shannon Ashley is the queen of writing these kinds of articles. Here’s an example from her:
20, Married, And Still A Virgin
These articles are very personal and some might say a little too revealing. Personally, I don’t care. Writing is art. It’s supposed to be a safe space for this sort of thing. I share these examples because they both went viral and they show just how personal you can get. It doesn’t need to revolve around sex, either. One woman I coached wrote about being married to an abusive husband and how she got out of that situation. If you’re brave enough to talk about such personal subject matter, just know you will get a positive response.
8. Unbelievable personal stories
Here’s one of my favorite articles from Michael Thompson:
My Life Began The Day I Lost $250,000
Wow. What a story. Articles like these don’t come along that often. How many times have we been in a harrowing experience that’s worthy of a full story for the internet? Try to talk about them, though, if you have them.
One time when I was 5 years old I sat in a Wendy’s drive through with my Dad. Suddenly a car screamed past us, and the force rocked my dad’s subaru like a boat. Two cops appeared out of nowhere in front of us with guns in their hands pointing at the speeding vehicle.
I’ll never forget those 5 seconds for as long as I live. No shots were fired, but I’d never been that close to death before.
Think about harrowing experiences you’ve had and consider writing about them.
9. Personal development stories
Finally. We all saw this coming, didn’t we? Talk about ways to be more successful. Talk about things that happy people typically do.
Those Are The 9 Types Of Blogs That Make Money Online
Let’s do a recap of the types of blogs that make money online.
Articles that teach you how to be more like-able, respected, or attractive.
Talk about “mistakes” good people stay away from
Case studies involving mistakes made by big businesses
What we can learn from business moguls
How to make money
Writing advice
Extremely personal relationship-related articles
Unbelievable personal stories
Personal development stories
And once again, if you want some examples of blogs that make money in these niches, just scroll back up to each point and you’ll be able to find some that I’ve shared.
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Thanks for these
Please, how do I get my short-story-focused Substack to imitate these?
Loved this Tom - clarifies a lot