The concept of blogging has gone beyond being a buzzword. It’s no longer just something personal. For many, blogging has become a side gig, marketing component, promotional tool, or even a means of emerging as an industry thought leader.
However, hitting the top spots on search rankings amidst a million other blogs is no cakewalk. Beginners often need help to define their niche and create conversational, engaging, and SEO-friendly blogs.
To inspire you and kickstart your blogging journey, here’s a list of 13 blogs cherry-picked across categories.
Time to dig in!
1. TechCrunch
If you are looking for a tech blog, then TechCrunch is a must-visit site. The TechCrunch blog covers technological developments, startups, and IT-related news and trends. Topics range from Silicon Valley highlights to Wall Street capital funding. The target audience is mostly business and tech enthusiasts, investors, entrepreneurs, and startup founders.
TechCrunch Blog Highlights
TechCrunch is a professional website with a minimalistic design, eye-soothing fonts, and a simple UI. The blog doesn’t use full-screen interstitials, making it more engaging. Additionally, the homepage highlights recent headlines in bold text at the upper fold of the screen, making them easier to catch. Snippets and a few relevant pictures accompany that to add a pinch of color to the black-and-white canvas.
2. 9to5Mac
9to5Mac is mainly for Apple users and the Apple-loving community who wish to stay updated with all recent developments with iOS and the Mac interface. The blog mainly covers Apple product reviews, what to expect from upcoming versions, research projects, and so on.
9to5Mac Blog Highlights
Apple products are known for their clean and smooth user experience, and 9to5Mac will make you feel the same. With neatly arranged collages and a navigation bar at the top, the homepage entices you enough to browse and read. The cherry on top is that when you hover your cursor over the pictures, they enlarge to entice a click.
3. Gizmodo
Created by Peter Rojas, Gizmodo is another well-known blog site covering various topics like environment, technology, science, and entertainment. What started as a personal tech blog is now a part of G/O Media.
Gizmodo Blog Highlights
Despite content-heavy uploads throughout the day, Gizmodo declutters the homepage and makes it look organized. Sections on the site are neatly arranged under different headings, like science, reviews and gadgets, and field guides.
Each blog entry has an image collage with numerous headlines and supporting pictures. The best feature of the blog site is the text's readability. It uses a simple color scheme of black, white, and blue.
4. Search Engine Journal
Search Engine Journal is one of the most widely read and recommended digital marketing sites. The resource focuses on search and digital marketing trends, as well as techniques for SEO professionals.
It provides thorough, step-by-step guidance on how to raise the ranking of your website in Google search results. Additionally, SEJ is referred to as one of the most trustworthy and proven pieces of information for marketers.
SEJ Blog Highlights
The blog uses a classic contrast of white and green with black fonts. One interesting part is the snippet feature below the menus. If you hover your cursor over the text or blog headline, it will show a snippet with more details.
The only negative trait of the site is the pop-ups that block your screen while you are scrolling or reading. When designing your blog, make sure to avoid that.
5. The Balance Small Business
The Balance Small Business is a blog that supports people in starting and operating their own businesses. Over 50 professional writers handle it. Along with the Careers, the website is a member of The Balance family of websites.
The site discusses starting and running small enterprises, earning money from home, and establishing credit for your company.
The Balance Small Business Blog Highlights
The site provides smooth navigation, and you don’t have to think about how to proceed. For instance, if you click on investing, you will be automatically redirected to blogs related to the category.
In addition, the left side of the page will feature a complete list of helpful subcategories, arranged sequentially, starting from how to find an advisor to the best investment apps. It’s a strong way of helping reduce bounce rates.
6. Timothy Sykes
Timothy Sykes is a penny stock trader and teacher with 20+ years of trading experience who wishes to spread trading literacy and financial awareness through his website. The blog mainly targets an audience that wants to know more about setting up their business through penny stock trading.
The site offers resources ranging from penny stock news to guides, pro-tips, and Syke’s perspectives.
Timothy Sykes Blog Highlights
The blog has a drop-down menu to make it simple to access the content categories. Sykes only includes full-length articles and images. He leaves a good amount of space between the headline and image, preventing his page from being overly text-heavy.
7. Get Rich Slowly
Get Rich Slowly is a perfect example if you are a solopreneur and want to set up a high-converting website for your blog. Established in 2004, J.D. Roth started journaling his progress toward financial freedom while recording the phases of his debt riddances. (The debt had been amassing for 15 years at that time!)
Get Rich Slowly Blog Highlights
The best part of the site is the navigation. You don’t have to scroll through the entire site to decide where to start. And since the name hints at the process of getting rich, you can click on the “Start Here” and begin your site journey. Another good thing is the neatly placed intro of the author, J.D. Roth.
8. Ted Ed Blog
Ted Ed Blog provides educational and informative pieces on every topic and concept imaginable. You will find everything from tragedies and sorrows to job switches and sustainability.
Articles, videos, and reads originate from Ted talks and live conferences, where speakers delivered perspectives and insights within 18 minutes.
Ted Ed Blog Highlights
The TED Ed blog has a distinctive style that uses illustrations instead of images for most of its content. These vibrant images not only liven up the website and make the blog seem more playful and inviting.
9. Mindshift
Mindshift is a popular education blog that explores the future of parenting and children’s education. The target audience includes parents, teachers, children, policymakers, and learners wishing to evolve unconventional learning methods.
Mindshift was started as a service by KQED news and now uploads podcasts and events alongside blogs and news.
Mindshift Blog Highlights
Mindshift has a straightforward UI and looks professional, with white and red colors in the background. You will find everything in the menus and a detailed description of Mindshift on the homepage. However, for your blog, you would want to include a separate “about us” section and keep things shorter on the homepage.
10. He Spoke Style
He Spoke Style is a page devoted to men's fashion and offers everything you need to know about menswear. It was founded by Brian Sacawa and is presently managed by a team of editors.
The site consists of numerous pieces on men's style tips and current fashions. Also included are other aspects of the male lifestyle, including cigars and alcohol.
He Spoke Style Blog Highlights
The blog title's serif font emanates a refined and high-end vibe that is perfect for a fashion-centric website. Viewers are greeted by an image filling almost the entire screen, accompanied by ads of the blog's partnership with a suit manufacturer.
This is a suitable approach to increase blog views and clicks and keep them hooked.
11. Harper And Harley
Harper & Harley is a globally popular fashion and lifestyle blog started by Sara Donaldson. It boasts over 800,000 followers on social media channels. Much of this following is due to a match with the ethos and mindset of people who are into fast fashion.
Harper & Harley now collaborates with The Undone, an apparel marketplace, with pieces focusing on beauty, fitness, outfit, travel, etc.
Harper & Harley Blog Highlights
Fashion is all about being minimal and elegant. The website reflects the same well. With simple, bold black fonts on a white background and high-quality pictures on the homepage, the site is enticing enough and will lure you into hovering your cursor and looking out for more items.
If you scroll down, you will find the latest and popular blogs with pictures and small excerpts about the snaps. It’s the best example of how minimal UX design should be.
12. Wandering Earl
A person with no fixed home, Derek Earl Baron uses his blog to demonstrate to readers that long-term travel is a viable lifestyle choice and not just a mere daydream. Wandering Earl shares diverse information, including tips on travel, gear, and expenses. It also details his experiences gained in over 20 years of travel.
Wandering Earl Blog Highlights
Readers can explore postings by country and genre on Baron's website. There are 12 categories to browse, each one containing five blog posts. He lists every nation on the planet and connects to the blog pages focusing on the respective countries to which he’s traveled.
13. Nomadic Matt
Nomadic Matt is a high-ranking and popular travel site that focuses on making traveling for beginners cost-savvy, fun, and frictionless. The blog was founded by Matthew Kepnes, a popular and experienced backpacker.
He has traveled to over 100 countries and slept in over 1,000 hostels. The site talks about everything you need to know about traveling, including travel hacks and tips, insurance, must-visits, stays, etc.
Nomadic Matt Blog Highlights
Travelling is all about pictures, souvenirs, and stories. Nomadic Matt efficiently stitches snaps into stories with catchy titles and clear images on the homepage. The site is easy to navigate, and you will find everything at the top of the page.
In addition, the neatly arranged blog pieces with thumbnails in a grid make the site as lucrative as a photo album, luring you to click and read.
Key Takeaways: Make Things Convenient for Viewers
The success of a blog lies in the intelligent delivery of your content. You need to maintain the balance between site features and great content. Over-emphasis on design can distract users from the main reason they’re there – for the content. Of course, that also depends on what kind of blog you run.
Always remember that you’re creating content and building the blog for two main reasons. To satisfy search ranking requirements and to engage the interest of your readers.
Things to Consider When Creating a Blog
Gone are the days when you can slap a blog together from templates, stuff it with content, and pray for visitors to somehow find it. Thanks to the massive number of blogs today, lots of effort must go into proper planning for success.
Some things to consider when creating your blog include;
1. The user experience
Blogs contain many pages and can feature multiple design elements and styles. The most important thing to remember is to maintain a smooth and pleasant user experience. Moving between various blog areas and sections should be effortless, and users should find everything they want within easy reach.
2. Homepage design
The homepage is the door to your home and needs to be clean and well-organized. If you are building a fashion website, make sure it looks elegant with minimal design. If it’s a finance blog, make it look professional and uncluttered. Also, don’t include too much info on the homepage. Create a separate “about us” section for any additional facts.
3. Standardized fonts and backgrounds
Don’t make your site loud with too many colors and contrast. Choose light background colors with simple fonts like open sans or Montserrat in dark colors. Avoid using multiple font types across your site and maintain 2 or 3 types at most.
