Community Blog vs Personal Blog

The business of blogging has in recent times gained a lot of attraction. Day after day, we see new blogs pop up, and sometimes, they disappear just as quickly. As a writer who wishes to branch out into blogging, you want to get things right, but you have so many unanswered questions running through your mind. Should you start your own blog? Should you write for someone else? Should you write for a community? In the long run, which is truly sustainable? To answer a few of your questions, in this article, we'll be looking at the differences between a community blog and a personal blog including their pros and cons, so you can know what exactly works for you.

Personal Blog, what's that about?

Before bothering ourselves with personal blogs and whatnot, let's start off with what a typical blog is. A blog, shortened from it's original name weblog, is a journal entry type of space, where an individual, or a group, presents activities, thoughts, or beliefs on different topics in an informal way.

So what then is a personal blog? A personal blog is a blog that... Well, putting it simply, it's a blog that's yours. You run the show and you call the shots. As the name implies, a personal blog usually focuses on the"personal" experiences and opinions of the owner.

With your personal blog, you can decide to specialize in particular niches. You could be a lifestyle blogger who takes your readers on a journey into your daily activities and interests. If you're passionate about politics, you could also be a political blogger, offering positive criticisms and reforming the minds of your readers. You could even be a food blogger or a travel blogger if that's your style.

All in all, the essence of a personal blog is to lend, your opinions, ideas and all that good stuff in your head, to an audible voice.

Pros

1. As a personal blogger, you can also decide to monetise your blog. You like the sound of that, don't you?

2. You can sell digital products on your blog or you could run ads or write sponsored posts.

3. You could also do some affiliate marketing, but all these depend greatly on your ability to draw traffic. So when you're writing, make sure you're continuously writing what your audience likes and would like to return to, then you must make sure to write what Google itself likes, so your blog can rank high and get noticed easily.

Cons

1. The key thing is to be able to communicate in a way that can generate traffic, build subscribers and maintain their interest, and all that responsibility rests on your poor shoulders. Otherwise, you might as well just keep your opinions confined to your paperback diary.

2. Maintaining a personal blog website could be expensive and time-consuming. You would have to maintain the security of your website as well as the costs associated with the domain and hosting service.

What is a Community Blog?

A community blog is a website where several authors or bloggers, post on a single space instead of having separate blogs. However, there's no rule that says a blogger with their own personal blog still can't be part of a community blog.

A community blog has its own benefits to both the individual bloggers and the readers. The more, the merrier, right?

Pros

1. For one, the responsibility of generating traffic does not rest solely on you. More authors equal more viewers and this increases the entire readership for all the bloggers.

2. When you're part of a community blog, there's less pressure on you. You can breathe easy. You get to devote more time to focus on the quality of your posts, and not so much the quality since you're not the only one that gets the blog going.

3. As a blogger and a reader in a community, you're exposed to variety. Different stories from different perspectives, different styles and techniques of writing. It's like visiting an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Cons

1. Depending on the platform, a community blog may or may not allow you the monetization liberties you get with your own personal blog. However, community blogs like Scrollforth have made allowance for individual bloggers to get earnings from their blog posts.

What's it going to be then? A personal blog, community blog or both?