What is a lifestyle blog ?
There are plenty of niches in the blogging industry right now. On blogs you can find financial advices, fitness or motivation informations, cooking recipes, everyday life tips & tricks, and in general all kind of topics a blog owner would like to cover in his writing.
As I’m writing this article we’re in early 2019 and you may have already decided starting a lifestyle blog. That brings the question I’m used to ear: “What is a lifestyle blog?”
You will find the answer in this article.
Definition of a Lifestyle Blog
But to define what is a lifestyle blog we need to understand first what is a blog.
Blogs are websites that are regularly updated and usually run by one person or a group and written in a conversational and informal way.
A lifestyle blog is purely focusing on using high quality images, and being more visual than traditional blogs.
If you take your dictionary to search for the term “lifestyle”, it’s literally the definition of the way of living of a person or a group of persons.
Will we have regular posts? Yes.
Does a lifestyle blog talk and discusses experiences? Yes.
Do we come up with personal stories and emotions every now and then? Sometimes …
The main difference between a traditional blog and a lifestyle blog is the lifestyle blog will curate personal interests and activities rather than using storytelling to create an emotional response from the reader.
Even if personal and lifestyle blogs are really close to each other they stay really different and a lifestyle blog belong to all categories of blogs that exists.
If you want to create your own blog I have created a step by step article on how to start a blog.
I have myself started this blog and now making a living working from home. And you can do the same for under 5$ a month. Yes you’re right it’s that cheap to start living life on your own terms. 😉
I strongly recommend you to bookmark this blog post in order to remember to check it back later.
Ok let’s dive in the topic …
Personal Blog vs Lifestyle Blog – What’s the difference ?
The first thing to understand that is the most important is this – You won’t use a lifestyle blog to as a diary of your life, it’s not a personal blog.
If your blog talks about your stories feelings and emotions it’s a personal blog. Even if personal blogs are a trend you have to understand the difference between the two.
Both of these blog categories are really popular in the blogging sphere, but content wise, if you take a look at following, social engagement and general blog audience, you will notice they attract different categories of readers.
Like explained before, a lifestyle blog will focus on topics, interests, activities, hobbies and somehow will pull you in, whereas a personal blog tell life stories though writing, like a diary.
When was the last time you read a blog post pulling some emotions ? Like talking about a personal struggle and opening up about it, sharing intimate feelings. The first clue that you are reading a personal blog is the amount of personal feelings and emotions. (it’s a good thing indeed but that’s typically not what a lifestyle blogger will post!)
Please note that a lot of blog writers add little doses of personal life stories in a blog for storytelling in any blog category (fitness, food, fashion, tech, crafts even finance). Storytelling is good to create a bond with your readers, but also the main reason for writing in a personal blog.
In terms of design aesthetics lifestyle blogs are perfectly laid out, easy to read, and the design is on point, that’s a way to tell you are on a lifestyle blog.
If you have a lifestyle blog , your imagery has to compliment your design, pictures have to catch the reader’s attention. One way to achieve this is to choose your images carefully.
Still following? Awesome!
If the difference between personal and lifestyle blog is still foggy for you … the following examples of high traffic and successful lifestyle blogs will help you out!
How to make money with a lifestyle Blog ?
Like any kind of blog, lifestyle blog are also able to make a good amount of money. The advantage is a lifestyle blog make money with more options making them one the most lucrative way of blogging:
Sponsored posts
Lifestyle blog owners earn some great money from their blog with sponsored posts. Companies send you products for review for free, and you can grow your blog saving money and getting paid blogging at the same time. If your lifestyle blog have good following can earn from thousands of dollars per month with sponsored posts.
Affiliate Marketing
If you want to start a lifestyle blog my advice is to use affiliate marketing to monetize your blog. To sum up you promote a product from another website and get money each time your readers buy something. One good example is Amazon affiliate Program, affiliate marketing is the best passive income strategy for your blog. We wrote a useful article on how to make an affiliate website just go check it.
Display Ads
Everyone needs to get some ads to get noticed right? Let’s say your lifestyle blog has good traffic, just sign up to an advertising network to earn money with ads on your blog.
Selling items
One way to earn money is to create a shop. As a lifestyle blogger you have to be creative and having a shop on your website will earn you some extra money. Usually lifestyle bloggers sell t -shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, even online courses and coaching for example to monetize their blog.
Magazine/Books Publishing
Some lifestyle bloggers write books or magazines. Those kind of products are great to link back to the blog to monetize fast.
Events
When your blog become huge, you start to have a reputation and attention. That’s when you start to get paid to attend events or talk about your lifestyle.
To start monetizing a lifestyle blog you have to master the same skill as for any type of blog. To earn money and living off your blog you have to master marketing, create good content, getting good traffic. If you understand and master those aspects, you are on the way to make money with your blog.
What type of blogger are you ?
Now that we finally covered what is a lifestyle blog and you have some good examples of what to do to make a living with your blog, you have to ask yourself this.
Is my blog a lifestyle blog ?
If your answer is yes, keep up the good work you’re on your way and lifestyle blogs are here to stay.
If the answer is no, you have to ask yourself if you want to have a lifestyle blog. if you have started blogging as a personal blog, you can change your content to be more lifestyle-ish. Don’t forget it’s all about what you want and what you like most.
Even if you are just starting out and getting ideas on how to start a lifestyle blog, welcome! Before we see examples of more than top 10 most successful blogs in the lifestyle niche, how to write a lifestyle blog?
How to start your Lifestyle Blog ?
On this blog you can find answer to all types of questions. i’m here to be informative about the topic of lifestyle blogs. If you want to start your own blog, here are my tips & tricks to start.
Find a niche
Before you start if you have a clear idea of what you want to talk about in your blog, you are already saving yourself precious time.
Find a Blog name
You have to find a blog name that resonates with you and your goal but is also easy to remember. In order to stand out people have to recognize you as a brand but also what makes your blog unique. Maybe you don’t know yet but finding lifestyle blog names take time.
Maybe you should not create a lifestyle blog
Some people are made to create lifestyle blog content and some don’t. Let’s say you don’t know nothing about fashion, travel, food, or health then you may rethink about launching a lifestyle blog … that’s ok! Take some time to think about the diversity of the blogging world you could write about anything. From tech blogs, to fitness blogs you will find something that you like and you will be able to run a successful blog online.We will soon publish a post on the most common type of blogs you can create.
Avoid Writer’s block
Do you know what your main assets is in lifestyle blogging ? People will come and come back to your blog to read great content. People will want to have your opinion and value what you think is the next “thing”. But sometimes you won’t have new ideas.
The best advice I can give you is to keep some paper and a pen to note your ideas. Inspiration come and go and you need to grab it before it leaves you.
Please note that even if now that everybody understands what a lifestyle blog is and it looks like its a crowded and saturated area, you have room to find your own niche and develop you lifestyle blog into your niche.
Maybe there are tons of lifestyle bloggers out there in your niche but they aren’t you, they don’t have your taste, or your life, or your mind. You are unique and your so lifestyle blog will be. So don’t hesitate in trying for yourself!
Lifestyle Blog Categories
I have came up with a small list of the best lifestyle blog categories you can choose when starting your lifestyle blog.
- Tech
- Travel
- Fitness
- Automotive
- Family
- Design
- Food
- Home
- Garden
- Health
- Crafts
- Fashion
You don’t have to limit to a particular category, you can find a way to combine them. As long as the blog categories you choose are related to each other. You just have to find the overlap.
For example if you choose Tech, Design, and Automotive you can narrow down your niche to Electric vehicles news (tech + automotive + design).
With this technique you can make your own recipe for success and niche down to a topic you are passionate about. You can also use storytelling to talk to your readers about your passion.
Now that we covered the topic lets see some examples of successful lifestyle blogs that earn on their passion!
The most Popular lifestyle Blogs
Garance Doré
Definitely one of the best lifestyle blogs for women. This one is really standing out among french lifestyle blogs. Garance Doré is a french lifestyle blogger from France. She just started her blog curating Fashion news and it later became widely popular. This is the perfect example of what you can achieve starting a personal lifestyle blog.
A beautiful Mess
A Beautiful Mess is a lifestyle blog focused on creating happiness through a homemade lifestyle blog for women, founded by sisters Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman.
Cupcakes & Cashmere
Emily Schuman created Cupcakes & Cashmere in early 2008 as a way to document what she loved. She began her career working in media at Condé Nast and teen vogue magazine. Her blog is nowadays one the of top lifestyle blogs for women.
The Blond Abroad
The Blonde Abroad is an award-winning solo female travel blog featuring travel tips, packing guides, videos and photography from around the world. This is a good example on finding blog post ideas for lifestyle blogs, especially in the travel niche.
Love Taza
Naomi aka Taza shares bits and pieces of her family’s adventures in New York City. She love celebrating motherhood, family, travel, good food, and life’s simple joys. Motherhood is one of the most successful blog topics.
Highsnobiety
One of my favourites ones! Highsnobiety was established in 2005 by David Fischer as a blog for sharing the best in fashion, footwear, music, art and culture from around the world. And yes nowadays its a big company but it was already one of the top top lifestyle blogs 2014 runned by one man alone. Also covering the most popular blog topics in 2015 in fashion.
Deliciously Ella
Deliciously Ella is a resource to help you live better and make vegetables cool. Starting with a lifestyle blog, they’ve evolved in to an app, recipe books, a deli, a range of plant-based food products, and a growing social media community that sits at the heart of what they life for.
Upscale Hype
Founded in 2008 by two brothers, UpscaleHype is an online magazine focusing on the hype that surrounds celebrity fashion and the high-end lifestyle.
The Skinny Confidential
Lauryn Evarts is an influencer & the creative director behind The Skinny Confidential. It represents the movers, the shakers, and the ones who without a doubt want to be the best damn version of themselves.
The Skinny Confidential has been featured in SHAPE, Women’s Health Magazine, The Huffington Post, SELF Magazine, & Who What Wear.
Kinfolk
Kinfolk is a leading lifestyle blog about style, work, culture, home since 2011. They also diversify publishing a quarterly magazine in four languages.
Cup Of Jo
In 2008 Joanna Goddard started A Cup of Jo as a weekend hobby, but after a few years, the site grew big enough to become her full-time job.
HBFIT
HBFIT is a health,beauty, fitness lifestyle blog by Hannah Bronfman
Hey Nadine
HeyNadine is Nadine Sykora’s travel advice and adventures lifestyle blog.
Nadine is a travel vlogger, videographer and youtuber who travels the world and shares her travel expertise & experiences on social media and through her lifestyle video content.
The Sartorialist
Scott Schuman is a photographer that founded and began The Sartorialist with the idea of creating a two-way dialogue about the world of fashion and its relationship to daily life. He is also in a relashionship with Garance Doré that’s couple lifestyle bloggers goals.
Wit & Delight
This is the lifestyle blog of Kate Arends. She created brands for 9 years form scratch. In addition to that she create strategic design marketing and products solution for big brands.
Conclusion
As in everything online, there is always room for more. There are tons of types of personal blogs. It’s true that you will have to compete with other blogs, but you still can find ways to stand out from the crowd and find a path among all lifestyle blog categories. just remember how to narrow down your niche for lifestyle blogging ideas.
I hope all these examples of lifestyle blogs inspired you and by reaching these lines you will have figured out how to become a lifestyle blogger.
Just stay true to your guts and feelings, what excites you, and take time to understand that’s it’s a marathon not a sprint. You won’t become a successful blogger overnight, it will require focus, and dedication and most of all … time. But it will become your reality!
Let me know in the comments below what kind of blog you would want to start!
Related & Upcoming posts:
- How to start a blog on Bluehost
- What are the most common type of blogs
- How to come Up with a Blog name
- How to build an email list for beginners in 2019