June Hunter is an English photographer and artist living in Vancouver. She turned her childhood passion for photography into a career as an artist, with a specific interest in urban environments, crows, and other birds. Her work is featured and documented on her blog, urbannature.blog.

What’s this blog about?

As a professional artist, June uses her blog both to promote her work, but it also introduces her work in more depth. Her commentary gives readers a glimpse into the history of June’s passion for birds. It contextualizes the images she shares and adds extra information about the birds, the areas they live in, and even their characteristics that June has picked up on through years of documenting their lives.

What makes it special?

June’s blog reminds us that joy and beauty can be found anywhere—including urban environments. Each of her blog posts focus on a different topic, showcasing her particular interest in crows but also in starlings, hummingbirds, and other species. By exploring urban areas in Canada, she highlights how easily nature can be found and enjoyed, not just in wild or rural places.

Highlighting how to make more from the mundane: June finds delight in everyday things that she captures within a few streets of her home in urban Vancouver. It encourages us to find beauty in our cities and inspires us to pay closer attention to the everyday things we so easily overlook.

 Ideas for inspiration

• Instagram galleries are a great tool for photography blogs. Having an Instagram gallery in the menu of her blog makes it easy for fans of June’s work to browse a more curated selection of her art.  

• If you are selling online, use your blog to promote your products. Urbannature.blog offers product suggestions in the footer at the end of each blog post.

A blog can be an important tool for businesses in establishing a brand and expert voice. It can also play a role in attracting new customers online. Skill Yoga, a company that offers personalized online yoga training plans, understands this very well. Let’s take a look at how they use skill-yoga.blog to publish expert content on all things yoga, health, and mindfulness.

Who is the blog for, and what’s it about?

The information shared on skill-yoga.blog is broken down into three clear categories: movement, mindfulness, and strength. Some posts focus on just one, while others cover all three. Topics discussed on the skill-yoga.blog website and podcast include the benefits of yoga for the mind, different poses to help various ailments, and information on the fundamentals of yoga for beginners. 

What makes it special?

The world of yoga can feel like a daunting realm to enter, but the blog’s friendly approach introduces the fundamentals as well as diving deep into more specific topics, such as how our goals can hold us back or how to make yoga work better for your knees.

The visuals and overall aesthetic are consistent, calming, and appealing.

 Ideas for inspiration

– What kind of information may your potential new customers be seeking? How can you incorporate that information into your blog?

– Skill-yoga.blog includes lots of how-to articles such as how to do a certain pose or what poses are good for achieving certain goals. Think about what kind of content you can offer customers to help them get the most out of your services or products.

This week we introduce Thinking in English, a podcast for English learners. We delve into how its creators use thinkinginenglish.blog to enhance and support their podcast, offer listeners additional resources to help them achieve their goals, and to act as a portal for their English conversation classes. The team behind the blog promotes the importance of thinking in a language you’re learning as a key part of developing fluency and delivers content and materials to help people achieve this goal.

Who is the blog for, and what’s it about?

Founder Tom Wilkinson came up with Thinking in English in response to the frequent complaints of students about a lack of suitable and accessible resources for advancing their English. Today the blog features three qualified teachers with experience working with both adults and children learning English as a second language. 

Thinkinginenglish.blog offers additional resources for listeners of the podcast, including podcast transcripts, vocabulary guides, reading comprehension practice, and conversation classes.

By publishing content around talking points like politics, the news, and philosophy, thinkinginenglish.blog helps English language learners take in and consider information in a second language. This helps them get used to processing their new language and also encourages them to engage in topical discussions.

What makes it special?

Thinkinginenglish.blog brings together resources across multiple mediums to support their listeners’ language learning goals.. Creating accessible short-form content for students learning a new language makes learning more fun and achievable while helping them fit lessons into their everyday lives.

The creators had existing expertise and found a way to transfer it into a blog and podcast that reaches beyond their classrooms.. By offering both written and audio content to their audience, they increase not only the ways in which their students can learn but also how new audiences can find their content. 

From pronunciation guides to discussing sports and considering wider societal issues, the range of topics available to English students on thinkinginenglish.blog helps users progress at their own rate, dip their toes into new topics, and increase their understanding of the basics—all of which contribute to becoming fluent in a new language.

 What to incorporate into your blog?

– Think about the different mediums and platforms where you publish. How can they interplay and work together to create an even better experience for your readers? Thinkinginenglish.blog publishes both written and audio content to help reach a wider audience and present a broader offering to their students.

– Publish podcast transcripts on your blog. This offers greater accessibility and has potential SEO benefits as search engines index text better than audio.

– Offer paid users premium content or courses such as the conversation courses on offer at thinkinginenglish.blog.

Blogging about sports can mean competing for readers against major media and news networks, but thesporting.blog has a clear strategy on differentiating from the competition, and it’s all centered around producing quality evergreen content that stimulates debate and discussion. From martial arts to cricket, thesporting.blog covers just about everything within the world of sports.

Who is the blog for, and what’s it about?

With an aim to be the internet’s biggest publisher of evergreen sports content, thesporting.blog produces informative recaps, reviews, and articles, lists, and interviews by and about people involved in sports.

The blog was started in 2017 as a place for founder Oli Harris to write about and interview professional and amateur sports people. In the years since it has flourished to become a platform for fans of all sports to explore and discover more about their favorite teams and hobbies.

Now, thesporting.blog is more than just a blog. It’s home to a community of avid sports fans and runs its own podcast. In fact, there’s just one thing thesporting.blog doesn’t do: publish sports news. 

You won’t find the score of last night’s game here. Oli’s vision for an entirely evergreen sports website, where audiences can refer to any article at any time and find relevant information, need not compete with the hundreds (if not thousands) of sports news and commentary websites out there. They’ve carved their own timeless niche, and it’s working for them.

What makes it special?

Thesporting.blog is entirely inclusive. Fans of NFL, rugby, and kabaddi will all find sources of information, interviews, and expert insights into their favorite games. Having developed a community of passionate writers with one thing in common—a love of sports—thesporting.blog is able to offer unbiased information about even the most niche sports from across the globe. 

This sets it apart from other dedicated channels that are focused on just one sport or one team, and it offers new audiences a chance to explore games, teams, and other aspects of sports that they might not otherwise have known about.

 What to incorporate into your blog?

– When choosing a domain name for your blog, think about how you can use both sides of the dot. Thesporting.blog is easy to remember because it’s a phrase that incorporates the Top Level Domain, and tells us exactly what kind of website to expect.

– Creating evergreen content is a great way to keep your articles relevant for longer and makes room for annual updates, which helps boost your SEO.

Travel blogger bulgarianonthego.blog is on a mission: not only to share the most beautiful attractions across the globe but also to fight against over-tourism and demonstrate the joys of ethical, off-the-beaten-track travel. After studying journalism and communication science in Vienna, Austria, writer Lyubomira launched her travel blog, which takes readers on an educational and inspirational tour of the world’s hidden treasures.

Who is the blog for, and what’s it about?

Lyubomira describes her blog as a “platform to share all of my practical tips and tricks with you, to tell you about places you might have never thought of visiting, and most importantly – inspire you to go out there and see the world, because nothing makes you richer than traveling.”

Her goal is to encourage would-be travelers to discover underrated destinations and hidden gems rather than following the crowd to all of the world’s most-visited tourist sites. Her blog is divided into three sections: 

• Destinations, which rounds up her travels across three continents 
• Useful Resources, which offers tips and tricks for travelers
• Bulgaria Travel Community, a group that connects travelers to the best spots in Lyubomira’s home country

What makes it special?

By focusing on lesser-known travel destinations, bulgarianonthego.blog sheds light on hidden spots that many travelers miss out on. It also carves its own niche, setting itself apart from the other travel blogs that cover the same old ground— literally.

Her inspirational writing, aspirational photography, and oozing passion make the blog—and the destinations she writes about—a place you want to be. Always informative and not patronizing, her view of the world, travel, and discovering the lesser-known is perfectly conveyed through her posts on topics ranging from ski resorts to Christmas markets. And to accompany her prose, Lyubomira’s gorgeous photography would make even the most unadventurous reader want to pack their bags and book a flight.

All the content is clearly well-researched and thought-out, and all of the posts balance opinion with fact.

What can we learn?

In 2018, Lyubomira combined her passion and education by launching bulgarianonthego.blog. She was already traveling the world, one unblemished country at a time, so what better way to put her journalism studies into action than by writing about her adventures?

But it’s not just Lyubomira’s passion for travel that makes bulgarianonthego.blog one of the most inspiring travel blogs on the web. Her niche—promoting the benefits of exploring lesser-known, sustainable travel—gives her site an edge that appeals to an educated, engaged audience. 

From considering climate change to over-tourism and the devastation it can wreak on under-resourced communities, bulgarianonthego.blog offers the conscious traveler a wealth of alternative destinations and ideas.

 What to incorporate into your blog?

• Discover your niche and run with it: When your audience understands what you’re about, they’ll come to you for the information they know they won’t find elsewhere.
• Work with your passions: They say that if you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Lyubomira combines her love for travel and expertise in communications and proves that perfectly.
• Don’t skimp on the details: The consistent aesthetic of Lyubormia’s aspirational imagery is as important and impactful to bulgarianonthego.blog as her writing.

YouTube content creators can become familiar faces, but content creators don’t have to show their faces to be successful. This week we take a look at Fantastichiphop.blog, a blog that puts the creator’s vast knowledge of hip-hop music front and center. YouTuber, Fantastic Hip Hop shows us how a blog can complement a successful YouTube channel.

Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

This blog is for anyone passionate about hip-hop. Changing the world through the power of music”, it includes reviews, commentary, and rankings in both written and video formats.

What Makes It Special?

Fantastichiphop.blog is 100% dedicated to hip-hop music. The title and content make it clear quickly what readers will gain from visiting. This is a great example of how YouTube content creators can use a blog to gain further reach for their content and shows us how bloggers can benefit from including video content. 

All the content is clearly well-researched and thought-out, and all of the posts balance opinion with fact.

What Can We Learn?

There is no face behind this blog, which is evidence that bloggers don’t always have to show themselves but rather create a brand image and appeal. This approach also allows hip hop to be the true feature of fantastichiphop.blog.

The clear passion for hip-hop culture and well-defined niche organically benefit search engine optimization (SEO). [link to Google’s new update article] Equally notable is the impressive regularity with which Fantastic Hip Hop posts. The consistent and timely publication of reviews of new albums makes this site a relevant and helpful source of information for music lovers.

 

The team behind fujifilm.blog describe themselves as “curious, explorers of daily life, collectors of experiences.” Inviting readers to “explore the world of Fujifilm,” this blog offers all the photography content you would expect from a global photography brand alongside a look into the company’s culture, values, history, and people.

Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

The official Fujifilm Corporate blog features photographers and Fujifilm employees and gives tips on all things related to photography. It highlights new products and technology and shares Fujifilm’s greater mission: to make the world a better place through articles such as this one on  Breast Cancer prevention.

What Makes It Special?

The blog supports Fujifilm employees by uplifting “colleagues that invent, produce, communicate and sell our innovative products and services to create value from innovation.” Beyond photography, the blog shines a light on the company brand and values. Posts, such as this one highlighting how Fujifilm has been integral in developing healthcare technology from 1934 through the pandemic, share lesser-known applications of the company’s technology.

What Can We Learn?

Fujifilm.blog effectively showcases the culture around the brand; for both those who are part of Fujifilm and those who want to learn more about the company. It’s a great illustration of why all businesses should blog.

 

Comedian, author, and award-winning activist, Sam Killermann, is the voice and heart behind samk.blog. Sam travels the world performing comedy and giving talks on themes of social justice, gender, and sexuality. He has been featured in TIME, The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and “other fancy places.”

Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

In his own words, Sam’s blog is “part open letter to the world, and part sharing experiences and observations of why I hold the world so dear.” The ultimate goal of his work is to nudge people toward a healthier, happier, more whole way of living. Everything he does and writes about is centered around activism. Posts are divided into three main categories: Better Humaning, in which he answers the question, “how can I be a better me while creating space for others to be a better them?”; Technolophizing, which addresses “how can we ensure technology is serving us, and our well-being—and not the other way around?”’ and Adventravel, which features stories from backpacking around the world and other anecdotes from his travels.

What Makes It Special?

This website was built from the ground up using Jamstack, which was created to be as fast, accessible, and environmentally sustainable as possible. Everything is open source and uncopyrighted, so it can be shared with others. 

Sam also does his own illustrations and is proud of having designed the symbol used for gender-neutral bathrooms across the world.

Like his uncopyrighted website content, he notes that every book he has ever written or co-written is available as a free PDF so that money isn’t a barrier to education. He says, “[y]ou cannot steal my books: I’ve already gifted them to you.” 

Sam has an upcoming book release that originated as a series of blog posts.

What Can We Learn?

Ultimately, Sam made a blog that he liked. It’s impossible not to notice the changing color pattern while you browse. “You might be wondering about the constantly shifting chameleon color scheme,” he says, then addresses if it was a necessary addition. “Yes, my friend. Because it makes me happy to visit this site, and I need to come here for this thing to work. So it was more than a need: it’s everything.” This sentence gives an insight into his conversational writing style, humor, and personality, which are all prevalent throughout the blog.

His blog also hosts his CV, has a place for Patreon subscribers, email subscribers, and links to his books. In monetizing his blog, he has made supporting him financially really playful: “I support this site, my puppies, and my global justice projects, by selling books. Royalties buy coffee. Coffee fuels articles.”

 

Greatermancunians.blog is a collaborative photography project that profiles people across Greater Manchester who have somehow shaped the community. Sponsored by Manchester City Council and created by students at Manchester College, this blog shows us how blogging can contribute to and celebrate a community.

Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

Greatermancunians.blog is a student-led “landmark photography project” that seeks to acknowledge the people who have shaped the region. Musicians, sportspeople, entertainers, entrepreneurs, politicians, actors, comedians, artists, and community champions each chose a significant place in the city to be photographed.

The influential community members range from Parliament Member Angela Rayner to Sarge, a security doorman. Greatermancunians.blog celebrates the Greater Mancunian spirit and creates a space to tell their stories. 

“Greater Mancunians” will be published in 2023 and culminate in a major city center exhibition.

What Makes It Special?

At its heart, Gretermancunians.blog is a photography gallery in the form of a blog as a piece of art. It’s a directory of the region’s influential people, an artist-guided vision that shows blogging doesn’t have to be in written form. 

As well as being a collection of photographs and stories, it serves as a learning opportunity for students. One major goal of the project is “to give talented young students employability/work experience skills so vital when breaking into the creative industries.”

Each post tells the featured subject’s story alongside a collection of photographs from their photoshoot. They conclude with either a Q&A or reflection on the student’s experience of meeting and photographing them. Together, each post creates a beautiful picture of Greater Mancunians.

What Can We Learn?

Greater Mancunians is an excellent example of a blog that goes beyond its virtual space and contributes to its larger community. Each post uses a similar format while matching the subject’s personality, showing how to create variability in a blog and where uniqueness can come from.

It’s a captivating biographical blog that positively impacts the community, serves as a learning opportunity for aspiring artists, and is part of a larger project. This is a reminder that there are many different uses for blogs — only limited by our ideas.

 

Kevin Xu is the author and founder of Interconnected.blog. An expert voice on global tech and geopolitics, his publication explores the connections between builders, operators, investors, and regulators. He writes from professional experience in founding startups, as a White House staffer, at enterprise tech companies, and in venture capital.

Kevin studied Law and Computer Science at Stanford and International Relations at Brown University. He co-hosts a podcast on Asian American and Canadian political discourse. His work has been widely cited and published, including in The New York Times, Business Insider, Wired, Al Jazeera, and The Wall Street Journal.

Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?

Interconnected is a bilingual newsletter focusing on the intersection of tech, business, investing, geopolitics, and US-Asia relations. By highlighting these “interconnections,” the blog gives entrepreneurs an edge in building companies, investing, and hiring. It serves as a place for those interested in the international business market to find information that can help them become more educated consumers and professionals.

What Makes It Special?

Kevin publishes new content every Sunday in English, Chinese, and sometimes Japanese. He believes sharing content in multiple languages is an important part of building more common ground and information accountability between cultures. “No lost in translation, no lost in suspicion, and no media filter, just words straight from […] the author himself.”

What Can We Learn?

Kevin uses this blog to publish articles from his newsletter. Newsletters can be an effective tool for building subscribers, creating loyalty, and driving readers back to your blog. Also, Interconnected.blog offers free and paid premium subscriptions. For free, anyone can read interconnected.blog’s public, non-premium posts, and for $80 per month, subscribers have access to premium-level content, gain early access to co-investment opportunities, and receive a 1-on-1 expert consulting call.