Blogs, or Web logs, are online journals where individuals or groups present their opinions. They work like online diaries and can include images and video.
A few blogs focus on a specific niche industry, such as technology, lifestyle, beauty and fashion, health and fitness, and education. Others share news and viewpoints on a wide variety of topics, including mental health.
Harvard Health Blog
Maintaining a health-related blog may not seem like a top priority for medical providers, but doing so helps establish credibility and engage new audiences. These blogs rely on quality content and engaging design to attract and keep visitors.
Cleveland Clinic focuses on safety tips and family-friendly topics in its Health Essentials blog. The New York Times “Well” section offers a variety of articles, including those penned by doctors. Tiny Buddha, on the other hand, aims for simple wisdom for complex lives.
Mayo Clinic Connect
Mayo Clinic Connect is a safe, secure online community for patients and caregivers hosted by Mayo Clinic. It’s a place to share experiences and support each other, facilitated by Mayo Clinic doctors and volunteer patient mentors.
Learn more about Connect by visiting the About Connect blog, meeting the moderators and volunteer mentors, and reviewing the community guidelines. Find a group to join, and start sharing your story. Be respectful and kind. Disagreements are fine, but personal attacks and sarcasm can be misunderstood.
Tiny Buddha
Founded in 2009, Tiny Buddha is about reflecting on simple wisdom and learning new ways to apply it to our complex lives—complete with responsibilities, struggles, dreams, relationships, and change. With three million monthly readers and a vibrant community forum, the blog shares stories and tips on love, happiness, change, meaning, mindfulness, spirituality, simplicity, and letting go.
The author, Lori Deschene, also wrote Tiny Buddha: Simple Wisdom for Life’s Hard Questions and Tiny Buddha’s Guide to Loving Yourself.
NPR Shots
NPR’s health news blog, Shots, recently underwent a redesign. The new site features photo-driven topic promotions, which appear alongside story content. These are designed to encourage readers to explore other stories in the NPR Shots river of news.
Shots is a destination for current and breaking health news on personal health, public health, and health policy. NPR’s health reporter Jane Greenhalgh also produces the weekly “Health” segment on Morning Edition and other broadcast and digital health coverage across NPR’s platforms.
The New York Times
In a time when truth is being bent and obscured, The Times aims to show the danger, bravery, perseverance and commitment that goes into original journalism. Its “The Truth Is Worth It” ads highlight the importance of a subscription to support their mission.
Increased experimentation with new products is also key to their digital transformation success (and gaining subscribers). The Times has its own internal team called Beta that’s responsible for now-known features like the crossword and NYT Cooking app.
Nerd Fitness
Nerd Fitness’ blog articles gamify exercise to appeal to the site’s largely nerdy audience. Whether it’s framing the battle against sugar as a fight of heroes vs. villains or turning a workout into casual parkour, the site makes healthy living fun and approachable.
Nerd Fitness offers free routines for those without access to a gym or equipment, and its Nerd Fitness Academy sells a monthly subscription that includes more detailed workouts, meal plans and boss battles. The company also hosts Camp Nerd Fitness, a yearly fitness retreat for hundreds of attendees.
MyFitnessPal
One of the most popular food and exercise tracking apps on the market, MyFitnessPal lets users input their weight goal (lose, gain or maintain), activity level and daily calories burned. Users can also connect their app to step-counting devices or fitness apps to get more accurate energy expenditure data. The app’s community aspect provides a lot of extra resources like nutrition and exercise advice, recipes and motivational photos. MyFitnessPal also has a Facebook page with about 1.6app million likes and followers that updates frequently with healthy recipes and workout ideas.
