Some wine bloggers mumble about what they drank last night. But the ones who are most successful – and the most fun to read – have something more to say.

There are blogs for bargain hunters and blogs for collectors. And if a wine region is within reach of your search engine, you’ll find a screen full of related postings.

“There’s such a massive number of wine blogs that it’s hard to keep on top of them,” said Allan Wright, who is in the midst of organizing the fourth annual North American Wine Bloggers’ Conference, set for July 22 to 24 in Charlottesville, Va.

Bloggers now know that to build an audience, “they need a niche,” he said. “You can blog because you like wine, but if nobody reads it, you’re going to quit.”

Wright expects this year’s event to have more than 300 participants, up from 175 people at the launch in 2008.

About 80% of the bloggers will be what he calls “citizen bloggers,” and the rest will be connected to the wine industry.

“It’s the new way to market wine,” he said.

Despite Gary Vaynerchuk’s notable success with Wine Library TV, video blogging “has not boomed, and most blogging is still print,” Wright noted.