Is Blogging Dead?
“To start a blog, or not to start a blog, that is the question”.
As you can see I’ve opened this post quite dramatically borrowing from Shakespeare… I didn’t chose this well-known sentence for nothing. As a young woman who started an anonymous and personal blog almost five years ago, the blogging world is very close to my heart and has completely turned my life around. (Read the full story here).
There is one recurring question I often am asked by my readers, women who dream of starting a personal blog or to promote their business, it is whether or not there is a need for a blog? After all, there are so many bright and shiny options out there in social media, why a blog? And also, could blogs be over?
This is exactly why I introduced this post on a dramatic note. People have been anticipating the end of blogs for years now… Claiming nobody reads blogs, everyone’s on social media, and starting a blog is a thing of the past.
I read more than one article that said something like “want to become a blogger? Start an Instagram blog. It’s a lot easier and way more relevant”.
I know that the recent years you have seen many people leave the traditional blogging world for the sake of social networks, and it’s true, social networks are an excellent marketing tool that requires less maintenance – less content, lighter so you can manage it from your phone, and people can be easily reached.
So are blogs really no longer part of our world? Is there a good enough reason to start a blog in the age of social networks?
The truth is, blogs are not dead, they’ve just changed a lot.
In this post, you can learn about how blogs have changed over the past few years and understand why they’re here to stay.
How blogs have changed over the past few years
The type and structure of content has undergone significant change
Previously, most blogs functioned as a sort of personal written diary that included lots of text and very little (and quite unsuccessful) photographs.
Today, the picture has totally changed {pun intended 😉}
Blogs are no longer a personal diary… professional blogs exist in various fields of interest, from marketing to beauty care. Once people began to realize the potential of having a professional blog, they have popped up like mushrooms after it rains.
Blog posts have also changed a lot in recent years – there is much more focus on the visual aspect (while the significance of the text has risen as well), the visual content is considered an essential part of the blog.
Visual content is king, as has repeatedly been written on major media and advertising sites and magazines, including the famous Forbes magazine, which wrote: “visual content can make a noticeable impact on every major business goal — influencing website traffic, brand awareness, social media engagement, lead generation, and sales.”
This is why successful blogs today are not only satisfied with just texts, but also incorporate quality images, graphics, videos, and podcasts that are appropriate for the brand. A combination of visual tools alongside the written word places the blogs on a different level and provides their audience with a variety of formats to match their needs, which often leads to more partnerships and further engagement.
Content consumption has completely changed
Up until a few years ago, a blog’s publishing schedule was regarded very seriously. I remember when I first started out, mid-2015, one of the topics I read about over and over again is that a blog should have fixed times scheduled for new posts. For example, twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. The thought behind this concept was to enable your audience to know when to expect new content, and they will become used to these times just as a magazine subscriber knows exactly when to expect a new issue and looks forward to its arrival.
So for the first year or two I really tried to keep to this, but as time went by my tight schedule became looser and looser… Not only did my workload increase, leaving me less time to write content keeping to the schedule like I used to, suddenly this recommendation for a fixed schedule I read so much about seemed so dated. With time, (especially as I was less able to keep up with my schedule) I was getting a sense that as long as the quality of my content is valuable to my target audience, it doesn’t really matter what day I publish the new posts. Reinforced by the fact of how easily new content and posts can be introduced via Instagram, Facebook, and the newsletter. So anyone who follows my blog on any one of the different platforms can be exposed to its activity one way or another.
As time went by, I realized that I’m not really the only blogger who doesn’t keep to a fixed schedule, and in fact, there has been a natural shift in the way the content in this platform is consumed. These days, when a blog is no longer a personal diary, bloggers should view their posts as composed of valuable content that not only serves the blog’s target audience but also, as an opportunity to draw new readers interested in the blog’s niche, provide them with quality content and with time have joined your community of followers.
This leads me to the major change that the blogging world has undergone in recent years…
Value is the keyword
If you want your blog to survive and flourish in the new age of blogs, it has to provide value. The good old days when a short and meaningless text with a few keywords was enough, leaving the rest of the work up to Google. Today’s search engines are a lot smarter than they used to be and they won’t give your blog a good enough rating if all you do is just stuff keywords into the text.
Google, and any other search engine, have been amazingly optimized in recent years and managed to overcome the superficial SEO ploys that have resulted in mediocre content reaching the front search pages. Today, search engines are able to find high-value content and rank it in the first places, so if you want to attract new people who are interested in your blog's niche, you’ll need to put more emphasis on value in the new content that you share on the blog.
Terminology has changed
Due to the changes listed above, in recent years there has also been a change in the world of terms related to the blog world. Nowadays, blogs are also referred to as ‘digital assets for content marketing'. And bloggers have become content creators. The blogging world has evolved in recent years in a way that makes it much bigger, more professional, and more relevant than ever. Becoming a blogger today is not only about writing blog posts but a great deal beyond. Having a blog is a profession like any other.
Why blogs are here to stay
Due to search engines
You do this on a daily basis, something comes to mind, you want to know more about it, so what do you do? Ask Instagram or Tiktok? Of course not… They are not search engines. You open up Google and so quickly the results pop up.
About 99.9% of those results lead to articles and blog posts, which is exactly why blogs are not only not dead – but they are also not going away anytime soon. Google collects information from websites to find the best match to the words typed into the search bar. Since blogs are informative they serve as sources of information for various fields of interest. Eventually, people in need of information will go to a source that offers the best answer to their questions, and that kind of information is not really searchable on social networks. Bottom line – as long as Google and other search engines exist in the world {Hello Pinterest! 😍} blogs are alive and kicking.
Thanks to their longevity
Unlike random content published on social networks such as Instagram and Facebook whose “shelf life” is pretty short, blog content has no expiration date. Thanks to the fact that websites {including blogs} are indexed into search engines, they have a long life.
What do I mean? Take, for example, my post “5 Tips for Building an Active Community Around your Blog” which I wrote in 2017 – this is one of the most-read posts on my blog, even today. Meaning, content that was written three years ago still draws people to my website. If we compare the content on the blog to other content published on social media, there’s no doubt that blog posts attract new audiences, even years later, as opposed to those “temporary” posts on social networks that quickly lose their momentum. This is why investing in content that is published on the blog is much more profitable and worthwhile in the long run, because it continues to do its job long after they first went live.
Thanks to the fact that its a classic in a world of passing trends
Social networks are constantly changing – one day Facebook is on top, the next it is relevant only to an older crowd. Instagram is THE social network everyone’s on, and suddenly everyone skips to Snapchat, only to return to Instagram, their tail between their legs. One day Tik Tok is just for kids dancing in front of the camera, while the next your grandma is showing off her moves and performing the challenges. Honestly, who can even keep track?! In the past few years, people have jumped from one network to the next, keeping up with the hottest trends and not staying behind. And throughout all these years, the good old traditional blog has survived. Not only has it survived, but it has also actually flourished into becoming quite a professional network. So yes, blogs are still around, and people are still reading them.
בזכות העובדה שהוא נכס דיגיטלי עצמאי לחלוטין
I know I’ve already mentioned this in some of my previous posts, but every day that passes by only strengthens my point – there is no substitute to an independent blog!
I can’t argue with the fact that social media today is an essential tool for building up a strong blog or successful business. They support the brand’s activity, link it to your community, allow you to share “behind the scenes” glimpses, and bring traffic to your blog. There is only one disadvantage, a major one – you have no control over them. I am not the owner of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or any other network, and while I invested myself and my time in creating quality content designed to be used on social media, and while I have reached a nice amount of followers, I can never be sure that my followers will get the updates that I share about the content I publish.
In this post about the importance of having a newsletter for your blog and business I’ve written about how businesses were impacted by the changes in Facebook’s algorithm, and it’s important that you realize the same will soon apply to businesses that rely on Instagram (read more about that here). The bottom line is that social networks are a tool still worth using for your band and marketing purposes, but it is by no means a replacement for a blog and newsletter.
Thanks to the option of income diversity
If you read my post about strengthening your business in a time of need, you already know I am a firm believer in diversifying your channels of revenue, which is, of course, relevant to any blog-based business.
Never put all of your eggs in one basket. Unlike Instagram bloggers, I earn money in multiple ways, through the blog and the social networks that accompany it, so if for some reason Instagram will shut down or my account will be erased, I won’t lose all of my income at once.
There are many ways for a blog to become profitable, click here to read about how to earn money from your blog.
To sum up, let’s go back to the questions I brought up at the beginning of the post…
Blogs are not dead, and it is really not too late to start your own successful blog. On the contrary, many well-known bloggers who have recently become so invested in Instagram, for example, Leonie Hanne of Ohhculture, are slowly returning to their origins and beginning to invest in their blogs once again.
The blog world is constantly developing. The key to the new version of the blog world lies in strategy and the quality of your content. Now’s the time to focus on quality, not quantity, and create timeless valuable blog posts.
What do you think? Do you think blogs are dying out? If you’re a blogger, how do you think the blog world has developed since you started your blog?
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7 Responses
Blogging always has its impact on its target audience. I think social media ais a platform when used effectively bloggers can find more target audiences.
Thanks & regards
Aria Mathew
Hey Tamar , just discovered your blog and I’m loving it.
Blogging is far from being dead, we’ve just got to adapt as it evolves.
Thanks Babe!??
In a world dominated by a handful of large mass media players and social media, I believe blogs are far from dead. Your very blog proves this, but blogs also provide greater personal context and different views compared to what is offered and possible on social media. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram can even boost the message of the blog. So in stead of being dead I really like to see the blogging world reached a transition into maturity.
I love your insight! couldn’t agree more.
This blog is very helpful, people who say that blogging is dead, it is not working nowadays, They should read this blog, Blogging is the most important tool for digital marketing, I hope this blog will reach to every reader
Thank You
Thanks Rana!