TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG?
I purposely have this following the episode where I say if you’re in the online space you need to be better at writing. Because in some aspects, yes, I think blogging is dead, or is slowly dying. Perhaps it’s just a phase.
It’s not dead in A LOT of places, which is where I have decided to spend my time and shift my focus over the the last year or so.
I will say, I am not a wildly successful blogger. I enjoy writing and providing content for my audience, that’s why I do it. A goal of mine is to monetize my blog, as a lifestyle blog including personal content, travel, fitness, entrepreneurship and my fav brands/products.
With all of that background/disclaimer out of the way, let’s discuss if blogging is dead, and whether or not you should have one.
First off, if blogging is what you want your full time gig to be, you need to take Julie Solomon’s Pitch It Perfect course. I took it, it’s great. Also made clear to me that blogging is indeed a full time job, and it’s not my #1 passion even though I enjoy doing it.
So just keeping it real, if you want to be blogger, where your income is strictly from brand deals and sponsorships, then Julie Solomon is your guru. And welcome to a full time job.
As far as the Google algorithm and statistics go, yes, blogging is dying. I have several friends whose blog traffic has plummeted in the last year or so. We’re talking like 500% less daily traffic to their blog.
Now, that matters if you depend on SEO or search engine optimization for new leads to come to your blog. Which likely matters if you are indeed a full time blogger.
With that, I don’t have world wide or US stats on blog traffic across the board. I just know that something similar to the decrease in Instagram exposure seems to be happening to humans in the blogging world as well.
True for some, not true for others I’m sure.
That brings me to my thoughts on blogging and whether you should do it or not.
Just because Instagram views are down does not mean you stop posting all together or that your main squeeze humans are not interacting with your posts.
I believe the same is true for blogging.
I view blogging as a deeper dive into the topics I cover on IG, and with a wider span.
It’s also where my podcasts are hosted via show notes, so keep that in mind.
Via the blog and podcast, I can dive much deeper into program design, coaching, business, travel, personal experiences and my favorite brands and resources. And I can do it in a manner that is not annoying to those who don’t want to hear or read about those things.
A blog gives you a space to narrow your funnel from places like Instagram. It gets them off the social media platform and onto YOUR PLATFORM...onto your site. From there, hopefully they join a mailing list of some kind. This is like hitting the follow button on Instagram, or the subscribe button on YouTube or your podcast app.
Do you have to have a blog to build an email list or loyal audience? No. 100% No.
But it’s a great place to serve your audience on a deeper level and expand your reach at the same time. If Instagram is your first step in the funnel, your blog would be the next.
So no, I don’t think blogging is DEAD. I think that’s a bit dramatic. But I think we have to shift with the times.
Again, I don’t have stats, but I imagine less people are cooking from home and more humans who may have cooked from home in the past are using things like Hello Fresh or other meal delivery services. So if you’re a food blogger, that may effect you.
For fitness, I used to LIVE on blogs like T Nation, Livestrong and 8 Weeks Out when I first started my career. But now I’ll be honest, I get most my knowledge and daily reading from Instagram. With swipe posts, doctors and small blogs in the captions, I can get most of what I’m looking for on a platform that I’m already on. And outside of that, I tend to just read research articles.
