I’ve been hearing people say that blogging is dead for years. Yet, you turn on Youtube or podcasts about successful bloggers and hear 6, and 7 figure incomes reported. So, are blogs still a thing?
There were 2,014,182 written today (internetlivestats.com).
Blogging reached its highest number of bloggers ever with more than 31,700,000 bloggers reported in 2020. The trend continues to rise. – US Digital Users eMarketer Forecast 2016, page 20
Why Bloggers Start a Blog
ConvertKit did a study and reported that bloggers start a blog for the following reasons.
- To work for themselves
- To have a creative outlet
- To build an audience
- To share their knowledge and experiences
- To make an additional income
People are more interested in building solid businesses in a post-pandemic world, not based on a physical location.
Nobody wants to have a business that can be shut down because it’s considered “non-essential.”
Building an online business such as a profitable blog can add financial stability and job security.
Blogging is booming.
Organic Traffic
83% of businesses report organic traffic from marketing efforts as a critical metric for success in marketing. Organic traffic is website traffic that is earned through non-paid methods.
Traffic sources include search engines like Google and Bing, Youtube, Pinterest, Facebook, TikTok, Linked In, Twitter, Instagram, Clubhouse, Podcasts, and more.
Content like videos, podcasts, and written blogs are often the front runners that earn organic traffic.
While creating content can come with a cost, organic traffic earned is not directly paid for, making it an evergreen traffic source regardless of ad budgets.
In my blogging business, organic traffic is preferred and is my primary focus.
In fact, with the social landscape becoming more competitive, many small businesses have shifted their full focus to content marketing, such as blogging.
Therefore, blogging is still a thing.
Making Money Blogging
While many small businesses are blogging to generate interest in their brands, products, and services, entrepreneurs worldwide are blogging to make money.
Bloggers have realized that they can earn 5, 6, and 7 figure incomes by starting a blog in the right niche.
Blogs can be monetized with ads through premium ad networks like Mediavine, AdThrive, and Ezoic.
Popular niches for ad revenue include food blogs, the finance niche, health and wellness, travel, and beauty.
Affiliate marketing is another way that bloggers make money, and it’s trending up on Google Trends. The new work-at-home economy realizes that they can promote someone else’s product or service and earn commissions through blogging.
I earn 6-figures in affiliate marketing through software video tutorials and blogs, like this one.
Affiliate marketing allows you to run an at-home business from your computer without inventory, shipping, or customer service.
I have chosen the software niche for my blog because of the recurring income opportunities in affiliate marketing.
Many Saas (Software As A Service) affiliates pay commissions each time the software subscription renews.
That being said, it’s also a risky business in that affiliate programs close all of the time without notice. It’s essential to diversify and promote many brands.
Money can also be made through sponsorships and selling digital products like online courses (with platforms like Teachable or Thinkific) or printables that can be made on Canva and sold on Etsy.
Top Content Marketing Methods
In a recent report by Hubspot, the following content marketing methods were reported by companies.
- Videos
- Blogs
- Infographics
- Case Studies
- Interviews
- Ebooks
- Whitepapers
- Checklists
Blogging is Good For SEO
69% of businesses investing in SEO in 2021 which is 5% more than 2020 according to Hubspot.
SEO or search engine optimization is optimizing websites and web pages to increase the chances of ranking on the search engines like Google.
Blogging, also referred to as content marketing, is still a top strategy to rank on Google.
Optimizing the content with on-page SEO such as internal linking, headings, schema, and off-page SEO such as gaining backlinks can improve the ranking opportunities, which can then earn organic traffic.
Content is King
Nevermore accurate before than today is the phrase “Content is King.”
Your content is your website, blog, or company’s identity. Content generates traffic from search engines, and that traffic can convert into leads and sales if the right follow-up processes are in place to capture them.
The benefits of blogging are endless, including brand awareness, lead generation, traffic building, customer retention & loyalty, upselling and cross-selling, thought leadership, and more.
Bloggers create content around a specific topic or keyword, write blog posts on that topic/keyword, and publish those articles to their website or business blog.
In viewing the blogger’s analytics, they can see which pages generate the most income and then create more blogs like those.
With incredible Keyword research tools like Semrush, bloggers can find low competition keyword phrases untapped yet provide massive financial opportunities.
Blogging Tools Make It Easy
Another reason that blogging is on the rise is that today’s tech tools have simplified the process.
When I started blogging in the early ’90s, we were blogging on bulletin boards.
As website builders like Dreamweaver hit the market, bloggers began to build their websites without the need to learn complicated code.
WordPress became the highest adopted platform for bloggers and changed the way we blogged forever.
Over time, blogs have gotten prettier, more functional, easier to read, and load faster.
Tools like Grammarly keep us in check by suggesting spelling and grammar edits.
WordPress themes like Astra, and the Elementor page builder, make our blogs look professional. We can easily build email lists from our blogs using built-in subscriber forms.
Using email platforms like Mailerlite, Keap, or Constant Contact, we can set up automation to add subscribers directly from our blogs and launch automated sales funnels.
AI writing assistants such as Jasper allow us to create blog outlines, perfect blog titles, and long-form content much faster.
Top Earning Bloggers
Most bloggers don’t earn a high income. This has more to do with their strategy and discipline than the money-making opportunities of blogging.
When gathering average salaries from editorial bloggers and content writing, the average blogger’s salary is $50,000.
It’s worth noting, however, that making money from blogging doesn’t have to be a full-time income for many. In addition, making a few thousand dollars per month (vs. a few hundred thousand dollars) is considered a success by many bloggers.
While I earn 6-figures as a blogger, I’m often overwhelmed when I see income reports of top bloggers. At the same time, I’m also inspired.
It’s reported that Timothy Sykes, a millionaire penny stock trader and blogger, earns 1 million dollars PER MONTH from his blog.
The finance niche is undoubtedly one of the most lucrative blog niches yet is also one of the most competitive.
He does well with Google as an expert in the industry since he earned $1.65 million by day trading while going to college at Tulane University.
It’s much easier to prove expertise with Google with that experience in your bio!
Melyssa Griffin of MelyssaGriffin.com reportedly makes $238,000 per month from her blog. Melyssa teaches bloggers how to be successful bloggers through her blog and online courses.
Many bloggers earn income through coaching and selling their timed course launches and evergreen courses.
While I’m nowhere near that kind of income, it’s nice to have a solid 5-figure income from the course sales alone.
My top courses sell to real estate agents that want to generate more leads online.
I don’t promote my courses nearly as much as I did initially, as I’ve added affiliate marketing as a top income strategy which means blogging and creating video content daily.
It’s all organic traffic, evergreen, and passive income once it’s created. The most active strategy is updating content and promotion.
Closing
So is blogging dead? No. Is blogging still a thing? Absolutely. 84% of businesses are using content marketing as a strategy.
Entrepreneurs start blogging businesses to earn affiliate income, publish income from ads, income from selling courses, printables, and other digital products, and as an exit strategy, knowing they can sell their blog later.
People are starting blogs on WordPress, using page builders like Elementor, Spelling check software like Grammarly, and AI writing assistants like Conversion.io.
If you have a specific niche, are disciplined, can create excellent SEO content, and stay on task day in and day out, blogging might be the right business.
Sources:
https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/blogger-salary-SRCH_KO0,7.htm
