Blogging Is Dead! Or Is It Not? Here’s What the Data Says
You must’ve seen some movers and shakers of your field outrightly post that blogging is dead. But, is that really the case?
👉 In this post, you’ll learn:
If blogging is truly dead or if it’s just some styles of it that are gradually going extinct.
What the cold hard facts and data say about the issue.
What exactly to avoid and what to do to make your blog succeed.
📚 Table of contents:
How many blogs are there in 2022?
The growing dominance of social media and video-dominated websites, like YouTube, can give you the false impression that blogging has no place in today’s online media world.
If you have found yourself slipping under that impression, you can’t be blamed.
You might want to reconsider, as there are over 600 million blogs out of 1.9 billion websites in the world today [1]. And these blogs churn out 6 million blog posts daily, which translates into over 2 billion posts every year.
More than that, WordPress – the leading platform that people use to run their blogs – powers 43% of all websites out there. That means that roughly two out of every five sites run on WordPress.
I’m not sure about you, but if 43% of all website work on an engine that was meant for blogging, then it’s hard to take claims like blogging being dead too seriously.
It’s also safe to say that the demand for blogs isn’t dying anytime soon, and there’s no real competitor to WordPress on the horizon either. Long story short, blogging is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Do blogs make money in 2022?
The question of whether blogs still make money is a valid one, considering the public opinion that blogging is dead (allegedly). One of the reasons people think that way is that they see blogging more as a hobby than an actual viable way to make money online – or even make it your main income.
So, can you still monetize your blogging effors in 2022?
As a matter of fact, you can. There are more than a dozen viable ways that people have been earning a living from their blogs for years now.
Of course, the majority of them are good ol’ ads. Ad networks, or banner advertising, are the most common ways through which bloggers earn on their blogs. According to data online, one of the most effective strategies to monetize your blog this way is to join ad networks, such as Mediavine or Adthrive. It’s reported that 72% of bloggers who make at least $2,000 monthly use either of these networks [2].
The go-to ad provider for most bloggers, however, is Google AdSense. It’s by far the most popular ad network. Why? Because it’s very intuitive, even for beginners, and welcomes all types of blogs.
Ad networks, though popular, are not always the most effective way to make money blogging. High-income bloggers prefer to do affiliate marketing or sell their own products or services.
Growth Badger records that 45% of bloggers who earn over $50,000 annually sell their own products or services. Only 8% of low-income bloggers sell their own products or service [3].
Monetizing blogs doesn’t end here, though. The study from Rank IQ – the one we referenced earlier – found that bloggers make their income from online courses and sponsorships, too.
“Okay, then what is the most profitable blog niche because I want a chunk of this market share?” – I hear you.
The study from Rank IQ reveals the food niche to be the most profitable in blogging, having the highest median monthly income of $9,169. Granted, your results may vary, so you shouldn’t treat this stat line as a recipe for success (no pun intended).
The food niche is closely followed by the personal finance niche with a median monthly income of $9,100.
The lifestyle/mommy niche comes in third with an average monthly income of $5,174, and the travel niche sits at the fourth position with an average monthly income of $5,000.
Do people still read blogs in 2022?
People haven’t stopped reading blogs just because blogs aren’t the shiny object they once was.
A news report by Social Media Today revealed that 77% of internet users indeed still read blogs [4].
The report also exposed some comforting truths, such as the fact that internet users spend 3x more time on blogs than they do dealing with emails.
The same report also mentions the fact that people read around ten blog posts per day.
In another survey, Orbit Media asked over 1,000 bloggers if their blogs still deliver results. Out of the responses gathered, 80% of bloggers answered positively [5].
Among that 80% of bloggers, 54% said that their blog gives them “some results” while 26% of bloggers admitted that their blogs deliver “strong marketing results.”
These results come in form of leads, form signups, and sales done by real people.
Further, Content Marketing Institute confirms this survey through their own research indicating that 64% of bloggers generate sales and revenue through the content marketing efforts on their blogs [6].
So, in the end, people haven’t stopped reading blogs after all.
As a matter of fact, when people make a Google search, they’re almost always guaranteed to land on a blog post of some kind.
Most common mistakes that kill blogs
The landscape of blogging has changed over the years, and that means bloggers have to change the way they run their blogs or risk fading out of the scene…and indeed making it feel like blogging is dead.
Not niching down
Blogs that cover any and every topic under the sun are no longer a good approach if you’re hoping for any worthwhile results from blogging. This style of websites worked great during the early years of the internet when blogs first came onto the scene. Now that the online space is saturated with hundreds of millions of blogs, you’ll need to do something more than write a generic, not-niched blog.
Creating mediocre posts
Once upon a time, search engines, like Google, favored blogs that published tons of posts regularly, even if they weren’t super helpful. Doing that right now will attract a Google penalty for what’s called thin content. In other words, you can only hope to generate good results from blogging if you publish quality content that’s backed by research.
Using click-baity and misleading headlines
The issue with using false headlines, which lead to high click-through rates because of their shock value, is that users will bounce back from your website as soon as they realize that the post won’t deliver on the promise given in the headline. Google takes note of this unnatural bounce rate and will suppress your blog posts on search result pages.
Blogging about yourself
Back in the day, blogs were all about journaling about your own stories without any direct benefit given to the reader. This strategy – or rather lack thereof – is not so successful nowadays because online readers have grown to read blogs for specific reasons and to find quick answers. Meaning, you have to adapt a reader first approach when creating content for your blog.
Ignoring SEO best practices
Not too long ago, you could get by without thoroughly optimizing your posts and website for SEO. This is no longer the case, though. Failure to pay attention to search engine optimization means that you will get crushed by your SEO-savvy competitors.
The kinds of blogs that can still succeed in 2022
1. Blogs that create a solution to meet the market demand
The focus of blogging has shifted from what the writer wants to share to what the reader wants to read. In other words, it’s about the reader – not you, the blogger. Blogs that are making a killing online are those that match the reader’s intent perfectly. They know what the reader wants to read, and they give them exactly that. This can be in the form of a simple tutorial, comparison, or even a more advanced product that the blog owner offers.
2. Blogs that educate through content
People search through Google because they have a problem and they’re looking for a solution. The last thing they want to come across is your blog post about how your day went. They’re looking for how-to posts, in-depth guides, and list posts that contain informative content on how to solve their problems. Blogs with this kind of content have the undying loyalty of their readers.
3. Blogs that optimize their content for SEO
Search engines are a major way that most websites get to reach big audiences who walk through the door already interested in what the blogger has to offer. Blogs that are alive and kicking are those that have found a way to not only use paid ads but also get a huge number of free visitors consistently. SEO lets you do that.
4. Blogs that specialize in a particular field
People are looking for specialists online to provide them with helpful advice and content. Google not only looks for specialists but also favors them in the SERPs. Bloggers who are floating atop the hurdles to stay successful are those who have positioned themselves as experts in their fields. Google gives them more prominence in search results because they’ve proven their expertise, authority, and trustworthiness in their niche. What all this means is that, as a blogger, you should build your expertise in a narrow field – a niche. This, over time, will expose you to new audiences and help you maintain your position in the market.
Should you still blog in 2022?
In short, yes, but only if you have something interesting to say, you know who you’re talking to, and you’ve picked a niche that has people in it – people who are actively looking for solutions to whatever problems they’re facing.
If these are all a yes, then you can launch a blog confidently.
The only question remaining is how to actually start a blog?
The easiest way is to do that via Bluehost. Bluehost is a company that’s best known for their web hosting offering. However, together with hosting, they also give you access to easy-to-use tools to start a blog with a couple of clicks.
Here’s how it works in summary:
You can go to Bluehost and sign up for a web hosting plan. The cheapest one starts at $2.75 per month. For that price, you also get a free domain name bundled in for the first year.
During the sign-up process, tell Bluehost to install WordPress on your hosting account. As we said earlier in this post, WordPress is the most popular website engine, and also one of the easiest for such solutions available.
Pick a theme – a design – for your website and install it similarly easily – through a couple of clicks.
Write your first blog post and publish it for the world to see.
That’s it! 😎 I hope we’ve established pretty strongly that blogging is dead…not! ❤️ At least not for the foreseeable future.
