People often say blogging is DEAD, start Vlogging.
While others say youtube traffic doesn’t convert, TRY blogging.
Or ever being in a situation where you are wondering which platform between Blogging vs Youtube should you try FIRST?
OR
Which is Highly profitable?.
In today’s posts,
I am going to show to what you need to know all about blogging vs youtube.
The requirements to get started,
Which platforms are worth spending time on & also best for your business.
With my real-life case study leveraging both platforms (blogging vs youtube),
That said.
If so, let’s dive right in.
Blogging Vs Youtube
A while back ago,
I teamed up with a personal brand who are having issues getting traffic to their youtube channel.
Most especially, their channels arent getting any attraction.
They had a YouTube channel in a very competitive space with 50 helpful videos and only less than 6k subscribers were generated in 3 years.
That sad.
The worst part: They did Facebook ads to promote their video within that period,
And it only got 5500 subscribers in 2 years.
Too bad, regardless of the fact that it is a competitive space (Finance).
So I came on board and we had a turnaround.
We grew from 5.5k to over 30k subscribers in the first 3 months of my service.
Here is a step-by-step case study on how i achieved this desired results on my clients youtube channel.
That said!
Early January,
I recently launched a blog in a very competitive space (the finance space), not damshustle.
The blog was less than 6 months old, but my early SEO tactics gave that blog its early attraction from SEO.
I would say, the results aren’t bad for a blog in less than 6 months.
Most SEO experts know, that it actually takes time for traffic to start rolling in.
So I am going to be sharing my experiences on these two platforms right away.
The fact is, am glad I encountered both.
And if I didn’t I wouldn’t be making these posts for You today.
So if you want to kick things off,
Here is the reality behind it when it comes to (Blogging vs Youtube) and it all boils down to their differences.
Tug Of War Between Blogging vs YouTube
Youtube in terms of simplicity, Is a platform where videos are being streamed & watched online.
You also create videos that can be uploaded on the platform.
While blogging on other hand is simply sharing information about (any event, situation, topic, etc.) in written formats only.
The Good Part: They are both reliable ways to make passive income online.
But over the years,
Ever since the existence of Youtube in 2005, the emergence of vlogging is now becoming the talk of the internet.
Which makes everyone in the digital world feel blogging is DEAD.
How true is that?
According to Google trends, its popularity took off over blogging with a huge GAP in its early days (Aug 2010).
Ever since,
Blogging became less talk of the town, while vlogging is in the hearts of every content creator minds?
Could that be the reason why blogging is DEAD?
Spoiler Alert: NO.
With wordpress being the most popular CMS (Content management system) platform on the internet.
About 5 million blogs were published in the year 2021.
That is just to say, Blogging is still on track.
But compared to youtube, it can be so tough to scale out.
What do I mean?
It is easier to grow a youtube channel compared to growing a blog and that leads us to their differences
Blogging Vs YouTube (The Difference)
Introducing the big differences between having a blog or owning a youtube channel.
YouTube Growth is Faster than blogging:
When it comes to their growth, it actually boils down to getting traffic that equals more views.
Check it out,
I have been blogging for 3 years now and I could say is,
When it comes to ranking on Google, Blogging takes longer before it starts getting attraction than youtube.
How true is this?
A study by ahrefs shows that,
It takes a blog 2+ years on average to start getting ranked on google for its keywords.
Because it takes several months for Google to know if actually your blog exits & that is because,
It is usually in the “Google Sandbox phase”.
At this stage is where Google looks out for certain criteria on the blog before they rank your article page.
Most of all is the “E-A-T” which stands for
E= Expertise
A= Authoritativeness
T= Trustworthiness.
And that can be achieved by link building and narrowing down to specific sub-niches.
With “E-A-T” your articles pages get a high chance of getting that sweet spot on google’s first page.
Knowing fully well you should have at the back of your mind that,
You are ready to put in the work and patience before you start seeing any positive impact of blogging.
But with Youtube, Such doesn’t exist.
In fact, Just UPLOAD your video & hit the published live BUTTON & your video goes public.
Without further due,
Your videos can now be found on youtube search results regardless of other SEO measures.
That can start bringing in a decent amount of traffic depending on the keyword’s monthly search volume.
But blogging on other hand doesn’t work that way.
You can build “E-A-T” and still not rank, Why? because all keywords aren’t created equal.
Google has a way of knowing finding articles that are yet to show up on the search.
And the first way is by crawling site pages.
Crawling means it has found the page, indexing actually means it is ready to show up on search results.
Most times google crawls a page and still has not indexed it.
And that can be a HUGE PAIN.
Whereas youtube instantaneously crawls your videos and decides where it oughts to be on their search results.
Start-up Costs:
The average cost of hosting a blog is around $100/year and it costs you $0 to set up a youtube channel.
Which you don’t actually need a HOST for, because youtube is a self-hosted platform.
When creating a blog, you need to know which platforms you are to manage your content on.
WordPress is the most popular content management for blog owners.
Before setting up a blog, you need a domain name & a Hosting package.
And that will cost you a yearly recurring fee.
Content Creation:
Making a youtube video or writing a blog post, which is faster?
In common sense, a blog post is faster compared to making a video.
A while back ago,
I was trying to make a faceless video about a course I was trying to promote on a brand new channel with no attraction.
it took me 3 days to be able to create this video, definitely not an easy thing for me.
To be honest, am not a video editor.
I just leverage some video editing tools that are beginner-friendly for startups.
And that video doesn’t look 100% satisfactory and professional.
It would cost me over $100 dollars to be able to make a better version of that single video.
So if am to make about 10 more videos, then I should have a budget of $1000 in my pocket.
Not all startups can afford such an amount at the start even though it will pay off in the long run.
For these reasons, people never find it pleasant when they feel they are to make youtube videos.
Same for my client’s channel, we had a video editor we pay a fee for every video he edits.
This doesn’t work for everyone because not everyone could afford to pay for editing especially when starting out.
My client was financially stable, so paying video editors wasn’t a big deal.
But with blogging.
Things are quite different.
This article on my blog ranking page 1 on Google took me less than 7 hours to create.
And now it ranking on Google and getting a little amount of traffic.
If you are good at video editing, then you wouldn’t find it uneasy when making videos like mine.
But better still, you can still make videos regardless of doing video editing.
E.g this channel generates about and they make videos by simply just phone and screen recording.
That alone doesn’t require editing, in most cases a little editing.
But it is still a great style to start, so better still don’t rely on the camera.
If your niche deserves you to show your face in a video, then go for a camera.
But if it requires practical, tutorials and actionable task, screen recording can be a GOOD FIT.
SEO Standpoint & Organic Search:
SEO as it may sound means search engine optimization.
It is usually all about optimizing your content for search engines like Google or Youtube.
From an SEO standpoint: Google is known for ranking blog posts & youtube videos, just as shown.
And also shows videos in the top search,
Whenever users are searching for information that videos actually describe best.
With Youtube: Videos only.
Pro tip: Google algorithm could detect when a youtube video appears on the search
Google makes 83.3% of all the search traffic on the internet making it the most popular on the planet.
Find more statistics at Statista
So you get an advantage when your videos are ranked on Google search results.
For example,
One of my client’s videos is hitting that no.1 spot on google for a keyword with a good amount of searches.
So that brought in 4.6%(22,994) views of his traffic from google and 6.2%(2401) views from a youtube search.
But because that video is a Video keyword, Google ranks it.
This gives youtube videos potential headshots to steal that Google first page & youtube first-page search.
Unlike youtube, you can’t rank blog posts at all.
But the truth is, both platforms (blogging vs youtube) have different criteria for SEO.
For example,
Youtube SEO can be easy to set up.
Conduct video keyword research using the VidiQ tool
Make videos, and upload them.
Sprinkle the keywords in video descriptions,
Add relevant keywords to tags and add an attractive thumbnail & Captivating headlines.
And finally, HIT published and call it a DAY.
Crickets…traffics are now rolling in (learn more).
While blogging SEO tactics can be a severe nightmare.
You hear SEO experts say, publish long-form content.
Add keywords to the headline and meta description of your posts.
Sprinkle some keyword variations into your post.
Make an awesome unique blog posts
Use short URLs
Build backlinks, understand the search intent
Add infographics and videos to increase dwell time.
In summary
Only for you to hit publish BUTTON and your blog posts aren’t even Indexed.
In most cases, the article is mostly buried down google 2nd-page results.
This can be a HUGE PAIN, which makes youtube SEO pays off.
Either way, if the blog post gets a first-page spot, GREAT!
But the process of optimizing that posts worth the stress.
Technicality:
Blogging is more technical than youtube.
During my early days of blogging,
I experienced a lot of difficulties on my blog which I almost have up the run.
It is definitely worth the stress but these difficulties can be a HUGE PAIN and if not tackled correctly,
It can cause a negative impact on your blog’s success.
A while back ago,
I was battling with this issue on my blog, it took me several months before I got it fixed.
It was actually preventing my blog from getting indexed by the search engines, so I had to make sure I fixed that up.
It wasn’t easy for me, especially the fact that being in the beginning stage of running my blog.
So I watched lots of youtube videos and did a lot of consulting with other bloggers and some advice didn’t work.
Anyway, I got it all sorted out in the end.
But that is just one piece of the puzzle.
Setting up your blog to a standard level requires some level of expertise,
In most cases, You can watch free youtube videos to walk you through that process.
but you can’t sort that all by yourself at the begging stage of setting up the blog.
E.g connecting your blog to Google analytics and console,
Setting up all required SEO plugins like toast, rank maths, etc.
On the other end, with Youtube. it is pretty much easier.
You don’t need to worry about all this mess I mentioned earlier.
In fact, all that matters is to set up your channel, make videos and check your studio analytics to see how well the videos performed.
Building A Community:
With blogging, you take charge of your community rather than just youtube.
Monetization:
So there is no one perfect answer to how much a content creator earns on either a blog vs youtube.
Both platforms have their own criteria and metrics to monetization which vary by niche.
On my client’s channel, we made $645.35 from 146.0K views from youtube ads revenue.
From experience I would say, blogging makes more than that which such an amount of traffic.
Though my clients don’t rely on youtube ads revenue, but solely on course sales and affiliate marketing.
And then, youtube did convert and the revenue is 10X that of youtube ads equally on the same traffic value.
So our revenue streams were just from Course sales, affiliate marketing & ads.
But in blogging, you get a lot more than you ever think of.
For instance,
Adam effory made a video on how he made $5,000/month from a single-click article with affiliate marketing.
Excluding ads networks, just a piece of the article brings in $5,000/month.
Sweet.
With that, he still made $812,718 dollars in the year 2020 alone with his blog with 292.9K visits.
All revenue came from,
Ads, affiliate marketing, sponsored ads, and course sales.
Youtube does a good job when it comes to monetization with different level streams.
But with the next level of monetization, blogging has the capacity to do that.
Blogging gives you the option to place ad placement on any sections of your blog that best suit and work well for your audiences.
But with youtube, the algorithm is to do that for you, and it usually appears 30secs after the video has been clicked.
With that here is a quick summary of all the differences between blogging vs youtube on a table as shown below
BASED ON BLOGGING YOUTUBE
Comfort on camera You don’t really have to be on camera. You have to get comfortable being on camera.
Content Updates Can be easily updated after publishing Once published, video cannot be editted.
Content Creation Easily create contents on scale Videos Cannot be easily created on scale, unless team work is required
Costs Requires a startup recurring fee for hosting & domain Free
SEO standpoint 1. Takes longer time to start ranking on Google for new blogs
2. Requires SEO knowledge 1. High chance of ranking immediately after publishing
2. less SEO skills is required.
Technicalities Alot of technicalities involved less technical and begginer friendly
Platform you own You have full control over the platforms You do not own your youtube channel and it can be deleted anytime you go against their policies guidelines
Equipments 1. Laptops
2. Internet connection1. Laptop
2. Internet connection
3. Good camera
4. Video editting softwares
5. Microphones
Success Growth Takes longer, most cases years before finding success Success rates is high, can take less than a year with proper SEO tactics & value of video.
Monetization 1. Adsense, Ezoic, etc.
2. Spornsors ads
3. Banner ads
4. Affiliate marketing
5. Courses and sales of Ebook
6. Offer services
1. Adsense only
2. Spornsors ads
3. No banner ads
4. Affiliate marketing
5. Course & sales of Ebook
6. Offer services
Should I Start A Blog Or A YouTube Channel In 2022?
The most common questions that have been asked all over the internet.
But the answer lies in your goal and objectives of your business, or better still your brand or personal purposes.
For example,
A popular SAAS software company we may have come across before or not named Ahrefs.
They provide tools and resources for SEO experts who want to rank higher on google and charge a monthly fee.
Knowing fully well their customers are 100% of people engaging in SEO activities,
They ranked for some top competitive keywords in their niche where their audiences are.
And each article links to their products page which is where they make money from.
NICE!!
Knowing fully well Google covers 83% of all search engine traffic,
Ahrefs knows its customers are searching for key terms on Google,
So they rank for keywords that bring in traffic to their products which can lead to sales.
E.g People searching for this query “Keyword research guide” are definitely going to need a keyword research tool.
But for Gillian Perkins reverse is the case.
In case you have never heard of her,
Gillian Perkins is a female marketing strategist basically for online entrepreneurs.
Gillian has been recognized for her business framework and concepts for uniquely naming her content which makes them stand out.
The concluding part is, that her success came from Youtube.
She quotes as shown in the image.
The point is, that every successful brand leverage both platforms.
But @ the beginning stage of their career, they actually focus on one, and when that took off to some point.
They diversify and move to the other platforms.
Adam enfroy is a successful blogger, who started his journey as a blogger on his blog way back in early 2019.
Today, he makes over a million BUCKS♥ in revenue from the blog.
After finding success with his blog, he launched his youtube channel.
And that is not all, other personal brands do the same too.
80% of successful brands that has a youtube channel also blog too, and Vice versa.
In other words,
The point is, actually starting from one platform, and once you grow to some certain point where it requires less you to do less and achieve great results, diversify.
But if you feel sucked at standing in front of the camera, then leverage blogging
But if you do not, then start Youtube.
But engaging both is a great win as it expands your brand’s online visibility.
But the following expectations are what you should be experiencing.
How Fast Are You Wanting To Get Traffic:
As I mentioned earlier, in terms of traffic growth, blogging is slower compared to youtube.
And that gives Youtube an edge over blogging.
If you are haste to quickly get traffic then you should know investing in Youtube is the best option.
In other words, Blogs also can easily get that quick traffic spike.
But the required measures for it are not easy, not at all.
When growing your site domain authority, you may need to do link building which is every blogger’s nightmare.
Are You Ready To Deal With The Technical Aspect of Managing A site?
Blogging is actually a good thing to do due to his vast options in terms of monetization.
But the monetization aspects may sound enticing to you.
Can you handle the technical aspects of running a successful blog to meet these requirements?.
The answer lies in how well you are willing to put in the work.
In other words, blogging is technical.
If you are good @ writing and have to start a blog, don’t get discouraged by this.
It is just a tough issue every blogger faces and the more you face it, the better experiences you get.
If none is part of your choice of preferences then youtube should be your goal.
SEO (search engine optimization criteria):
SEO on youtube and blogging are two different things but they all achieve the same results.
Which is ranking “higher of search results”.
You can deal with SEO on youtube, even beginners can get it figured out.
Adding stages to the video,
Add keywords to title and description and
create an attractive thumbnail and call it a day♠
But SEO in blogging is the same principles but is highly advanced.
You need to have knowledge in,
Keyword research
Technical SEO
Content writing
Building E-A-T
How to set up Yoast
Schema markups
Internal linking etc.
You don’t have to be an expert at all before you get started
Perfection is just an enemy, you only become better over time when you get started.
So don’t let this discourage you but they are what you will experience when doing blogging.
It’s just what you basically need to do when you have in mind blogging.
Costs Of Equipment & Resources
Blogging vs youtube are two different things, so they require different resources.
With youtube,
You can start based on what you have but having some professional equipment can help your video stand out and have better clarity and experience.
You actually need to have all this equipment in place if you are really serious about doing vlogging.
You should get one.
But if you don’t have the costs to get it, FINE.
You can start from somewhere, after all not all channels require you should around the environment
Some channels do 100% screen records due to their niche and they still found success.
But on the other hand, is Blogging.
As blogging may sounds, there are going to be some materials you ought to get when running a blog.
I don’t mean paying for a domain and hosting♦
Common blogging tools that help you scale your blogging business.
The good part is they are 100% required for the start.
They are SEO tools like keywords research tools and analysis.
As time goes on, the need for certain requirements will generally increase over time.
You see a successful blog and want your blog to be successful too.
But all successful blogs are blogs that are able to convert traffic into paying customers.
And what makes them successful was the resources they leverage at the right time.
E.g
Email marketing tools for a successful email marketing campaign.
Blogging designs (paid themes) and more.
Vlogging vs Writing (Which sounds Natural To You):
There used to be a quote that says, you get better at something when you do it over and over again.
But the reality behind it is that getting good over time requires your determination towards it.
You cant become a better writer over time when the passion for writing is not part of you.
You cant become a better blogger/YouTuber when you are always shy about getting in front of a camera.
Between both, there should be one you should be more passionate about than the other (damshustle).
Whichever it is, should come naturally to you.
The Creative common videos:
This is an option on youtube that allows you to republish other vlogger youtube videos and republish on your channel without getting banned.
The original owner of the video has given permission to whoever wants to make use of his/her video.
And the Good part is if you are running out of ideas, you can edit the videos and publish them as yours but still credit the owner.
And how do you find them in these 5 steps?
Step#1: Visit youtube and search for any keywords in your niche you want to download from in the search bar.
Step# 2: Filter out for creative common videos.
Step# 3: Choose a video of your choice or a perfect fit for your channel goal.
Step# 4: Copy the video link.
Step# 5: Pate them Here and Download
How to Start A Blog Requirements (Quick Summary)
Step #1: Get a good hosting and a Domain
Step #2: Set your sites on wordpress
Step #3: Choose a blog theme
Step #4: Submit your sites to Google
Step #5: Connect your site to analytics and search console
Step #6: Start writing
Blogging Platform Alternatives
Due to the startup costs of setting up a blog domain & hosting, here are the best platforms you can get started with.
If you are passionate about blogging, don’t let domain & hosting set up apart.
Below are platforms you can start blogging on but the downside of it is that
You are not in full control over these platforms and others are limitations to it (lean more)
#1: Medium
#2 Tumblr
#3 Linked-in
#4 Reddit etc
How To Start & Set Up Your Youtube Channel
Step 1: Pick a niche
Step 2: Create your youtube channel
Step 3: Vse vidiQ to do keyword research
Step 4: Generate a list of videos for your channel
Step 5: Add keywords in video Tags, title, and description and publish the video
FAQ
Is Blogging Still relevant in 2022?
Yes, blogging is still relevant in 2022 and the demand for bloggers is still very high.
There is a potential opportunity for every aspiring blogger should dive into.
83% of searches on the internet come from google, so there is enough opportunity to get your blog in front of these audiences.
Is Blogging More Profitable Than Youtube?
As I mentioned earlier, there is no one-size-fits-all on how much you can earn using both platforms.
But blogging gives room for diverse monetization strategies, unlike youtube.
Which is EASY blogging or youtube?
The answers depend on your objectives, for example, if your content requires more practical and actionable stuff then you should do youtube as it explains better compared to writing it in form of written posts.
Are videos better than blogs?
Videos are not better than blogs, each has its own unique way of attracting audiences.
But research has proven that videos tend to bring in more customers than written posts.
Now it’s your turn?
In today’s posts?
I believe I did justice in diving deeper into blogging vs Youtube
And which of them are you going to try first or leverage on?
Are you good at making videos?
Do you choose to be a youtube but are worried about making videos?
Or
You feel not comfortable being on camera and then you choose to blog
Which way,
Lemme know by dropping your comments below.