Niche blogs are dying off because of the massive change in the SEO industry. AI has been everywhere, and from what I can tell, a random guy on Reddit can rank better than a well-written, expert blog piece. Is Blogging dead in 2024? Not exactly, but it’s harder now. Is it therefore even worth launching a new blog in 2024? That depends.
The current state of Blogging
Ironically, I began blogging more than 15 years ago, at the start of 2024. Never in all those years have I seen bloggers and SEO professionals more enraged about the state and prospects of blogging. While Google claims that all of those modifications were meant to raise the general caliber of their results, many have been claiming that the adjustments they made to the way content is ranked have “killed” many excellent sites.
Though it never really died, I have heard individuals declare hundreds of times that blogging was dead. Wouldn’t you not be here right now if it was? However, even if you are an expert in your field, ranking in higher positions has gotten increasingly challenging, and starting a new blog and actually making money out of it has been harder. Reddit and Quora postings appear to flood Google these days, and niche blogs that specialize in what they publish are hard to come by.
Making money with them is just as important, though, as ranking in high places. Consider Google AdSense; a lot of people are claiming that their income has significantly decreased, and I can understand that as well. Numerous of my clients have been complaining of sharp declines in their revenues and rankings, and they haven’t done anything significant that could have caused that. What then is going on? Google, that’s what. That is, at least, the consensus among SEO specialists at the moment.
The biggest search engine in the world appears to be attempting to eradicate specialized blogs and high-quality material, which were its defining features from the start. The past several years have made ranking so challenging that many of the writers I met through their blogs are now uploading videos on social media instead of writing. Many have even moved their WordPress blogs to Medium or LinkedIn in an attempt to reclaim some decent traffic after the algorithm change removed them from the search results.
But let us briefly examine several full-time bloggers who have been blogging for more than ten years and who, following the HCU change, lost both their audience and their income. Several of those indie publishers make their living from their blogs. I want to differ; I’ve seen several excellently written, accurate articles lose their rankings after the HCU published. Some may argue that such sites offered little real quality out of their content, and that was my first assumption as well.
This is a fascinating screenshot (one of many that have been shared on social media recently):
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Although some could argue that depending too much on Google as the primary traffic source is the issue here, organic traffic is important for all publishers, and as long as Google is the top search engine, many will continue to depend on it. Not social media sites, but Google is how most people receive answers. because not everyone is born to be a YouTuber, because searching on TikTok will only return videos rather than well-written essays. Even with thousands of followers, though, it’s still hard to get people from TikTok or Instagram to your website—and no, I don’t like pleading with them to visit my profile and click on the link.
Conversely, I enjoy reading and occasionally skip watching movies or podcasts. Google is horrible at producing factual, well-written articles, which is what I want. I will admit, Bing is a really decent search engine, and I actually started using it as my default. Though it’s far from flawless, it kind of takes me back to the good old days when you could find helpful stuff.
But most people use Google rather than Bing (yet), thus most publishers depend on the search engine to generate organic traffic. This discourages many bloggers, and since the majority of them lack SEO expertise, hiring SEO services can get somewhat costly, particularly when they are uncertain about the viability of their blogs. Spending even more money during a period when a publisher loses its ranks and its revenue has sharply declined could be a challenging decision, particularly if they are unsure if such services would have any effect.
Blogging vs. Vlogging and making money from your articles
These are all turning off people from blogging, and videos are growing in popularity.
In 2024, nevertheless, it won’t be too hard to contrast blogging with vlogging. One such is my brother Flaco Jordi, who you may have already seen strolling about Santorini Island and striking up conversations with strangers in live broadcasts on TikTok. He gathered over 13K followers, began earning meager sums of money from the site in less than a few months, and is doing even better with each new live video he launches. He is now fully committed to YouTube and distributing his material to other channels. Looking at his statistics and contrasting them with a trip blog we started over two years ago, we can see that a single video can outperform the whole traffic history of the blog. Freakish!
Just for the sake of the argument, most bloggers already know that there’s a low chance that they can make enough money in the first year. This means they know they have to invest at least 12 months of work without expecting anything in return.
It makes you wonder if writing all that time—some people may even spend years—is worth it if you discover that, after a new HCU is launched, your material is no longer showing up in searches. Not only that, but after witnessing my personal revenues decline without any warning, without any issues, and without any adjustments, I no longer trust AdSense to generate money. Have I had to keep showing ads? Should the majority of my stuff be behind a paywall or subscription? Okay, so maybe give email marketing another shot.
Most publishers are aware of the increased difficulty of making money from your blog than in the past. The times are changing, and with them will be more or new opportunities for content producers to make money from their projects. Affiliate marketing is the quickest and easiest approach to accomplish that since, as opposed to having thousands of visitors so your advertising can make enough money, you have a higher probability of someone clicking and purchasing a good or service. As your new blog won’t have any strong backlinks from comparable and related websites, don’t anticipate receiving any sponsors or advertorial requests at first.
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Blogging Statistics for 2024 and good rankings
Not everything, though, is negative; many have had significant daily traffic gains and their ranks are looking better than ever. While some will argue that such blogs strictly adhere to E.E.A.T. (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), which is vital these days, others will argue that it was fortunate that it would expire after the next HCU. Apart from all of that, some also began to mention that they eventually regained their rankings, indicating that Google may, based on the material they host, reinstate the ranking of some websites.
Out of 1.9 billion websites globally, according to Web Tribunal, there are more than 600 million blogs, and 77% of internet users still read blogs, according to Social Media Today. Does one need further evidence and logic? According to statistics, blogging is still very much alive and well. As long as people read articles, new blogs will appear and many publishers will become well-known for their distinct voices. Moreover, you will have many more chances to rank better and evade an impending algorithm upgrade if you don’t use AI-generated content.
Still, blogging is a terrific way to write and publish your own stories if your main goal is to do so rather than make money. Furthermore, bear in mind that 50% of bloggers publish weekly or multiple times a month, and that the blogger with the most publications is more likely to declare “strong results” (Orbit Media).
Is Blogging dead in 2024?
Keeping all that in mind, I believe blogging is still alive and well and not going anywhere anytime soon. Ironically, creating a new blog is much simpler these days; websites like Hostinger allow anyone to do so in a matter of minutes. Thousands of plugins, themes, and tools are available to enhance and simplify your content management on CMS platforms like WordPress, Ghost, and others.
But if you intend to go all out and become a full-time blogger and earn enough money from your site, I advise you to begin by doing your homework first. Spend as much time as you can investigating the most popular searches in your field, then concentrate on offering just that—but 100% accurately. And perhaps, just perhaps, instead of concentrating simply on Google, search for other sources and methods of traffic generation.
Since blogging has always been my passion, I shall carry on writing. But I’m working hard and spending a lot of time on making films, mainly to make sure I have another kind of material prepared in case an upgrade destroys my ranks.