Is Blogging Dying And Had Its Day?

No matter what the marketing trend, sooner or later some naysayer tries to convince others about blogging dying. Therefore, you may have heard that blogging is a dying trend.

Blogging was hugely popular when it first started in around 2007. It was a means for people to express themselves online freely, and without the need to know a lot about building websites, HTML and so forth. They could publish whatever they felt like whenever the mood struck them.

Some kept it up on a regular schedule. Most ran out of steam and gave up. Those are the people who talk about blogging dying.  Running a blog is a test of endurance and marketing skills, not just writing skills.

Is Blogging Dying? For Many, It’s The Opposite

The future of blogging might surprise you. It’s never been easier to start a professional-looking blog using software like WordPress. But just because you can start a blog doesn’t mean you should. It’s a serious commitment in terms of time and effort, and money too if you buy hosting for your blog – that is, register your own domain name (URL).

Having said that, the profits can be considerable for people who don’t just consider their blog to be art, but a real business they can make money from.

FREE Download: 21 Days To A Better Blog
 
Is Blogging Still Relevant In 2018 And Beyond?

When blogging first started, it was a chance for anyone to have their say online because they didn’t have to worry about all the tricky aspects of setting up a website. While there are still some writers and those with strong opinions who use blogs to exercise their freedom of expression, many more have realized the huge potential of blogs as a chance to earn money online and as a marketing tool.

A Genuinely Profitable Business

Blogging takes time and effort. So yes, it can be a fun hobby, but if you’re going to commit yourself to building a real blog, why not get paid for it? There are a number of ways to transform a blog into a money-making machine.

The content you post can lead to paid content you can sell. Information marketing is booming, as is online education. You could also turn your content into a membership blog, or a structured eCourse.

Themes, Widgets and Plugins

Some people talk of blogging dying because of their lack of technical skills. But gone are the days when you had to be an expert coder or website developer to create a professional-looking website or blog and add great features to your site that your audience will love.

Using WordPress Themes, you can quickly and easily adapt the appearance of the blog (such as colour scheme) and where the navigation bar is located (such as on the right of the page).  On the navigation bar are widgets, which can help you show off all your content and get more readers as they click through your recent articles and categories. Plugins are the most powerful of all. These are small programs that can add functionality to your site such as turning it into an eCommerce superstore and allowing you to get paid for your work.

Marketing Tools

The best plugins are ones that allow you to market your business with just a few clicks. Other plugins allow you to optimize your content for search engines, and even communicate with them directly and automatically through creating a site map of all your great content. More marketing means more traffic, and more traffic can mean more sales if you are offering the right items to your target audience.

Offering Multimedia

Are there alternatives to blogging? Well, blogging is no longer just words on the page. It can be images, video and audio too. The written content can be articles, lists, ‘how tos’, and more. The important thing is to offer variety so your readers will keep coming back for more.

How Often Should You Publish?

There are two schools of thought. Frequency is the scattershot approach, with the more posts you have, the more chances you have to attract the search engines and connect with your target audience in order to get traffic, subscribers and sales.

On the other hand, quality content that is 600 to around 2,500 words also has a place in blogging. In fact, longer articles tend to take the top three spots on the search engine results pages. However, longer article like this mean you probably won’t be able to publish as often.

The New Rules of Blogging

Huffington Post has become one of the most successful blogs in the world. However, its success is an exception rather than the rule. It has become so large, with so many contributors, that it can be all things to all people. But for the average blogger or small business, niche is better, focusing on a topic that is known to be a paying market.

A niche approach is good. But sometimes the niche can still be too broad, and needs to be focused with an even more laser-like precision. Think of pets versus dogs.  With dogs, you have training issues, and within training, you might have potty training, agility, obedience, guard dog training, and so on. You might even be able to get enough blog content for a site about a specific breed, such as cocker spaniels.

Mastery of Subject Matter

One of the biggest trends is creating an “authority site” for your niche. This means publishing high-quality content on a regular editorial schedule, with each post contributing to the overall impression that you are someone in the know in your niche, and therefore worth paying attention to. Remember to publish a variety of posts, including, articles, lists, question and answer formats, audio and video, infographics and more. Consistency is key, and will result in steady growth and profits for your blog.

Free Checklist: 21 Days To A Better Blog

So is blogging dying? The answer is emphatically no. It’s alive and well, but it will keep on evolving as new users, devices and trends come and go. Keep an eye on those trends and your blog will remain healthy and profitable. To discover 21 different one-a-day tasks and activities for getting more traffic, more prospects, more customers and more sales for blog, download my free checklist, 21 Days To A Better Blog.