Blogging in general and the way most people have been doing it, is dead. That's just the very harsh reality of things. The way they are continuing to do things is simply irrelevant. I promise you this, if you continue to do things the old way, your blog is going to die a very painful and slow death.
You see, people have been saying blogging is dead for the past 10 years. But there is great news for those of you wanting to make some actual money with your blog. Blogging is not dead. In fact, it never died. It just changed like things do. And if you want to stay relevant, you are going to have to change too.
So that's why I am going to be teaching you exactly what actually is dying with blogging,
So that you can have success both in the short term as well as the long term.
Now I know some of you are still going to be super skeptical about blogging and might even ask...
Do people still actually read blogs in 2020?
Well, if you look at the facts, there are over 1.5 BILLION websites on the internet and over 500 Million of those being blogs.
And Google has over 100 Billion searches per month, and 77% of people still read blogs daily.
Thats a ton of people reading blogs. So no matter what internet "Gurus" tell you, Blogging is still super important and relevant. There are more people blogging right now than in the entire history of blogging.
So let,s talk about what you need to stop doing when it comes to blogging. And if you do continue doing this crap, your blog is going to massively suffer for it.
HINT: The video goes into a bit more depth and length than the blog.
1. Posting a ton of content on your blog to get more traffic.
One of the oldest practices there is when it comes to writing a blog is that people would go around and post as much verbal diarrhea, or in this case written diarrhea on there blogs, posting just a metric ton of content, in hopes of getting more traffic and in the end making more money.
But unfortunately I have to be the one that tells you, this is dying and dying quickly.
This used to work really really well because there wasn't that much information on the internet. Nor was there that much info competing for your attention.
Now there is a ton of other things competing for our attention.
So Google and other search engines like Pinterest, Bing and more, are out there looking for posts that stand out from all the rest. What I call Long Form Content that stand out and completely captivates the readers and their attention.
In the past you could post anything you wanted about a certain topic. These could be 100 random posts. But now, you are going to want to post one really really high quality post on a certain topic instead of making a bunch of lower quality posts.
I personally try and not post anything, whether on social media, my podcast, videos or what have you unless that content is really good and awesome.
So you need to focus much more on your QUALITY of blog posts and not your QUANTITY of them. So if it takes you a bit longer to publish one, thats ok.
I actually saw a very popular internet marketer recently (I'm not going to mention any names), with a blog on his website that was ridiculously bad.
He would make these 3-5 minute videos for him to use on places like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and other social platforms and then just have those videos transcribed to put on his blog for what they called "Google Juice".
These were and are terrible blog posts. Mostly looking exactly like what you would find with raw unedited files coming out of a transcription program and nothing more.
Don't do that!
Now I am not saying not to transcribe your videos and use them as a blog post. What I am saying however is that you should take the time to make sure that text and content is 1. readable. And 2. make sure the content you are putting out is of high quality.
Not just a bunch of randomness and offtrack thoughts in hope of getting "Google Juice".
2. Clickbaity Headlines
Stop. Just stop.
No one likes clickbait. It pisses people off. Google also doesn't like it. They have figured out what you are doing, and will penalize you for it. Don't do it.
3. Personal Blogging is also dying
Another thing that is dying right now in blogging is personal blogging on your website.
There was a time and place that people followed other peoples daily lives and getting to know their stories and families, what they ate that day, etc... by following their personal blogs.
But not many people are following that type of content anymore. It is pretty much dead.
The reason it's dying is because that is what we call entertainment media. And entertainment media is now primarily over on social media.
So it didn't necessarily die. It just got moved from blogs over to things like Facebook and Instagram because the content is more easily consumed on those platforms.
So instead of blogging about what the kids did that day at the park or what your late 2:30 lunch was like, I believe you need to educate others on a topic you know about.
Here's why I think that. When people go on social media, they go there to be entertained from their boredom and daily grind.
But, when people go to Google, which is where most blogs will be found, they go for information. The go to be educated. Not entertained.
4. General Blogging
While in some cases general information might be ok, it is not good for blogs. At least not unless you are a 50+ person company with millions to spend on advertising.
You need to be a bit more specific. Let's take blogging about camera equipment for example.
There is the rare occasion that a general camera equipment blog might work, but generally it doesn't. Instead of being general and generic, instead try to niche in a bit. If you have a camera equipment blog, maybe niche down to something like:
- a Canon Equipment Blog
- Best camera equipment for vloggers.
or
- How to take the best macro photography using Sigma lenses
- Or just how to take the most brilliant landscape photography.
All of those work much better than just a generic camera blog. People want specific blogs. If I had a brain tumor, I wouldn't want to go see a general practitioner. I would search out the best brain oncologist in the world.
And people looking for information on the internet and more specifically your blog, are going to want specific answers to their specific problems and interests.
5. Only Blogging
In todays day and age, just sticking to one platform can quite literally break you.
You kind of need to be everywhere in peoples faces.
People want a variety of ways in order to see you, hear you, and get your thoughts about things on a ton of different platforms.
Me personally, I am on my website doing blog posts, on YouTube, I have a Podcast, and am on Instagram and TikTok to boot.
I didn't start out doing everything, but I am doing a lot more now than I used to.
The more options people have, the better. You have to put out content where your ideal customer likes to consume content. And the way they like to consume.
Me personally, I like it all. I like to read, I like to watch videos, and I like to listen to audio, like podcasts. But if I had to choose one way to consume, it would most likely be video.
So if you are making content, and I am your ideal customer, you are going to want to show me videos, just as much as your blog posts.
And even better, if you embed videos or a podcast in your blog posts, that is just gold.
