Dear bloggers, do you still truly believe in blogging? How do you put yourself out there in the age of social media dominance?
Sometimes I wonder, do people still care for blogging with all of these current social media channels around? Do people still have an interest in reading? I would like to believe that they do. I still truly believe in blogging and I'm passionate about writing and storytelling my thoughts and experiences. There are also many people who do enjoy reading them, but sometimes I ask myself if everyone has completely turned to the social media platforms. Social media does supplement a blog, but I feel as though nobody actually "reads" anymore. People are now used to scrolling, liking, swiping. Its reshaped how they consume content in general. It also annoys me when people say "blogging is dead or so early 2000's" lol.
I'm so passionate about writing and I love blogging, its satisfying and fulfilling even if I only have a couple dozen of readers. Theres something about expressing myself through this medium that gets me going, even moreso when people enjoy what I write.
I don't post often, but when I do, I make it the best that it can be. In other words, quality over quantity. The blogosphere is by far my favorite medium of all, I don't even feel that drawn to the social media outlets anymore. So my other question is, how do I maintain or rather, improve my blog's prescence online with the current digital landscape? I've honestly tried every tip or advice out there. I have my own social media pages created to promote posts, I run ads (traffic peaks then falls again). Do you guys have any other tips that are really effective or mandatory to guarantee good exposure apart from social media? Or does blogging need social media by default to survive nowadays? Thoughts? 47 π¬π¨
Ereandrill Okay so… are you writing for an audience or are you writing for yourself? That is a question you need to answer.
If you write for yourself you should not look at traffic and just do what makes you happy.
If you write for an audience your posts need to be very informative. Obviously you can post a personal blog every now and then, but as long as the majority of your posts are very informative and of value for people – you should be able to drive traffic through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and organic reach on social media platforms.
What is your current daily average if I might ask? And what else have you tried? Because creating social media pages to promote posts is very basic. I would not run ads for your blog as long as it is not properly monetized. I have recently been using a lot of Pinterest as I make sure my articles contain a lot of info on travelling and destinations, and I saw a large increase in visitors after subscribing to Tailwind. Something else that worked for me is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and keyword research.
Halyoosha βοΈ Well to answer your question, initially I started it for myself as an outlet and I still do it primarily for myself. I'm not in it to promote something, its a personal blog of experiences and curiosities. But its also nice to share with readers. So far I've had good feedback from visitors who encourage me to promote the blog more. So I would like to attract more readers who'd be interested in my content, and build sort of a community.
I would say my content is a mixture of informative/insightful as well as narrative. I'm not just talking about myself. However I want to keep it somewhat personal to not take away from the authenticity of my posts if you know what I mean.
As for the stats, when I posted about some of my travel accounts and advertised it with sponsored posts, it got pretty good traffic then dwindled down overtime (around 600 visitors in a month). But a lot of it was also generated from Google search and social media click-throughs. Now its like 30-50 visitors daily on average, even when I go weeks without posting. I find that posting a bit more often helps too. I've tried sharing my posts on Medium, I've used pinterest as well as I have a plugin for that, placing an email e-signature too. Pretty much small and subtle things but I think they help in a way.
I've tried to dabble into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) but I'm not quite sure how to go about it. Ill check out Tailwind though. Thanks!
sammeejoh I love blogging because I love writing and creating. I don't really like how many bloggers are really just promoting products. I got into blogging because it made it possible for me to promote my writing without a big pr budget. Then I learned how to code and actually got into that part too. Blogging is great for writers \- it's a platform to get started and grow. If you have a super niche topic you can get a lot of avid followers and then you have a community which to me is the real upside of blogging. BordoBardo
Sometimes I wonder, do people still care for blogging with all of these current social media channels around? Do people still have an interest in reading? I would like to believe that they do. I still truly believe in blogging and I'm passionate about writing and storytelling my thoughts and experiences. There are also many people who do enjoy reading them, but sometimes I ask myself if everyone has completely turned to the social media platforms. Social media does supplement a blog, but I feel as though nobody actually "reads" anymore. People are now used to scrolling, liking, swiping. Its reshaped how they consume content in general. It also annoys me when peopl
I would agree with you. Blogging core is great writing and that is still valued and will be valued. Not that blogging is dead, it has changed and now a lot of so called blogs are just influencers and micro-marketers of specific companies. Lot of blogs have turned that way because that is how you can profit. Even if the companies we/they promote are sincerely chosen and really trustworthy. And it is tempting to go that way because you can finance your writing that way.
On the other hand, there are people who offer services and their own products and then have good blogs on the side as part of the business. I enjoy these a lot more.
Nonetheless, blogging for the sake of blogging – what would that be? There is smth behind it even if you do not monetize it. It is a thriving community you get out of it? That might be harder now with social platforms but they are also loosing their power. People understand that they do not communicate there that much either.
But social media of course is a must if you want more that those dozen readers. Maybe if you write something truly magnificent it could spread but more likely writing without social media is like creating dusty archive in cloud storage. Halyoosha βοΈ Yeah this is what I mean as well, most of the blogging is just influencers or big companies, it's so obviously commercial. I prefer to read a real experience or opinionated piece or even a review, it's way more interesting than the "how to" and "top 10 ways" posts that most marketers employ. I personally get turned off when I know there's a promotional agenda behind a post.
I think it's not just a matter of writing well. There is so much noise out there that most people won't find your content and I assume attention spans for reading have shortened, unless you are already a big blog, which takes time to build by taking the initiatives to spread it. BordoBardo So, what are your ways to monetize a blog then Halyoosha βοΈ Likewise. I really like to keep it sincere and authentic otherwise it just sounds artificial and promotional. With some bloggers these days there's always some kind of hidden promotional agenda. I just enjoy genuinely thoughtful content.
abrasivenoise If you want more traffic, post more regularly and start using Pinterest to get organic traffic. And focus on the headline of your articles. For example "Top 10 [insert subject matter here]" type headlines are effective at pulling in traffic.
Halyoosha βοΈ That type of headline may be effective but it has gotten trite.
jonbeckett If you want exposure, it's all about getting your content in front of eyeballs – and that means taking your content to the people, rather than trying to attract the people to your content. That's the reason you see so many people filling Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter with link bait – hoping to lure people towards their content. The only problem? A lot of other people are doing it too – so the social networks end up looking like a wall covered in bill posters, which only attracts spammers hoping to pollute your content with links to theirs – a huge echo chamber.
I watched a YouTube video a few weeks ago where a "successful" blogger explained in some detail how to use various automated apps to fake engagement with thousands of users on social media in order to draw them to his content – and he somehow didn't see this as wrong at all. The apps were designed to circumvent the defences put in place at the various social networks to STOP such behaviour (rate limiting, etc). It's all pretty depressing really.
BordoBardo I just followed a blogging course and came across suggestion of putting a lot of into into the pinterest pins for better content exposure. I looked at the authors pins and that is a ton of spam that is not inspiring at all. When I open my pinterest I really like what I see – visual ideas. Not bloggers putting lists on top of pictures and pinning 3 pins per post on any "how to topic". But surely their activity drives traffic to their blogs. I am having a dilemma.
Endda
But surely their activity drives traffic to their blogs. I am having a dilemma.
I feel the same way about black hat tactics like Private Blog Networks (PBN)s and such. I see so many benefiting from buying links (and get emails from so many people trying to pay me to put content with a website link on my site) but I just can't do that.
Sure, they'll get caught eventually (a lot of them will, at least) and they're likely fine with it since it's their routine and they're happy with the short term rush/injection of money cycled over and over again.
It's almost the same way I feel about all the gray areas of content/products online. Essentially the snake oil type stuff. Whether it's selling products like CBD and alternative medicines or content that I have no passion about (religion, alien/ghost stuff sightings, or even jumping on the Republican politician bandwagon that's happening right now in the U.S.).
I just can't morally do those types of things and I feel a similar dilemma where I feel I am losing out on a lot of money by not taking advantage of stuff like that Halyoosha βοΈ Omg yes, that's really annoying. I notice that on Pinterest A LOT. It's really puzzling sometimes that this nonsense is what drives traffic. BordoBardo I am so happy to see others feeling same way, thank you
Halyoosha βοΈ Yeah the fake ness of it all is really off-putting and spoiling the beauty of blogging and creative content/writing.
moremileage I believe in blogging as I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. At the end of the day, if anything happened to social media (ie when IG went down), you would still have your own platform and email list.
As for advice, I recommend focusing on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) if you want to grow your blog.
Halyoosha βοΈ That's right. EasyTravelBlogging I just saw a video from a few YouTuber Vloggers CRYING because YouTube had randomly chosen to turn off comments on their channel. In their video, they are just destroyed – saying "We spent 3 years of our lives building up this channel, I can't believe that they did this to us." I don't really understand why turning off commenting was going to destroy all the work they had done on their channel, but the point is that nobody seems to understand that when you put content on fb and insta and YouTube, you give them the right to use that content. Regardless of how many fake legal notices you post! If You Aren't Paying for the Product, You ARE the product!
onlineincome Blogging never dies because the blog serves the original source of information. Even though people spend more time on Social Network, they need to visit the blog to get detailed information about the topic or subject. There are dozens of quality blogs that receive almost a million visitors every single day due to the quality information available there. Even I am a blogger and I a meeting more than 5000 new people every day through my blog.
People like my blog Online Home Income (dot) in and visit every day to get new ideas as I use to publish new info two times a week. This habit has made my blogging life a wonderful platform to explore my thoughts as well as reach new people of different culture. Blogging really gave me a way to learn people, their interest etc.
There is no need to worry about looking at these factors. Just concentrate on your quality writing and periodic publication which will surely help you drive decent volume of visitors to your blog. Allow people to create a communication channel with you. Let them speak to you through the contact page, email, WhatsApp etc. This way you can easily cover a large part of the audience to your blog. gentwithin people still read, especially if it's content they're searching for on Google. for example, product reviews or how tos. people read blogs to learn something or gather information usually. sure social is booming, but it's doesn't mean the blog is dying. I guess it's a good thing people think that because it's less competition since less and less people are starting blogs, instead opt for easier barrier to entry with social platforms.
as for how to improve your presence online, focus on getting organic reach via keyword research and writing really indepth, valuable content that answers your core audiences burning questions or pain points. sure, share to social, but it's got to be done with a strategy. it's hard to get any kind of traffic organically via social these days cause so many are pay to play. I assume you're blogging as a business and not just for the love of it. the most important thing is figuring out what your audience wants to see and serving them with that content on a consistent basis.
Halyoosha βοΈ I'm not blogging as a business. I just do it because I enjoy it and have been for five years with a couple of dozen followers and readers. I know that there is an audience that likes what I write, but I just want to get my blog out there to even more readers of the same type who are interested in what I have to say.
gentwithin ah, okay. thanks for clarifying. are you a part of any online communities within your niche? even though you're not doing it as a business, you can still use tactics that those types of blogs use to gain traction and spread awareness of their brand. things like engaging within your niche and promoting on various social platforms. Halyoosha βοΈ Well the other thing is, I'm not focused on one type of niche. My interests cover art, photography, travel, events, society. If you like, have a look www.thepocketgirl.com. i do agree that engaging in blogging communities generally helps too. gentwithin ah, I see. you've got many different interests. curious if your audience is segmented with all the different niches in one. also, you mentioned you're not blogging for business, but I noticed ads on your site.
MattyBrianBlog Sorry that's what I mean. I get less than 1% from Pinterest too. What I meant was that apparently it takes a while but the numbers will go up. I find Facebook the best but I don't like Facebook so it's a bit of a catch 22. For some reason Facebook won't let me put links on my posts anymore either. BordoBardo Everything has its place. Blog on your blog and make it social and shareable through social platforms. You own the real and actual content, it is on you blog. No matter what happens to social platforms. But you need those too.
