Is Blogging Obsolete: A Blog on the Relevance of Blogs
Now, there are quite a few who think that blogging is dead. And gone? Or that it is no longer relevant in 2021.To all those people, I commend you, but this is just simply untrue. Because we think these opinions are mostly influenced from articles floating online that might have inaccurate information, biased opinions or simply an opinion and from lack of staying up to date because that is not entirely true. Experts, Google trends and bloggers certainly disagree with that because they have valid points pointing otherwise.
Has it become different? Definitely! Change is the only constant, oh philosophy!And the world around us is constantly changing and adapting to advanced ways of doing things and that’s true with blogging too. And there are studies supporting the success rate of blogs.
“You can buy attention (advertising). You can beg for attention from the media (PR). You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales). Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free.”
While we do want to answer all your questions right away it’s important to take a minute and look at how blogs came into being in the first place. Trust us, it’s an integral part of the story.
Where It All Began
So, ever wondered when the first blog site was created or when blogging became the storm? We all know it gained popularity through the 2000s but experts believe that the first blog site was created by a student called Justin Hall to share his writing, called Links.net in 1994.
“Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.”
What Makes Blogs Stand Out From Other Forms of Content?
If you are someone who is an avid reader or have loved reading as a kid, then you will understand when we say reading is one of the best forms of gaining knowledge and favourite and fun activity to do. The transition from books to screens itself has been quite debated upon. So blogging will definitely remain one of people’s favourite mediums.
A written piece is more than just the content. It is the nuances, the details explained in a way that takes your imagination to heights. (of course that depends on your ability to imagine also) Although we cannot dismiss that watching and listening are easier and more feasible forms of content consumption in today’s scenario and lifestyle that barely allows one time or patience, the unique features a blog encapsulates are simply irreplaceable. The proven effects that reading has on one’s mind and the time off and calm it offers is definitely unique to it.
There are a lot of factors that determine the kind of content best depending on context as well. Like the person’s skill sets, and what the content demands, budget and time etc., determine what type of content can be created effectively as well. If the turnaround is a restriction, then one may not be able to create a full blown video and that may compel them to resort to blogs, again if they can write quality content only because quality over everything.
Also,very few people can produce, shoot and edit the videos even fairly decently. The resources and skill it takes is a lot more investment than what a blog demands.
Obviously, there are always both resources and no one best approach over the other. It depends on the consumer of content and the creator. Because creating various forms of content caters to a wider range of audience than just one form would, which brings us to the huge variety of content that is available today. Now that we know that blogs are consumed, and in large numbers, let’s look at the various types of content we can see on the internet and how they are segregated to target the individual needs of these different groups of people.
Types of Blogs and Who They are for
While there are blogs specific to topics and ones that don’t fit in any box per se, here are some common types of blogs you’ll find:
I. Personal Blog
Some of the earliest blogs started off as personal blogs. Going by the name, it is owned by the person running it and mostly encapsulates the person’s life or experiences that they choose to share.
Since blogs weren’t as monetized earlier, they mostly started off as a means of sharing stories and connecting with like minds. But now of course, the scenario is very different and personal blogs generate a lot of revenue and are widely popular as well owing to the large mass of followers that are regulars to the blog. The bloggers monetize on this traffic by advertising and affiliate links that may be a genuine personal opinion or simply a source of money.
II. Business Blog
These are blogs dedicated to businesses and related events. They are designed to attract potential clients and contain content related to the area of expertise. They make money through the products & services they offer. The longevity of the blog also enhances the quality of both the blogger and their content. In turn it also becomes a platform to exhibit your calibre and not just your profession/ business.
III. Affiliate Blogs
Affiliate blogs are dedicated to advertising and promoting products and services that other companies offer. It could be in the form of reviews, tutorials or sharing their experience if they have used it themselves. They leave links for their readers to check the products personally and everytime a reader converts into a customer, the affiliate blogger receives a commission for the same.
SEO matters to a large extent for affiliate bloggers to bring the boys to the yard! i.e., bring traffic to their website. When affiliate blogs work well, they prove to be extremely lucrative for the owners. Affiliate blogs are the way to go if you have no specific content in mind and making money is the goal.
IV. Niche Blog
This is quite the restricted one. Since niche itself means a particular area of expertise, niche bloggers mostly blog about something specific. Like being a gymnast and specialising in floor gymnastics.
These bloggers focus their content on a very specific area of a larger set and naturally have a very specific readers following.
It takes passion and knowledge to be a successful niche blogger but it can prove to be a quicker way to get followers and establish yourself because of the niche. The perks of being a niche blogger include winning your readers’ trust and hence followers, increasing your site’s credibility and profits that come from promoting products specific to your niche.
So, while it’s established that blogs are indeed a thing (and they’re not going anywhere) are they actually dying? Well, if that were true then brands wouldn’t still be vouching for this medium and spend their time and energy building their own blogs. What we’re saying is that they’re a thing and quite a popular thing at that, let us explain.
So, Why Are Blogs Still Popular?
Writing allows a great outlet for people to express and share their experiences and platforms like Tumblr, blogger and WordPress have provided lovers of writing with extremely convenient and user-friendly platforms to do that.
Their great interface has enabled lots of people with good writing skills to create an identity for themselves and find people that enjoy reading their pieces. The simplicity that the blog form embodies has allowed anyone with the skills and passion to write achieve it. This is one of the major factors why it gained popularity.
It is like reading a book but the reader need not remember details because it is short unlike say a novel, not to dismiss they are amazing. But it allows readers to finish reading a piece in a short span of time given its length, which usually averages at around 500 to a 1000 words.
With time, as people began discovering how the nature of blogs attract readers, they customised and designed it in a way that benefits them best. Blogs provide the perfect opportunity to get your name out there and create awareness of your existence and skills among people. And unlike a website, blogs are transparent and allow people to see you for you and choose to stay or not. So that is promotion made easy! Basically a blog promotes itself since you let your work do the talking.
Now that you are aware of the contributions and advantages of a blog, it may strike to you that another domain benefits from similar factors. These are crucial in digital marketing as well. Sooo, that’s what they did! People use blogs as a major mode of digital marketing. Nature of blogs favour digital marketing due to their popularity and digital marketing happens through blogs as one of its major means, which is basically a two-way street and a win-win!
Now although the blogs promote themselves it is only partial work done. There is some work left for you to be done like identifying your viewers and sending out emails to gain traffic to your blog. That too is made easier with blogs because they help you keep a better track of your readers.
This is the relatively harder part of it, identifying your viewers and once that is sorted, emailing and letting them share it with other people is far easier.
What’s more? More traffic to your blog means more popularity which brings even more traffic and that generates good revenue. Phew! That was a long sentence but hey, now you know how it works! Two birds, one stone.
That is more than enough and strong reasons that the popularity of blogs rests itself upon.
Surviving the Test of Time
We think of this as a doubt filled with uncertainty, more than a question itself because the answer is a yes! Because duh, you google anything, you find yourself reading a blog on it 90% of the time! So obviously it isn’t becoming obsolete any time soon but it might change and adapt to stay afloat in the times of ever evolving forms of content as it has in the recent past.
With google’s stats showing how 70-80% of their searchers visit blog posts compared to paid ads, it only confirms the stand blogging takes in the present scenario as well. The search volume is also growing by 10% every year says google, and that hopefully settles the ambiguity around it.
