I have been in this game for a long ass time now & to say I have seen the industry shift would be an understatement. Everyone seems to be asking this question “is blogging dead?” & I am asking myself that too.
All of my favorite bloggers since day one have definitely abandoned ship. Rumi Neely of Fashiontoast was my go-to for years & the reason I got into blogging in the first place. Her last post was written in 2017. Shea Marie of Peace Love Shea was also a fave & her blog has transform into just a feed of her Instagram looks. Danielle Bernstein of WeWoreWhat hasn’t put up a post since June & it was lackluster at best (sorry gurl).
I could go on for days, cause a lot of my favorite bloggers have seriously DROPPED THE BALL.
Myself included… sorta. I don’t blog 5 days a week anymore, if you haven’t noticed. Three times a week, if I am lucky.
In 2016 everyone & their Mom was a blogger trying to find a niche to help make their voice heard. In 2018 everyone & their Mom has shifted to becoming an “influencer”… which is basically a blogger without a blog.
The industry has definitely changed… mainly thanks to Instagram. Instagram is a full time job in itself. Instagram used to be secondary to the blog, but now it definitely takes center stage. With IGTV, Insta-stories, & regular posting on the gram- it SEEMS you can provide all of the valuable content you would on a blog w/ potentially higher conversion rate (keyword *seems*… we will get to this).
Throwback to the days when the cohesiveness of your feed didn’t matter, back when Instagram was a place to simply promote your blog content & get more eyes on the blog itself.
NOW, people want content FAST & the easiest way to distribute that content quickly is through Instagram. It also has to be beautiful content, which takes a lot of work as well.
I actually think it’s rude to expect a blogger to be able to blast out killer content for both the blog & the gram. Tons of bloggers either have ghost writers writing their content for them (which to me, major no… if I read your blog, I know your voice) or they have brought on contributors who basically take over the blog (i.e. The Blonde Salad).
The latter option is more understandable, but also, I don’t read The Blonde Salad anymore… so maybe not the best idea? Although, Chiara is kind of an exception because she has really turned into a mogul/celebrity & I get it, she doesn’t have time to run a blog cause her business is BOOMING elsewhere.
That being said, all of these other bloggers who got popular BECAUSE of their blogs & who have now become too big for their own blog are making a mistake IMO. I see so many of them just reposting images from Instagram, throwing in a few links to their look, & calling it a day… which is almost worse than not posting anything at all. That’s just straight laziness & if I am taking the time out of my day to go to your blog, I don’t want to see some repurposed content from the gram with NO WORDS. I want words!!!
Regardless, I can see it as a blog reader & I can feel it as a blogger… people just aren’t reading blogs as much anymore. Is it because people are less interested? Is it because bloggers content is less thought out/regular? Is it because bloggers are literally competing with their own personal social accounts?
IDK man, it sucks. I miss the days when blogging was the THING, but I also do NOT think it’s dead. The only thing deadly is your brand if you think that you are too cool to blog anymore. HERE IS WHY….
IS BLOGGING DEAD? NO- HERE’S 5 REASONS TO KEEP BLOGGING:
1. DON’T BITE THE HAND THAT FED YOU
I started as a blogger & that was how I got my audience. I am not jumping ship on them now just because something “better” came along. I check my analytics daily, which every blogger should do, & as long as the visitors are coming… I will keep blogging.
Also, a lot of my blog readers are my DAY ONERS. The people who have supported me since the beginning & if people are taking time out of their day to read your blog… they definitely deserve some quality content (probably more so than the lurkers on the gram).
2. INSTAGRAM IS CLIFF NOTES, BLOGGING IS THE FULL CHAPTER
Instagram is still a great way to promote your blog posts. You can definitely micro blog on Instagram but some content, this post for example, is just too much copy for an Instagram caption. People on Instagram want quality content, but they aren’t gonna read TOO MUCH text, so for the people who really want to learn more- direct them to the blog!
Also, in the same regard, blog posts create content for Instagram as well!
3. SEO IS DEFINITELY NOT DEAD
SEO is & forever will be alive! The more posts you write, the more chances you have to optimize your content to be SEO friendly, & the more SEO friendly your site is- the more NEW people will find you & your content! Some tips on how to up your SEO game can be found here.
4. BLOGGING IS MORE PERSONAL
It just takes things a step further. Instagram is very curated, so the blog is where you can come to really GET TO KNOW ME. I feel like if I find someone on Instagram I like, I want to go to their blog & learn more about them. It is nice having a place you can go beyond Instagram to actually meet the face behind all those pretty pictures.
5. VIDEO ISN’T NECCESARILY TAKING OVER
They say 2018 is the year of the video & that is another reason blogs are “dying”, but that is NOT TRUE FOR EVERYONE. It is a fact that majority of people watch videos without sound. IDK the reasoning behind it, but it’s a statistic I learned just last night.
I know for me personally, if I am looking for a tutorial or something of that sort, I prefer a blog post to a video. Also product reviews, I don’t need to watch a 20 minute video about how great a blush is when I could read a blog post in half the time & get the gist.
WHAT I’M WEARING:
By the Way snap button mini skirt (like track pants, but a skirt!) | Public Desire barely there heels | oversized white button up | round Ray-Ban sunnies