From time to time, I’d hear these comments about the death of blogosphere and it makes me cringe every time. The thing is, long-form content is more valuable than ever and I am here to tell you why you should stop listening to all of these haters and why 2018 is just a perfect year for starting a blog.

Look, I get it, we’re now engaged in social media more than ever. We love quick content and those Instagram or Twitter posts are just perfect for that. We see the rising stars on social media that do not really exist anywhere else on the internet and they seem to be doing just fine, huh?

You might be wondering here, why the heck would you need to start a blog if the attention seems to be shifting towards microblogging rather than blogging as it used to.

I completely agree with you, the blogosphere has changed A LOT in the last five years and the old rules do not apply or work anymore. We’re no longer turning towards blogs for personal updates and we usually look up a person on Instagram before anything else.

Yes, blogging what it was a few years ago is dead. It is no longer about simply sharing our daily lives, we now have various social media platform for this. However, if you truly love creating a high-quality online content and are thinking of starting a blog– your time is now!

Let me give you 10 valuable reasons why blogs are not going away anytime soon:

#1 Social Media Platforms Still Aren’t ‘Search Friendly’

We love using social media on the go, but we really don’t rely on it for actually finding that valuable information. You see, social platforms still aren’t ‘search friendly’, so if you want to find that specific piece of content on, let’s say, Instagram vs Google, it is still SO much easier to find the BLOG post. If you’re running an online business or simply want to grow a following online, people need to be able to find you. If you can’t be found, you can’t be hired.

The fact is, social media just can’t do that for you…

Seriously, whenever you’re having that argument with your friends playing Kriss Kross or simply need to be a doctor to yourself and figure out if your hangover symptoms aren’t actually a serious illness- what do you rely on? Exactly- Google.

We still use search engines like crazy and the number of internet users just keep growing every single day.

As it’s show in the graph below, in 2018 48.9% of the global population accessed the internet and by 2021 this figure is projected to grow to 53.7%.

Consequently, the number of people using internet search engines is increasing year on year. The daily searches on Google currently reach around 3.5 billion, which equates to 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. This is quite a market for you to work for, huh?

#2 It Allows You To Really Go Deep Into The Topic

Many studies have now confirmed that shorter posts work better on Facebook. BlitzLocal looked at nearly 120 billion Facebook impressions and found that performance went down as posts grew longer. According to the search, posts that use captions of 100 to 119 characters get the best engagement. Yet what can really be properly analysed in 100 words?

The same applies to all other social media platforms. People are only looking for quick, entertaining content while using these platforms, but if you’re trying to show your real knowledge, you will need to get people out of social media onto the platform that actually allows you to go deep into the topic of your field.

Blogs are just perfect for that. In fact, most of the no.1 articles on Google use 2000+ words or over 10000 characters! You see the difference? Your audience can look at your pictures and read captions on social media, but if you’re ready to really show your knowledge in the certain fields- there’s no better place than a blog for that.

#3 You Can Not Rely On Social Media Anymore

We’ve experienced quite a few algorithm changes over the years & I can assure you- there are still more to come.

Also, what about all other platforms we’ve passionately consumed before Facebook came? Remember MySpace??

Young people are already turning their backs on Facebook, according to the newest reports. Did you know that two million people under the age of 25 will stop using the social network this year as research firm eMarketer predicted?

As much as I want to believe in the longevity of all the current platforms, I just don’t want to play risky and put all of my eggs in one basket.

Blogs, on the other hand, came into our lives all the way back in 1994. They managed to beat all of the changes on the internet so far and I strongly believe they will continue to do so.

#4 You Can Sell Your Own Products On Your Blog

While most of the social media influencers rely on brands for their paychecks, bloggers are currently winning in successfully monetising their blogs through affiliate marketing or selling their own physical and digital products.

If you ever wanted to start your own online shop, a blog (or well, a website) is just perfect for that!

At the moment, there are two popular eCommerce platforms that I can recommend which is Shopify or WordPress + WooCommerce.

Shopify is a fully hosted eCommerce solution. However, the downside to Shopify is that it gets quite expensive, and your overall development options are limited unless you pay additional fees.

This is why most of my clients choose WordPress + WooCommerce. It does require some setup, but it’s worth doing it for the long run. WooCommerce is the world’s largest eCommerce platform & it’s currently trusted by over 40 million users and I personally use it with all of my businesses.

I do highly recommend using WordPress + WooCommerce for starting your own online shop and you can follow this step-by-step tutorial to make it happen →.

#5 Blog Posts Simply Live Longer

Even if I don’t publish a post here on kotrynabass.com, my blog still manages to get pageviews & bring profit daily. Very rarely you will see an Instagram post when looking for an information on search engines and this makes social media posts die after a day or two of posting them.

Instagram posts are just not likely to stick around for more than 13 hours and that’s just one of the examples. In general, social media requires you to maintain your presence daily. You have to keep posting a few times a day at least in order to keep your audience engaged, which can become pretty overwhelming.

In comparison, blog posts can live for years & years. In fact, some of the posts that bring most of my traffic were published 3 years ago!

#6 Blogging Brings You The Audience That Really Cares

Let’s think about this for a second. How do people end up on your blog?

Scenario A: They have found you on social media and loved your content so much that they have decided to really get to know you and see your proper work.

Scenario B: They were looking for answers on Google and ended up reading one of your articles in the field they are already interested in.

Scenario C: You’ve shared your URL with someone that showed interested in your work in real life.

In all of the above cases, people that visit your blog already have a stronger connection with you than any of your social media followers. These people already know at least a bit about you and they are more willing to engage and possibly even become your clients once they visit your blog.

While it’s common to have random people following your Instagram, just because you post cute selfies or have millions of followers on Pinterest because of your talent to look up the coolest interiors, your blog’s audience is really worth most of your efforts. You see, your random social media followers most probably won’t bring you any real engagement or buy products from you, while your blog readers are actually the most loyal fans that you need to appreciate the most. In fact, the best thing you could do for yourself is to keep inviting your social media followers to visit your blog & turn them into loyal readers!

#7 You’re The Owner Here

The scariest thing about social media is that the platforms themselves are owned by someone else. This means that your account can be blocked at any time if you share your opinion on a sensitive topic and someone decides to report you. Have you ever been blocked in any of the platforms? You then know how helpless you feel in these situations…

Now when it comes to your own website or blog- you’re the one in control here. Especially if you run a self-hosted blog, no-one can take it away from you! Unless you do something illegal and the government decides to shut you down, but well… perhaps just don’t do that then?

#8 A Blog Can Connect Everything You Do Online

If you feel like you’re producing a lot of content elsewhere, your blog can serve you as a great place to connect and reflect on all of your work. Your followers on Instagram might be also interested in your podcast or video tutorials, but it can get pretty messy if you try to introduce all of your work in those short captions.

This is where having a blog comes in handy You can use your blog to bring the best of your talent in one place. Blogs allow you to share any type of content easily with the help of thousands of available plugins and services. This way, you can also pitch yourself to brands and clients by only sending them a single link that connects all of your activities in one place.

#9 Content Is The King

In January 1996, Bill Gates wrote an essay titled “Content is King”, which was published on the Microsoft website. “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet”- he said & boy was he right! “If people are to be expected to put up with turning on a computer to read a screen, they must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information that they can explore at will.”- Gates continued and could argue with this guy even twelve years since the essay was first published.

Look, if you really care about your audience and will continue to put in the work and effort into your blog- you’ll be fine! As long as you provide that high-quality content your tribe is looking for- your blog will continue to grow and be as useful for you and your business as it’s always has been. Just start taking your blog seriously, commit, really re-think your purpose and strategies, ignore the haters, create beautiful online brand & just keep blogging!

#10 We Are Story Tellers And We Always Will Be

No surprise here, humans are born storytellers. We love sharing our experiences with each other & we will continue to do so no matter what. Blogs allow us to create a safe environment where our stories can be told the way we want to. We can upload as many pictures as we want, type as many words as we need and really have that place to open up deeply on what’s important to us.

Those who declare that the best blogging days are behind are most probably the ones that see their own blogging career fading, but the truth is- we will always need blogs. We are individuals and not all of us feel great limiting their words or actions, trusting someone else with our success and at the end of the day- we all just want something that we can call ours to hold on to.

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To sum up, let me just tell that I really love using both- my blog and my social media account for building my online presence, but my blog will always be my first love. While blogosphere keeps changing, I don’t think it will ever die, just as with anything in life- we, ourselves, need to continue to grow and improve in order to adapt, but for now- let’s take a deep breath & keep going. Blogging is still very alive and thriving!

If you’ve been thinking of starting a blog, the timing is perfect, so just go ahead and start one today →