7 Reasons why blogging is dead in 2024
Blogging has always been a nice source of passive income for many people but will this continue?I am going to play the advocate of the devil with this article and say that blogging is dead in 2024 and it will be taken over by other media content in the near future.
After doing some research, I distilled for you the 7 main reasons why some have this opinion. Me, I still believe that blogging is still alive and kicking, but here are 7 reasons why some believe that blogging (in the way we know it now) is dead.
1. Saturation of the blog-o-sphere
This one, we can divide into 2 sub-sections:
There are already millions of blogs
Over the years, the amount of blogs on the internet has exploded, leading to a saturation in almost all niches. In 2023, there were roughly 1.9 billion websites and 600 million of them were blogsites, publishing 6 million blogs a day. With so much content available, it is very difficult for personal blogs to stand out.
Everyone says you have to blog about a niche, but to find a niche to blog about (especially for bloggers who want to make money from affiliate marketing) that is not over-saturated is almost impossible. And if you might have found such a niche, it probably will be a very deep niched down. And then you still have to write hundreds of articles about this topic. And how many visitors such a deep niche blog will attract?
Everyone says you have to blog about a niche, but to find a niche to blog about (especially for bloggers who want to make money from affiliate marketing) that is not over-saturated is almost impossible. And if you might have found such a niche, it probably will be a very deep niched down. And then you still have to write hundreds of articles about this topic. And how many visitors such a deep niche blog will attract?
All keywords already taken by big companies
Big companies have already taken over the market for niche websites, and the market for independent and small bloggers. This is especially true for affiliate blogging. Due to companies like Forbes, the New York Times, and Reddit, ... it is extremely competitive (and almost impossible) to rank for keywords like 'what is the best garden hose'.
Note from author: Google just made a deal with Reddit for 60m $ that it may use its content for scraping for AI purposes. So, Reddit will always stay the top-ranked website in the 'Which - What - ...' related blogs.
2. It can take a long time
The good times are gone, when you could start a blog and start earning income in a few months. Now, it can take several months up to a year, sometimes 2 years before you see any decent size return.
Even this is not a certainty.
It takes a very long time to build trust, domain authority, (back)links, ... . And this is not something you can speed up or manipulate. It all has to do with Google algorithms and the massive amount of blogs that are being published.
Even this is not a certainty.
It takes a very long time to build trust, domain authority, (back)links, ... . And this is not something you can speed up or manipulate. It all has to do with Google algorithms and the massive amount of blogs that are being published.
3. Shift towards other content platforms
Since a few years, there has been a shift noticeable towards online platforms like Twitter (sorry, X), Instagram, Reddit, ... . These platforms offer very quick and easy ways to share content, often with a greater reach and engagement than traditional blog platforms.
This type of blogging, called microblogging, is on the point of overtaking classical blogging. These platforms make it easier to communicate with like-minded individuals and to join conversation, in comparison with traditional blogging environments.
They also are optimized for smartphones and other mobile devices, allowing users to create content on the go, while traditional blogs don't offer this experience and functionality.
Other platforms like Instagram and TikTok place a strong emphasis on visual content and story-telling. Many users nowadays prefer to consume visual content instead of long paragraphs of words.
Note from the author: thank you for coming this far in this non-visual piece of content. Get ready for some more ...
This type of blogging, called microblogging, is on the point of overtaking classical blogging. These platforms make it easier to communicate with like-minded individuals and to join conversation, in comparison with traditional blogging environments.
They also are optimized for smartphones and other mobile devices, allowing users to create content on the go, while traditional blogs don't offer this experience and functionality.
Other platforms like Instagram and TikTok place a strong emphasis on visual content and story-telling. Many users nowadays prefer to consume visual content instead of long paragraphs of words.
Note from the author: thank you for coming this far in this non-visual piece of content. Get ready for some more ...
4. Google prefers old sites over new
We have to admit, even till now, Google is still the most used search engine on the internet. And everyone wants to get ranked on the first page of Google search results.
Google very often releases new updates, like the (in)famous 'Helpful Content Update', and they tend to prefer well-established sites over new sites.
The reason for this is quite simple (according to SEO.com): Older pages likely have more citations and backlinks. Older pages have been crawled more by Google. Older pages have more user data associated with them (users have interacted with them and Google better knows how users like or don't like them).
Google very often releases new updates, like the (in)famous 'Helpful Content Update', and they tend to prefer well-established sites over new sites.
The reason for this is quite simple (according to SEO.com): Older pages likely have more citations and backlinks. Older pages have been crawled more by Google. Older pages have more user data associated with them (users have interacted with them and Google better knows how users like or don't like them).
5. Changing search engine algorithms
This is a bit the continuation of previous points, but I found it better to give this one some extra attraction.
Search engines like Google, and Bing, ..., like to continuously update their algorithms to prioritize high-authoritative content.
Also, SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) have become overly crowded with various types of content, like snippets, knowledge panels, YouTube videos, and ads, ... As a result of all this, traditional organic search results receive less visibility and thus reduce traffic for individual bloggers.
And we also don't know what the future of SEO will look like. Google is currently researching AI-generated search results or SGE (Search Generative Experience) and nobody knows what the future will bring. Will Google use its own chat robot as a search engine? Or will AI-generated content completely be banned from search results? Or will it be the opposite and will Google prioritize these search results?
Search engines like Google, and Bing, ..., like to continuously update their algorithms to prioritize high-authoritative content.
Also, SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) have become overly crowded with various types of content, like snippets, knowledge panels, YouTube videos, and ads, ... As a result of all this, traditional organic search results receive less visibility and thus reduce traffic for individual bloggers.
And we also don't know what the future of SEO will look like. Google is currently researching AI-generated search results or SGE (Search Generative Experience) and nobody knows what the future will bring. Will Google use its own chat robot as a search engine? Or will AI-generated content completely be banned from search results? Or will it be the opposite and will Google prioritize these search results?
5. Huge time or money investments
Not only will it take lots of time to get noticed and ranked by Google, but you also have to spend lots of time creating content and doing research.
Writing meaningful content is not that easy and you can be sure that you will have to spend 1 to 2 hours a day writing on your blog. And knowing you will have to write lots of content, makes blogging a very time-consuming project.
Of course, instead of setting up a new domain and waiting months and months for Google to pick up your site, you can also buy an existing domain with some authority. But this can cost you lots of money.
And yes, you also can delegate your writing to external writers who will do all the writing for you. But again, this also costs lots of money.
As you can see, it takes of lot of time or money to get your blog from 0 to a full-time income. There are easier ways to generate passive income than blogging and that is why many people skip blogging and try another side hustle.
Writing meaningful content is not that easy and you can be sure that you will have to spend 1 to 2 hours a day writing on your blog. And knowing you will have to write lots of content, makes blogging a very time-consuming project.
Of course, instead of setting up a new domain and waiting months and months for Google to pick up your site, you can also buy an existing domain with some authority. But this can cost you lots of money.
And yes, you also can delegate your writing to external writers who will do all the writing for you. But again, this also costs lots of money.
As you can see, it takes of lot of time or money to get your blog from 0 to a full-time income. There are easier ways to generate passive income than blogging and that is why many people skip blogging and try another side hustle.
7. Decline in long-form reading
Studies show that the attention span of users of TikTok and other video content platforms is shrinking. Let's say it all started with MTV, everything had to be visual and flashy. A few decades later, it came so far that everything needs to be bundled in a short video.
The newer generations are more attracted to visual content and reading big chunks of text is put aside.
And also, they want more and more. And quicker and quicker. This doesn't fit the format of traditional blogging. Many people prefer consuming bite-sized content on their smartphones rather than sitting down to read lengthy blog posts.
The newer generations are more attracted to visual content and reading big chunks of text is put aside.
And also, they want more and more. And quicker and quicker. This doesn't fit the format of traditional blogging. Many people prefer consuming bite-sized content on their smartphones rather than sitting down to read lengthy blog posts.
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