Since three decades, the first blog hit the internet. Let’s see what the research and statistics tell us about whether a blog is still worth it today or getting extinct.

The first blog, Links.net, came into light back in 1994 as a personal journal by Justin Hall. Peter Merholz, on the other hand, coined the term “weblog” or a shortened term for web logging. This term caught on and pretty soon, thousands of blogs in all niches have emerged in the web.

In hindsight, blogs were a huge thing before as they became some sort of digital diaries. Many people were fond of owning a blog since they can share their thoughts, experiences, ideas, and more in their own virtual spaces. Blogs were helpful to many industries as a lot of marketers use it for promoting all kinds of businesses. Bloggers also developed plenty of methods to monetize their blogs.

When vlogging, podcasting, and social media rose to fame, people who are interested with blogging felt disheartened. Although there are plenty of blogging milestones since the first one was launched, one cannot help but notice how personal blogs seem to have lost their appeal.

But is it really?

Blogging Statistics that You Must Be Aware Of

If you are to check the statistics, Internet Live Stats shows that there are currently 1.9 billion web pages. 516 million of which are blogs hosted by Tumblr and 60 million are from WordPress. These are active blogs that generate over two million posts every day. You can instantly recognize how blogs are still significant, according to these numbers alone.

Google receives over a hundred billion searches every month and this growth is perceived to grow by 10% every year. Among these searches, 70–80% of users choose to read blog posts instead of paid ads. This is primarily the reason why websites are adding blog sites or micro blogs because it can potentially increase traffic up and get more indexed pages up to 434%.

Although an average blog post of 2,520 words seems so long, seven-minute reads are more interesting to internet users. It is also notable how articles that are accompanied with images are viewed and shared by up to 94% more than posts that are with text alone. It may seem impossible to think but a blog can increase traffic by 2000% through quality content. And by quality, content must be 100% plagiarism-free and has captivating blog titles.

Among those who try to monetize their blogs, only 8% of bloggers earn more than enough as a living. Shocking as this may sound, only the top 0.6% of monetized blogs generate over a million dollars per year.

How Blogging Changed in 2021

Podcasts, social media, and vlogs may have risen in popularity in the recent years but marketers still consider blogs as one of the best marketing channels. Take note that, as with the times, blogging today is not the same with the blogging scene five years ago. Today, marketers are able to increase traffic with blogs because of new methodologies.

One good example is how it was great, many years ago, to blog about everything. People seem to enjoy reading about personal experiences and journeys about certain products and services. It was interesting how some blogs were interesting because they cover plenty of topics.

The modern blogging, however, concentrates on the fact that internet users nowadays are using the internet to gain knowledge. To be educated on a certain topic, they find blogs that are talking about a specific subject then use it to educate themselves more.

In short, niche blogging or blogging with intent is more effective today because users consider a blog to be on authority when it focuses on a sole niche.

With regards to publishing the content, some believe in this idea before that more blog posts equate to success. Well this is true in the sense that there was less competition in the earlier days of blogging. The more blog posts you feed to the audience, the more visible your blog becomes.

In modern-day blogs, high-quality content that is consistently uploaded according to a schedule is more effective. One in-depth post is more valuable and is considered to be more informative compared to a series of unexceptional posts. Long form content with around 1,500–2000 words are known to be Google or SEO friendly.

The speed of internet connection also made way for an additional changes to blogging behaviors through the years. The days when people are already satisfied with slow-loading pages because of meager internet connection were long gone. Today, users are all over ultra-fast internet speeds and expect blogs to be the same.

This is where SEO became such a huge hit among bloggers. One of the keystones in earning a top spot on search engines is the loading speed. Blogs must be optimized to load fast in order not to disappoint the users.

Since internet is also much faster, the users are not satisfied with having only text and pictures on a blog post. Videos are not only more entertaining, they also deliver information faster compared to just reading a lengthy article.

Blogging and Marketing

Remember that the success of blogging does not come easy, especially in 2021. Because internet users are now meticulous, they prefer to learn about products through articles compared to ads. They know how to spot fake promotions and instead rely on blog reviews to increase brand awareness.

Compared to podcasts, social media posts and vlogs, blogging has longer discoverability or shelf life. Podcasts can be entertaining but there is a need to make the show really worthwhile to make the audience listen. Social media may be interactive but only when you are able to successfully piqued the interest through an interesting post. Vlogs, on the other hand, require plenty of resources to produce quality videos. Whereas with blogs, you just need to invest in quality content and SEO.

This goes to show that when companies are using blogs to reach out to their target customers, they do so with careful consideration to quality content. It is a cost-effective tool, actually, to use blogs for marketing for two reasons. One, blogs can reach a vast audience and two; credibility is built when people find the blog informative.

Using a blog as a business strategy is wise as it can help create loyalty and trust by showing a transparent method of presenting the company. The key is to provide content that is more valuable than the competition’s. There is also a need to study about SEO marketing in order to reach the right audience.

So, Are Blogs Dead?

To simply put it, no, blogging has not died but it has immensely evolved and is still changing. These changes are vital in order to adapt the changing behavioral and user patterns of the audience. 53% of marketers still believe that blogging is an effective marketing tool. It is a great tool in lead generation, increasing traffic, and converting visitors into buying customers.

Although the process is a lot more complex, blogging in 2021 is still relevant and will continue to be as long as you carefully study how to make it adaptive to the current trends. #KhabarLive #hydnews