Is Blogging Dead or Is it Profitable?

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You’re probably wondering, “Is blogging dead?”, “Is it too late to start a blog?”, or “Is it worth starting a blog?”.

Is Blogging Dead?

I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I’ve been blogging since January of 2018, and the first year was tough. I’ll admit I made my fair share of mistakes that first year (like joining random blogging Facebook share groups and applying to the wrong ad network). 

But 2020 was the best year for my blog, and I actually more than doubled my income from 2019! 

 

TL;DR

 

Yes, you can still make money blogging, and no…it is not over-saturated! Check out my video comparing revenue from YouTube vs blogging ad revenue in 2020.

Blog Ad Revenue 2020

My blog ad revenue was 4x the amount that I earned on YouTube. Here are the specifics:

With 540,853 pageviews, I earned a total of $14,487.39 from Mediavine. My RPM averaged $33.11, which is significantly higher than when I first started the blog placed AdSense ads on the site.

Earlier I mentioned that I stayed with the wrong ad network for far too long when I first started blogging. But I didn’t jump straight into Mediavine from AdSense.

As you may know, Mediavine requires 50,000 sessions in order to apply to become a publisher with its network. Monumetric, however, only requires 10,000 pageviews. 

I reached 10,000 pageviews approximately 4 months prior to applying. I simply didn’t know anything about Monumetric! Now you know, and you should definitely check out Monumetric. It was my first big check from blogging.

Recommended Reading:

• Mediavine Review: First Month Earnings vs Monumetric
• 3 Reasons Mediavine New Traffic Requirements Shouldn’t Scare You
• Blogging vs YouTube: Should You Start a YouTube Channel or Blog or Both?

Should You Just Start a YouTube Channel Instead?

You might be considering starting a YouTube channel this year instead. I think that if you can find the time, you should do both. 

I’m sure you already know that Google is the #1 search engine. But did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine? It also happens to be owned by Google, so if you can learn how to leverage one, you can use the other to complement your content. 

Here’s how it looks:

1. Write a blog post highly optimized with H2 headings and broken down into sub-sections (H3,H4,paragraphs).
2. Create a YouTube video sharing or demonstrating the same topic on your YouTube channel.
3. Embed the video simply by copying and pasting the link within your blog post.
4. Link back to the blog post within your YouTube description.

How Much I Earned Blogging in 2020

Now you might be wondering, “How do blogs make money?“. There are a few ways bloggers can earn an income:

1. Ad Revenue – self-explanatory
2. Affiliate Marketing – sharing links to products and when readers click the link and buy a product, you receive a commission.
3. Sponsored Posts – companies will pay for traffic and exposure to their products and services.
4. Digital Products – I haven’t created and sold any digital products as of yet (this is where the 100k+ monthly bloggers earn most of their income).

My total income on this blog (with 40,000ish pageviews per month) totaled over $45,000. To be transparent, $3,730 of that $45k was ad revenue from YouTube. 

Blogging is not dead, and it is still a profitable way to either grow your brand or influence online and earn a decent income. 

If you’d like to learn how to start a blog check out my tutorial here. The best $100 I ever spent was for 3 years of hosting on Perfection Hangover. 

Ready to get started? Get 3 years of hosting for $2.95/month through my special link.