Is Blogging Still Worth It in 2023? (7 Questions Answered!)
So, you’re thinking about starting a blog in 2023, right?
The problem is, you’re not sure if it’s still worth it or not.
Allow me to clarify that – and a few other things – in this post.
Is Blogging Still a Thing in 2023?
Yes – blogging is still alive and kicking in 2023. And it’s likely to stay relevant and profitable for many more years. You just need to adapt to the changes in how people search, consume, and interact with online content.
Remember that people have been saying that blogging is dead for years.
Unfortunately for them, blogging survived.
According to a 2023 report by HubSpot, blogs are still one of the top media forms used in content strategies.
Here’s another interesting piece of fact:
On WordPress.com alone, 409 million readers generate over 20 billion views per month.
That’s not counting websites that use the WordPress.org CMS, which powers 42 percent of all websites on the web.
See?
Blogging isn’t dead – not even close.
However, blogging did evolve significantly as online services like social media and search engines changed.
You will learn all about these changes as you read through this post. For now, allow me to address another concern aspiring bloggers may have in 2023.
Is it Too Late to Start a Blog in 2023?
It is never too late to start a blog. There are still new bloggers who make $1,000 to $2,000 per month after some time. You just need to pick your niche wisely, blog with passion, and use the right marketing channels for your content.
If you want to target broad niches that you’re absolutely clueless about, then yes – it’s too late. Setting up multiple “money” blogs in various niches for the sake of generating income is a dying form of blogging.
To help you understand this further, allow me to answer another common question that new bloggers have:
Is Blogging Already Saturated?
Yes, the blogging market as a whole is already saturated. Statistics show that, out of 1.7 billion websites on the internet, 600 million of them are blogs. The good news is, you can still find unsaturated niches so you don’t have to compete with millions of sites.
There are two rules you need to remember when hunting for a profitable niche.
Rule number one, you need to avoid YMYL or “Your Money or Your Life” niches.
Rule #1: Avoid YMYL niches
YMYL niches pertain to industries that directly affect a person’s finances and health. Some examples are shopping, healthcare, food supplements, life insurance, and banking.
Why should you avoid YMYL niches?
First, search results in these industries are almost guaranteed to be dominated by big-name companies. That makes it pretty much impossible for new, individual bloggers to get a fair share of the market.
Apart from being saturated with big-name corporations, YMYL niches are also closely scrutinized by Google.
If you can’t prove that you are a certified expert in your industry, you don’t have a chance at ranking.
This leads to the next rule when picking a niche.
Rule #2: Be a niche expert
As I mentioned before, the time of owning multiple money sites in various niches is coming to an end.
Google is getting better at determining authoritativeness. It can tell if you only publish generic, shallow content with information pulled from somewhere else.
If you want to carve a name for yourself, you need to pick a niche you’re truly, deeply, madly passionate about.
Once you’ve found your niche, make it your long-term goal to learn as much as you can about it.
Be an actual expert in your industry and focus on top-notch content with information no one else has.
You can learn more about picking a niche by reading my guide on how to choose a perfect blog niche. Every step is included there!
Long story short, the blogging industry in general is saturated, but there are still plenty of profitable niches out there. You just need to find a specific topic you’re genuinely passionate about and isn’t YMYL.
The question now is, will people read your blog?
Let’s answer that next.
Do People Still Read Blogs?
Yes – billions of people still read blogs every month.
There are approximately 5.6 billion searches on Google per day, and 94 percent of those searches go to organic results. And if you observe most search results, the majority of organic listings are blog posts.
This is something that’s highly unlikely to change given how search engines have become an integral part of everyday life.
Today, most people use the internet to gather useful and actionable information.
The usual chain of events looks like this:
Idea/Problem > Search Engine > Keyword > Online content
Guess what’s usually at the end of that chain?
You guessed it – blog posts.
Another study by HubSpot revealed that 60 percent of all internet users read blogs more than once per week. That number includes readers who come to blogs from social media, emails, forums, and Q&A sites.
Remember these words:
The only reason why blog posts won’t be relevant to search results is when users are looking for branded stuff. For example, they could be searching for “Nike shoes” or “buy Tommy Hilfiger online.”
But if they’re looking for anything else, you can bet that their questions will be answered by blog posts.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about something that a lot of aspiring bloggers are really concerned about.
Will Blogging Still be Profitable in the Future?
As always, the profitability of blogging in 2023 and beyond depends on your level of commitment. A lot of bloggers earn anywhere between $200 to $2,500 per month during their first year. With the right monetization strategies, established blogs can drive up their revenue to five figures or more.
Just remember that not everybody will get the same results.
A ProBlogger survey revealed that 37 percent of bloggers make over $100 monthly. In the same survey, only 13 percent make over $1,000 per month.
The good news is, people who stay committed to their blog day in and day out get amazing results.
Tireless bloggers like Matthew Kepnes of Nomadic Matt once made over $750,000 in a single year. Other committed bloggers like Michelle Schroeder-Gardner make a nice $100,000 per month.
It’s all about knowing the right monetization strategies for your niche and target audience.
You can still make money with your blog in 2023 using time-tested strategies, including advertising, affiliate marketing, and sponsored posts. Check out my full list of 89 blog monetization strategies to learn more.
So, is blogging a waste of time, or is it still worthwhile?
Looking at the numbers, blogging is still profitable in 2023 and onwards.
But that’s not the only thing in store for blogging in the foreseeable future.
What is the Future of Blogging?
The future of blogging is still tied to what big search engines like Google want from content creators: top-quality content. For starters, you need to focus on building your authority, prioritize content quality over quantity, and utilize various content types. Furthermore, bloggers need to start building on different content distribution channels like social media, email, and streaming platforms.
To elaborate, allow me to discuss the kinds of blogging that are likely to die in the future.
What kind of blogging is dead? (Practices you should avoid)
- One-stop-shop blogging – Aiming to be the go-to blog for everything related to your niche used to be every blogger’s dream. Today, targeting broad niches and competing against well-established websites will lead to a dead end.
- Writing more and more posts – Pumping out truckloads of posts for the sake of generating traffic is a dying practice. The only reason it worked in the past is that the internet didn’t have enough good content to meet the needs of searchers.
- Using click-bait headlines – Search engines like Google are now more than capable of determining if users had a positive experience with your blog. If you relied on click-bait headlines to generate traffic and increase rankings, expect your content’s performance to drop soon.
- Only personal blogging – Personal blogging or publishing “entertainment content” isn’t as viable as it once was. That’s because most people get their dose of entertainment content from social media and video streaming platforms – not self-hosted blogs.
- Only writing – Last but not least, the practice of only using text is long dead – unless you’re already a big brand. Remember, there are now millions of bloggers using multimedia like videos, podcasts, and infographics to steal your audience’s attention.
Other than the dying blogging practices, aspiring bloggers also need to be aware of the ongoing trends in tech.
A perfect example would be GPT-3 – short for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3.”
In simple terms, it’s a language AI. It was once thought that it could replace writers by generating original text that can fool even plagiarism checkers.
Luckily, you don’t have to worry about GPT-3 putting bloggers out of business anytime soon.
The AI is still far from capable in terms of creating good articles – let alone brilliant content that can rank.
It is, however, useful in generating blog topic ideas, improving headlines, rewording paragraphs, and rewriting meta descriptions. That said, try to see GPT-3 as a potentially useful tool rather than a threat.
Another thing you should be aware of is the increasing significance of “zero-click” searches.
Put simply, a zero-click search occurs when users no longer have to click on search results to get answers. Instead, Google will show them the information they’re looking for right off the bat.
Let’s say you wrote a lengthy article explaining what Bitcoin is.
Even if you reach Google’s first page, you may not get as many clicks as you hoped. That’s because there are snippets available right on the search page that could steal away your traffic.
The good news is, you can make rich snippets work in your favor by optimizing for them.
A solid strategy is to check for these snippets when researching keywords for your blog. A tool like Semrush can help you immensely with this.
Related: SEMrush Review & Tutorial 2023 (Plus 30-Day Free Premium Trial)
Finally, you need to look at how internet users are consuming content these days.
With the rise of social media and streaming websites, blogging may seem like it has taken the backseat.
But that’s not completely true.
What Has Replaced Blogging?
Some say that blogging is replaced by content creation through sites like Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. But if you look closer, you’ll know that bloggers can also thrive on these platforms.
A perfect example would be Neil Patel, who expanded his blog from his website to platforms like Twitter and YouTube.
Neil also started using push notifications, another potential content distribution channel, to drive more traffic.
A case study showed that Neil brought 231,608 visitors to his site via push notifications. This translates to a value of over $670,000 in the form of subscribers.
The bottom line is, blogging isn’t and won’t be replaced by other content channels. Blogging will only continue.
It doesn’t matter how many new platforms are created – bloggers will still be able to take advantage of them.
Aside from social media and push notifications, here are other channels you should utilize when building your blog in 2023:
- Newsletters
- Microblogging platforms
- Podcasts
- Video streaming sites
- Guest blogs
Why become an omnichannel blogger?
Internet users worldwide are getting younger. A good chunk of internet users grew up with social media and relied on various mediums for information, particularly videos. If you want to secure your blog’s future, you need to tap into the channels that younger groups prefer.
Statistics show that 18 percent of internet users worldwide are between 18 and 24 years of age.
To make sure your blog will have an audience for years to come, think about what the next generation wants. You don’t need to shift your focus overnight – just gradually take your blog to new channels to reach newer audiences.
That about sums up the most important changes in blogging in 2023 and in the future.
Whatever you’re thinking right now, rest assured that changes are nothing new in the blogging industry.
Professional bloggers have been adapting to changes year after year. Major Google algorithm updates, in particular, are known to affect millions of blogs in terms of visibility and traffic.
Despite this, committed bloggers survive by embracing these changes and adjusting their content strategies accordingly. They’re not afraid to reinvent their brand or even start from square one, and that’s because they’re passionate about blogging.
Only lazy bloggers who take shortcuts fail in the end.
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
The question now is, how can you build a successful blog in 2023?
Let me help you.
Should I Start a Blog in 2023? How Do I Do It?
Yes – the perfect time to start a blog is now. Plenty of new bloggers still turn blogging into a profitable, full-time career. And if you’re dedicated and willing to work hard for your goals, you can join them, too.
If you start a blog in 2023, you can still enjoy the benefits of being a blogger. That includes building your professional network, establishing your authority, and generating passive income.
While blogging underwent a ton of changes in 2023, blogs are still worth starting with the right strategies.
Here are the important things you need to remember when starting a blog in 2023:
- Start focusing on quality and not quantity – Rather than churning out a bunch of articles related to the same topic, create only one that covers them all. Make sure readers are educated and empowered enough to take action by the end of each post.
- Become an omnichannel blogger – Don’t just rely on your blog content to pull traffic by itself. Use different platforms to build your online presence, like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, email, and Q&A sites.
- Build your authority – Aim to get social proof in the form of testimonials, comments, and user uploads to prove your authority. A good strategy is to reach out to people you’ve helped and share their results.
- Pick a niche you’re in love with – Always choose a niche you’re passionate about, not something random just because it’s currently trending or profitable. Just don’t settle for anything broad and pick a specific niche with a narrower audience.
- Build content to educate – If you want to share casual, entertaining posts, use social media. Readers will come to your blog for the juicy, in-depth tutorials and guides.
Final Words
So, is blogging still relevant in 2023?
It sure is.
You just have to embrace the way blogging changes over time. Focus on a niche you love, build your expertise, and write top-notch content.
Most importantly, expand your blog’s reach through platforms that people use nowadays.
If you’re up to the challenge, I invite you to read my post on how to start a blog. And remember, the best time to start is always today!
For questions, feedback, and suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.
Good luck!
