{"id":18686,"date":"2024-02-09T16:09:49","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T16:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webmonkey.com\/blogging-vs-youtube-my-experience-with-both-platforms-pros-cons\/"},"modified":"2024-05-24T19:42:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T19:42:01","slug":"blogging-vs-youtube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webmonkey.com\/blogging-vs-youtube\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogging vs YouTube – My Experience With Both Platforms (Pros & Cons)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Let me start out by saying that I have been blogging for more than two years, while I only started my YouTube channel<\/a> two months ago.<\/p>\n I absolutely love blogging, and I think it's an awesome way to make money online<\/a> and to learn more about the world of digital publishing and SEO.<\/p>\n But, at the same time, I am having a tonne of fun making my first YouTube videos. Plus, I think starting a YouTube channel is also an excellent way to learn about video editing, shooting, production, and YouTube SEO (which is important).<\/p>\n So, today I thought I'd write a bit of a blogging vs vlogging, or blogging versus YouTube<\/strong> post (since YouTube is pretty much where everyone vlogs anyway) to share my thoughts on both platforms.<\/p>\n Spoiler:\u00a0I think starting both platforms is worthwhile<\/strong>, but I think it's critical to approach these projects in the\u00a0right\u00a0<\/em>way and at the\u00a0right\u00a0<\/em>time.<\/p>\n Time to break down the whole blogging vs YouTube debate and some facts that beginners should consider.<\/p>\n Blogs have been around pretty much since the dawn of the internet.<\/p>\n What might surprise you is that vlogging, or video logging, has also been around for ages<\/a>. Although, it's important to note that vlogs really took off in 2005 with the dawn of YouTube.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The main difference between blogging and vlogging comes down to medium; blogs are their own site (when self-hosted, which is ideal), whereas vlogs are typically hosted on YouTube or other streaming platforms.<\/p>\n You can blog or vlog about anything, so content isn't the differentiating factor here.<\/p>\n It's really all about if you produce written content or video content. Given the popularity of YouTube for vlogging, this is again why this is more of a blogging vs YouTube debate for content creators.<\/p>\n Personally, I think the most interesting bit of data between blogging vs YouTube boils down to this interest-over-time graph from Google Trends:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It's clear that as an income source, starting a blog dominated the first decade of the 2000s.<\/p>\n But, it definitely seems like we are living in more of a YouTube era now.<\/p>\n The question is: does this make sense, and what should beginners know about the monetization<\/strong> and growth<\/strong> potential of each platform.<\/p>\n Let's get started by comparing my first few months of blogging to what I'm seeing with my new YouTube channel.<\/p>\n Let's take a little trip down memory lane and look at the first few months of WebMonkey in terms of traffic\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0revenue<\/em>.<\/p>\n Within the first 2 full months of blogging, I hit approximately 3,500 total sessions:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And, if we look at the traffic breakdown, I'm actually pretty surprised at how diverse it was and how much organic traffic had already developed back then:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Additionally, I even earned a little over $60 in that time from a SiteGround referral and some Amazon Affiliate income.<\/p>\n By August, I was starting to average 20,000 page views a month and was steadily making $300+ a month from blogging. Now, there's a few things I want to clarify first about these early blogging days since I think the results are, in all honesty, quite lucky.<\/p>\n Firstly, I was lucky to start my blog about phone farming<\/a> because this turned out to be a catalyst for getting a base of organic traffic and tonnes of backlinks.<\/p>\n Secondly, thanks to my friend Peter from Dollar Sanity's<\/a> advice, I got onto Quora marketing<\/a> very early on.<\/p>\n Aside from these two facts, I also worked like an absolute dog and completely neglected my college studies during this time to focus on growing my website (#NoRegrets).<\/p>\n So, all-in-all, we're talking dozens if not possibly over a hundred hours for the first two months of result, some niche selection<\/a> luck, and stellar mentoring from Peter. Please keep this in mind<\/p>\n Let's take a look at how the first 2 months of YouTube have gone for a quick comparison.<\/p>\n As I'm writing this, here are some stats about my channel:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now, I want to clarify a few things quickly since obviously, you\u00a0have an advantage with whatever you start second\u00a0<\/strong>since you can use your prior knowledge, audience, and resources to spur growth.<\/p>\n Firstly, I have spent way less time on my YouTube channel within the first 2 months than my blog. If I had to guess, it's probably been about 25-35 hours to learn the ropes, record, edit, and upload everything.<\/p>\n Secondly, only a small portion of traffic has actually come from WebMonkey or my social media pages:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now, I will say that my pages and blog have helped to get subscribers off of the ground. My friend Ben has also been invaluable in teaching me how to get started on YouTube.<\/p>\n But, shamelessly link dropping on Reddit has done the majority of heavy lifting in terms of getting views.<\/p>\n Again, my prior knowledge about how to market on Reddit has helped, but I digress.<\/p>\n One other important fact is that\u00a0my YouTube channel has generated $0 revenue on it's own<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It's driven some traffic back to WebMonkey and had an affiliate conversion. Additionally, I also converted one of the videos to a Mediavine<\/a> video and show it on my Medium guide<\/a> (where it makes money with ads).<\/p>\n But, for a new channel, none of these options would be on the table, so let's consider this a zero-revenue channel so far.<\/p>\n So, where are the other views coming from?<\/p>\n Well, let me tell you, the following YouTube SEO facts are going to BLOW YOUR MIND!<\/p>\n Today was honestly the first time I dove into my YouTube analytics, and I have to say, I'm shocked.<\/p>\n YouTube is immensely beginner friendly for two reasons.<\/p>\n Firstly,\u00a0your immediate organic reach as a YouTuber\u00a0<\/strong>is pretty impressive. These are the stats for my first videos:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5.500 people have seen my thumbnails somewhere\u00a0<\/em>on YouTube.<\/p>\n If I actually knew how to design decent thumbnails, we might be getting somewhere in terms of traffic!<\/p>\n YouTube does a pretty decent job at getting your content out there if you follow simple practices like using low-competition, highly searched for keywords. Nothing ground-breaking here.<\/p>\nBlogging Vs. YouTube – What's The Difference?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Blogging vs. YouTube – My Early Results<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Early Signs From YouTube<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Blogging Vs. YouTube – SEO & Organic Reach<\/strong><\/h3>\n