{"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

Blogging Vs. YouTube – What's The Difference?<\/strong><\/h2>\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

\"youtube-logo\"<\/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

\"blogging-vs-vlogging\"<\/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

Blogging vs. YouTube – My Early Results<\/strong><\/h2>\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

\"blog-traffic\"<\/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

\"traffic-composition\"<\/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

Early Signs From YouTube<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As I'm writing this, here are some stats about my channel:<\/p>\n