Now that blogging is dead, what are you doing instead?

[Thulf]

In my case, I've had to start tipping my toes into those "other baskets". Obviously, I should've done it (spread the eggs) when times were good, but I was too busy living my best life. Now I'm living off of savings.

Shortly after HCU, I tried doubling down, but at best it stopped the gradual drop for a certain amount of time only. Then I tried tripling down with the help of AI, but that was not it either. I even tried to quadruple down, but nah.

Next up, I tried YouTube, but realized quickly that one needs to sell their soul for views (do things one doesn't like, use underhanded methods, etc) - unless you just get lucky or have the right characteristics and work at it for a long time...

And now I'm giving a more hands-on affiliate marketing approach a try - marketing affiliate offers on UGC platforms via landing pages. If this doesn't work, I guess it's modern slavery for me (traditional work - it's "modern slavery" because of inflation and company greed).


Google did a number on small-scale niche site/blogging, and chances are you too were affected, so... If not blogging/niche sites, what are your plans now?

 

[Marko T]

So blogging is dead too, gosh. I though only SEO died, now I see 2024 is deadlier than Covid

 

[Deleted member 1013995]

Become a youtuber, sell your soul, worst thing that will happen is that you will be wasting people's time along with every other youtuber. Every youtube visitor sees hundreds of youtubers a day, so even if you become famous, most people will never remember you. You can show your face and you will practically be still anonymous. Say whatever, pretend you have good advice on money or women, whatever. Just take your share of idiots and be done with it. Even if you were to say the most retarded thing online, nobody would bat an eye because we are all retarded by now so it's okay. Be a clown, we live in a circus.

 

[Thulf]

So blogging is dead too, gosh. I though only SEO died, now I see 2024 is deadlier than Covid

Nah, SEO is alive and well (for bigger sites). Backlinks have seemingly become the be-all end-all ranking factor. That means smaller sites were wiped off the SERPS (at least from the positions and pages that matter). The "niche authority" sites that dropped were simply outdone by even bigger sites who had even more backlinks (Forbes and the like).

Finding an "untapped" niche is near-impossible nowadays, and it's only a matter of time till Forbes or something farts in its general direction and Google puts it at the top anyway.

 

[RoboTech]

Become a youtuber, sell your soul, worst thing that will happen is that you will be wasting people's time along with every other youtuber. Every youtube visitor sees hundreds of youtubers a day, so even if you become famous, most people will never remember you. You can show your face and you will practically be still anonymous. Say whatever, pretend you have good advice on money or women, whatever. Just take your share of idiots and be done with it. Even if you were to say the most retarded thing online, nobody would bat an eye because we are all retarded by now so it's okay. Be a clown, we live in a circus.

I AGREE, THE WORLD NEEDS MORE DAN LOKS.

 

[dawwa1938]

If blogging is dead,selling your soul is required to be successful at Youtube, and getting a traditional job is "modern slavery" then the only thing dead is you.

The only thing dying right now is making faceless content where you don't interact with your audience and expect to make a killing. I don't know about you but if you have been writing for 6 years straight your "niche" sites and you absolutely got killed by a Google update then you had nothing to begin with.

What happened to your socials? If your sites weren't getting any loyal audience coming back to your websites/blogs then you had absolutely nothing.

You're telling me that you don't have any fans coming over to your site from email, twitter, youtube etc. Like what were you doing? Just pumping AI generated content that was nothing more than straight garbage that no one subscribed to?

 

[Thulf]

If blogging is dead,selling your soul is required to be successful at Youtube, and getting a traditional job is "modern slavery" then the only thing dead is you.

The only thing dying right now is making faceless content where you don't interact with your audience and expect to make a killing. I don't know about you but if you have been writing for 6 years straight your "niche" sites and you absolutely got killed by a Google update then you had nothing to begin with.

What happened to your socials? If your sites weren't getting any loyal audience coming back to your websites/blogs then you had absolutely nothing.

You're telling me that you don't have any fans coming over to your site from email, twitter, youtube etc. Like what were you doing? Just pumping AI generated content that was nothing more than straight garbage that no one subscribed to?

Yeah, nah, that's the "other baskets" I didn't bother with.

I made sites that relied only and only on organic traffic. No socials, no nothing. Just pure content and organic traffic. Worked like a charm. It worked so well, in fact, that I simply stopped expanding and let it fill my bank account passively for years, with me only updating/refreshing things occasionally. I got used to the good life, too. I'm not the ambitious type (and this is important to note), so I didn't see the point in growing it further. The system was working spectacularly.

But since HCU, this approach no longer works. 1st page of Google looks like this now: 1-5 spots ad space, 6-10 a mix of Forbes equivalents, Reddit/Quora and/or forums, and YouTube. Competitor niche sites/blogs start from page 3 usually. And this has happened across all the niches I'm in. Heck, whenever I myself am looking for information nowadays, Google doesn't seem to serve any real answers anymore. They probably planned for SGE to fill this gap, but they haven't fully implemented it yet, just running A/B tests or something, so stuff is out of whack in general.

 

[dawwa1938]

Yeah, nah, that's the "other baskets" I didn't bother with.

I made sites that relied only and only on organic traffic. No socials, no nothing. Just pure content and organic traffic. Worked like a charm. It worked so well, in fact, that I simply stopped expanding and let it fill my bank account passively for years, with me only updating/refreshing things occasionally. I got used to the good life, too. I'm not the ambitious type (and this is important to note), so I didn't see the point in growing it further. The system was working spectacularly.

But since HCU, this approach no longer works. 1st page of Google looks like this now: 1-5 spots ad space, 6-10 a mix of Forbes equivalents, Reddit/Quora and/or forums, and YouTube. Competitor niche sites/blogs start from page 3 usually. And this has happened across all the niches I'm in. Heck, whenever I myself am looking for information nowadays, Google doesn't seem to serve any real answers anymore. They probably planned for SGE to fill this gap, but they haven't fully implemented it yet, just running A/B tests or something, so stuff is out of whack in general.

Yeah the other basket that you didn't bother is where the majority of internet users are at. You can't do the same shit of finding "untapped" niches and writing content you have zero knowledge on, that ship has long sailed.

If you are not an authority on a niche and have no connections then you are nobody online. Also, don't feel bad I had to start over because my online cash cow dried up and I was enjoying all the pleasures it came from the money I earned. Shit can get depressing, but like everything on the internet, things change and you gotta adapt.

You need to change your attitude first because it seems is in the gutter, and then focus on what the fuck you are gonna sell. You might need to go full beast mode on your socials and become an authority on something.

 

[Thulf]

Yeah the other basket that you didn't bother is where the majority of internet users are at. You can't do the same shit of finding "untapped" niches and writing content you have zero knowledge on, that ship has long sailed.

If you are not an authority on a niche and have no connections then you are nobody online. Also, don't feel bad I had to start over because my online cash cow dried up and I was enjoying all the pleasures it came from the money I earned. Shit can get depressing, but like everything on the internet, things change and you gotta adapt.

You need to change your attitude first because it seems is in the gutter, and then focus on what the fuck you are gonna sell. You might need to go full beast mode on your socials and become an authority on something.

Hence the thread - a clear message that things have changed.

The zero knowledge part, however, that's some kind of a fallacy. "Niche sites" kind of originated from people writing about a topic they were already knowledgeable about or were learning about as they wrote (by researching + trying out), eventually becoming "an authority" on the subject. But I know what you mean. It's the G algo, and with the rise of AI, Google has had to adjust its metrics to fight against it flooding the SERPs, and niche blogs just look exactly like AI spam right now (for the algorithm).

The attitude is certainly in the gutter, but not for the reasons you implied. I've been already taking steps to try out new ways of making money online, it's just that it's a process, not something that happens overnight (unless seriously lucky). And rather than making the same mistake twice, this time I'm moving in the direction of exploiting the system rather than feeding the system that takes advantage of my efforts (especially with SGE on the horizon). But, again, stuff takes time.

With this thread, I was just curious as to how other people were coping with the change. Take yourself for example (albeit a bit off-topic) - what failed you and where did you pivot instead?

 

[KHer0]

Have been there, abd moved away 4 years ago.

Here are somethings to try:
- Try other language. The world is too big, and all the competition is squeezed into the English version. If you can speak any other language, start building there.

- Stop building content and focus on commercial. Build a software, service or e-commerce.

- Start testing with ppc. Same as SEO without the volatility factor.

Even if blog is your only skill, you must find a way to turn it into commercial skill.

 

[netcyber]

What really work now?

 

[DozeX]

What really work now?

Onlyfans

 

[netcyber]

Onlyfans

How do you run only fans mate?

 

[dawwa1938]

How do you run only fans mate?

You use a phone and a computer with internet access.

 

[MKSKS]

My blogs and niche sites still work so, for me blogging still good to go.

But yes it's not like it used to be in past, specifically with direct commercial product reviews promoting affiliate offers.

But things still work if you use an aged powerful expired domain.

 

[IceActually]

I don't think blogging is dead by any means. Just last year I started up a niche blog and within a month or two had it ranking 1st for keywords and generating good traffic. It requires more effort than before, but it isn't dead by any means. That being said, If I were starting a business from scratch today I'd split my focus 50/50 on blogging and organic video.

 

[Chardist]

Cryptocurrency trading is another good option that you can try.

 

[Thulf]

Cryptocurrency trading is another good option that you can try.

I did that when I had excess money. Worked like a charm, too. Daytrading with a pool of 10k (safe-to-lose excess money at the time), 500-1000 at a time, and x2'ed the 10k within a year (so, 20k). If I put down 20k, it would've been 40k, if 30k then 60k, etc. I imagine the higher the number goes the harder it becomes - the overall volume, how the general market forces work and the trading bots react, etc.

I planned to get back to it after recouping the money once life's many societal necessities (a home, etc) were covered. However, HCU has tossed a big fat stick in the wheels, rammed it in there real hard.

In other words, it's a viable option only if you're already rich, otherwise it's more like gambling (especially when there's a downturn and you have to wait, but you need money to pay the bills so you have to FOMO it - but because if you don't FOMO, the downturn period might end up being so long that your pool of money simply runs out by the time it's safe to enter the market again, losing it to inflation, to paying bills, other emergency expenditures, etc - it's oddly expensive to not have money).

 

[Chardist]

I did that when I had excess money. Worked like a charm, too. Daytrading with a pool of 10k (safe-to-lose excess money at the time), 500-1000 at a time, and x2'ed the 10k within a year (so, 20k). If I put down 20k, it would've been 40k, if 30k then 60k, etc. I imagine the higher the number goes the harder it becomes - the overall volume, how the general market forces work and the trading bots react, etc.

I planned to get back to it after recouping the money once life's many societal necessities (a home, etc) were covered. However, HCU has tossed a big fat stick in the wheels, rammed it in there real hard.

In other words, it's a viable option only if you're already rich, otherwise it's more like gambling (especially when there's a downturn and you have to wait, but you need money to pay the bills so you have to FOMO it - but because if you don't FOMO, the downturn period might end up being so long that your pool of money simply runs out by the time it's safe to enter the market again, losing it to inflation, to paying bills, other emergency expenditures, etc - it's oddly expensive to not have money).

I mean crypto trading using technical analysis.

 

[deedee1whoa]

Judging the thread with that kinda title, didn't expect this many useful comments.

One can find a few ideas in here so, thanks! What about selling your online presence you already built? Can't be useless.