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

[rafark]

but realized quickly that one needs to sell their soul for views (do things one doesn't like, use underhanded methods, etc)

You need to sell your soul for pretty much anything if you want to be highly successful. I mean, at some point to keep growing you have to do things you’re not too comfortable with (I’m not talking about illegal stuff).

 

[Thulf]

You need to sell your soul for pretty much anything if you want to be highly successful. I mean, at some point to keep growing you have to do things you’re not too comfortable with (I’m not talking about illegal stuff).

Such an approach relies way too much on luck or takes too long (takes time to readjust principles you're grown up with, etc. As an analogy - you don't just murder some1 and call it yet another Tuesday).

If I was down with doing things outside my comfort zone (outside perceived ethical boundaries specifically), there would be of course plenty of options. Easiest would be to just blatantly copy trendy things and including a minor alteration to it in order to call it your own.

 

[MKSKS]

Problem is though, I already was in low competition niches...

HCU changed the search intent in a way where my micro-sub-niches were lumped together with the big niche. The giga sites already had written the "best" type listicles for that niche, but they never ranked high enough to matter because... near-0 real expertise. Now their fart ranks for every single keyword in the niche if there's even a far-fetched possibility that some1 might want to buy something... You've got a very niche specific tiny question nothing to do with any products at all? Here's a "best" type listicle from Forbes. Thank me later - Google Search Engine. Next, you obviously type "Reddit" at the end of your query because Google won't show the little blogs that have covered it extensively. Funniest part, an ULTRA active co-moderator/co-owner of a subreddit is one of those niche site owners and they rank on 3rd page for such a query with their authority site. It's a joke.

So, basically, the new "low comp" type of niche is something very... odd.

It basically has to fit in these parameters:
- It cannot revolve around a product in any conceivable way (giga sites, e-commerce, Reddit, etc, are preferred)
- It can't be discussed on Reddit/Quora/etc (no official "expert" status possible)
- Giga sites won't ever touch it (too low ROI and hurts brand image - not in a bad way but in an undesirable way)
- It has no appeal in Pinterest/YouTube/etc (a la no1 wants to be known as the guy who dissects dildos or some shit, but a whitehat normal niche)

Some borderline voodoo ugaa bogaa niches then...

The reddit google saga was surely another mess by big g.

But they were in a bad position after that news article in which someone ex from big g explained how the search quality had declined.

HCU was actually the child of this mess.

But as I said earlier adapting to the changes is the only way forward.

HCU helped almost all ugc platforms to gain more and more traffic.

You have explained the negative already but there was something positive also which I have been saying multiple times on BHW.

If you know how to use these platforms you can build a traffic generating system out of it and it's all free.

You just need to have the skills to create engaging/controversial discussion around the topics.

Be it reddit, youtube, quora, forums, etc all these platforms stand on the discussions and engagement.

This did gave the mods a chance to capitalize and they started to benefit from it.

And don't forget EEAT & YMYL these too have made their impact.

But there are people that still get success by adjusting their strategy with these updates.

It's true that odd niches have always been easy to rank for but that doesn't mean all low competitive niches are odd.

Stop following the giga sites instead start finding low authority sites with massive traffic.

Look at Google trends it's free.

Brainstorm niches, topics, keywords using AI like ChatGPT.

Reverse engineer low authority sites and ugc platforms.

Learn how to use advanced search operators.

Reverse engineer sites on marketplaces like flippa.

 

[achiever2011]

Blogging is still not dead, there are many bloggers still trying with new blogs. I know a youtuber who started blogging after failing on YouTube and is doing very good from 2023.

 

[Assclown]

The reddit google saga was surely another mess by big g.

But they were in a bad position after that news article in which someone ex from big g explained how the search quality had declined.

HCU was actually the child of this mess.

But as I said earlier adapting to the changes is the only way forward.

HCU helped almost all ugc platforms to gain more and more traffic.

You have explained the negative already but there was something positive also which I have been saying multiple times on BHW.

If you know how to use these platforms you can build a traffic generating system out of it and it's all free.

You just need to have the skills to create engaging/controversial discussion around the topics.

Be it reddit, youtube, quora, forums, etc all these platforms stand on the discussions and engagement.

This did gave the mods a chance to capitalize and they started to benefit from it.

And don't forget EEAT & YMYL these too have made their impact.

But there are people that still get success by adjusting their strategy with these updates.

It's true that odd niches have always been easy to rank for but that doesn't mean all low competitive niches are odd.

Stop following the giga sites instead start finding low authority sites with massive traffic.

Look at Google trends it's free.

Brainstorm niches, topics, keywords using AI like ChatGPT.

Reverse engineer low authority sites and ugc platforms.

Learn how to use advanced search operators.

Reverse engineer sites on marketplaces like flippa.

Take a look at how many Google Updates ran from September to December 2023.

How do you adjust strategies, if Google Keeps changing ranking algorithms each day? You'll burn money and time on A/B tests.

Even if you get a working formula, Google might change its algorithms in a week, setting you back to zero.

 

[MKSKS]

Take a look at how many Google Updates ran from September to December 2023.

How do you adjust strategies, if Google Keeps changing ranking algorithms each day? You'll burn money and time on A/B tests.

Even if you get a working formula, Google might change its algorithms in a week, setting you back to zero.

Doesn't matter how many updates come and go.
It's my job I made the decision to pursue fulltime freelance career in this.
Building a working strategy that fits mine or client's budget is my job.

That's a bit exaggeration when you say algorithm changes each day.
But yes, there are more frequent annoying updates which are very challenging.

Don't get me wrong but it's almost impossible to find a set and forget model to easily make money online.
The closest one get there is a 9 to 5 job which also will have it's challenges.

I just follow as many resources as possible regarding SEO and Digital Marketing, that helps me to be updated with current trends and build a working strategy.
Understand how the system works is the only way forward.

 

[Thulf]

The reddit google saga was surely another mess by big g.

But they were in a bad position after that news article in which someone ex from big g explained how the search quality had declined.

HCU was actually the child of this mess.

But as I said earlier adapting to the changes is the only way forward.

HCU helped almost all ugc platforms to gain more and more traffic.

You have explained the negative already but there was something positive also which I have been saying multiple times on BHW.

If you know how to use these platforms you can build a traffic generating system out of it and it's all free.

You just need to have the skills to create engaging/controversial discussion around the topics.

Be it reddit, youtube, quora, forums, etc all these platforms stand on the discussions and engagement.

This did gave the mods a chance to capitalize and they started to benefit from it.

And don't forget EEAT & YMYL these too have made their impact.

But there are people that still get success by adjusting their strategy with these updates.

It's true that odd niches have always been easy to rank for but that doesn't mean all low competitive niches are odd.

Stop following the giga sites instead start finding low authority sites with massive traffic.

Look at Google trends it's free.

Brainstorm niches, topics, keywords using AI like ChatGPT.

Reverse engineer low authority sites and ugc platforms.

Learn how to use advanced search operators.

Reverse engineer sites on marketplaces like flippa.

This all (including the comments that came after) pretty much implies that niche blogging is indeed dead and it'd be better to move on to direct marketing where the "niche blog" running on fumes can serve as a mere landing page.

The suggestions are also seemingly based on what worked pre HCU...

Reverse engineering what works now only really confirms that blogging is indeed dead (or at the very least obviously an uphill battle). Looking only at the unicorn planes that came back and ignoring all the blog sites that in a lot of cases "dropped" as much as basically getting disappeared from the SERPs is a clear case of survivorship bias. It's gut-wrenching to watch even a lot of YouTube gurus fall for that (probably to try and push a service they had built up and simply haven't adjusted to the changes yet). Paints an absurdly wrong narrative out of what's happened with Google.


The contradiction/paradox comes from reverse engineering what works and at the same time claiming that blogging still works. It's not really a blog anymore...

 

[MKSKS]

This all (including the comments that came after) pretty much implies that niche blogging is indeed dead and it'd be better to move on to direct marketing where the "niche blog" running on fumes can serve as a mere landing page.

The suggestions are also seemingly based on what worked pre HCU...

Reverse engineering what works now only really confirms that blogging is indeed dead (or at the very least obviously an uphill battle). Looking only at the unicorn planes that came back and ignoring all the blog sites that in a lot of cases "dropped" as much as basically getting disappeared from the SERPs is a clear case of https://youtu.be/ZyLVIvBidIA?si=3pvJUuVhsmebSPfk. It's gut-wrenching to watch even a lot of YouTube gurus fall for that (probably to try and push a service they had built up and simply haven't adjusted to the changes yet). Paints an absurdly wrong narrative out of what's happened with Google.


The contradiction/paradox comes from reverse engineering what works and at the same time claiming that blogging still works. It's not really a blog anymore...

Ok

 

[seomaster5]

Blogging is still not dead. You just need a higher budget. One more thing , keyword research is nore important than ever. One keyword can change your life. But it will need months efforts to find that right keyword.

 

[OccultKingdoms]

If you want to spam, find a spammy niche.

If you want to sell services on google, maybe try it. You can use PPC and networking for that.

It doesn't quite make sense to live off low volume, high competitive organic traffic in 2024. Google organic isn't the top thing to advertise on. It's not a top marketing pick.

It doesn't have any big white hat potential. It's just about pumping money into it.

Get a damn job or move to another country if your job market sucks.

Closing yourself in your house and trying to become rich won't work. You need more than just content in business. Focusing on content and adsense income is not forward, long term thinking.

If you can't handle failure, you can talk to a psychology specialist. They have an answer to this. You don't need to watch 1000 YouTube videos to figure out what happens.

If your income wasn't 6 figures a year, it wasn't much. You can forget it. You will save yourself a lot of nerves. You can optimize costs of your living.

I would say it's not dead. It's always changing. And without lots of resourcrs, you're figuring the next great hack every few months to get some bucks again. It's like trying to find loopholes that are always different. Exhausting. With big pockets and AI you wouldn't have much of a problem.

Meanwhile in social media you can figure out some cool strategy in your bed. It's more fun.

 

[OccultKingdoms]

Internet marketing is about fun and not pain.

You picked the wrong house, sir.

And blogging is a hobby. SEO is a business. If you want to make business out of hobby, learn how to do business. There's no way to do great business without monetary investments.

 

[Thulf]

If you want to spam, find a spammy niche.

If you want to sell services on google, maybe try it. You can use PPC and networking for that.

It doesn't quite make sense to live off low volume, high competitive organic traffic in 2024. Google organic isn't the top thing to advertise on. It's not a top marketing pick.

It doesn't have any big white hat potential. It's just about pumping money into it.

Get a damn job or move to another country if your job market sucks.

Closing yourself in your house and trying to become rich won't work. You need more than just content in business. Focusing on content and adsense income is not forward, long term thinking.

If you can't handle failure, you can talk to a psychology specialist. They have an answer to this. You don't need to watch 1000 YouTube videos to figure out what happens.

If your income wasn't 6 figures a year, it wasn't much. You can forget it. You will save yourself a lot of nerves. You can optimize costs of your living.

I would say it's not dead. It's always changing. And without lots of resourcrs, you're figuring the next great hack every few months to get some bucks again. It's like trying to find loopholes that are always different. Exhausting. With big pockets and AI you wouldn't have much of a problem.

Meanwhile in social media you can figure out some cool strategy in your bed. It's more fun.

Every1 and their environment are different.

Luckily, I don't need 6 figures to live like a king here (figure of speech). 5 figures per year and it already felt like paradise with 0 stressors full-time entertainment (got to buy a house, without a loan, and almost everything else to last for a good while in moderation if luck had it). I can now live off of a mere $150/month if I only cooked rice with some cheap meat... Very close to "retiring" before even hitting 30.

It's the HCU's overnight drop that got me off guard. I was ready for a 30% drop and more work (adjustments), not a complete write-off of 70% drop across all the niches I was in (niche sites were left with the bottom-of-the-barrel traffic - bots, researchers, and consumers so high up the fence there is no convincing them to buy anything at all). And there were other niche sites in those spaces that got it way worse than me while being fully whitehat and exactly what Google said for years they expected from sites.

Basically, it's not just a little bummer of a failure, it's more like a backstab and a kick off the cliff. That takes a little while to come to terms with, it's only natural.

Backlinks. That's all that Google is about now. Been moving in this direction for months now, running tests on experimental sites - even spammy GSA SER links were able to rank main money pages to top 3...

It's more like I'm just immensely disappointed in Google, more than anything else. Now the rich get richer. The entry fee has been increased too high for any1 starting out. Same with the luck factor...

I wish G killed niche blogs 100% already. Kind of stuck in them with one leg - and this is just the way I've been set to roll in life. The stuff that makes us who we are. Can't just snap a finger and change it overnight. Some are luckier than others when it comes to this.

I do wish I took the time to dabble in more baskets... Got too comfortable with this literal passive money tree. I'm back on beermoney surveys and the like to try and supplement prolonging the suffering, I guess.

This Twitter stuff might sound simple to you, but try looking at it from a completely different shoe. It's just another get-rich-quick scam scheme of a risky trial and error with insanely tight and limited funds 90% will never manage to make work from the other perspective. In that sense, every single method does work, but only under the right conditions, even blogging, apparently...

 

[vittorianicolosi1994]

I believe that BHW also have trends and 2024 is the trend to kill everything, bitcoin, bloggin, youtube, seo there are always ups and downs life is like a rollercoster so yeah nothing is dead yet is just more difficult to achieve the goals,I'm working for a couple of friends managing their social media, youtube and their are doing fine I couldn't get any where with it as a personal project I totally failed but when I started to work for my friends and other people projects everything was smoth so yeah change mind set if you believe you will fail you definitely will fail because you will sabotage your self to fail and have the reason that you fail, just keep it up.

Isn't Seo dead ?

 

[Vaibhav Pandya]

Yes true but while traditional long-form blogging may not be as popular as it once was, there are several alternative content formats and platforms you might consider exploring:

1. Microblogging
2. Video Blogging (Vlogging)
3. Podcasting
4. Guest Blogging
5. Email Newsletters
6. Interactive Content
7. Community Building
8. Ebooks and Whitepapers
9. Live Streaming
10. Content Curation

there's still plenty of opportunity to create and share valuable content in today's digital landscape.

 

[OccultKingdoms]

Every1 and their environment are different.

Luckily, I don't need 6 figures to live like a king here (figure of speech). 5 figures per year and it already felt like paradise with 0 stressors full-time entertainment (got to buy a house, without a loan, and almost everything else to last for a good while in moderation if luck had it). I can now live off of a mere $150/month if I only cooked rice with some cheap meat... Very close to "retiring" before even hitting 30.

It's the HCU's overnight drop that got me off guard. I was ready for a 30% drop and more work (adjustments), not a complete write-off of 70% drop across all the niches I was in (niche sites were left with the bottom-of-the-barrel traffic - bots, researchers, and consumers so high up the fence there is no convincing them to buy anything at all). And there were other niche sites in those spaces that got it way worse than me while being fully whitehat and exactly what Google said for years they expected from sites.

Basically, it's not just a little bummer of a failure, it's more like a backstab and a kick off the cliff. That takes a little while to come to terms with, it's only natural.

Backlinks. That's all that Google is about now. Been moving in this direction for months now, running tests on experimental sites - even spammy GSA SER links were able to rank main money pages to top 3...

It's more like I'm just immensely disappointed in Google, more than anything else. Now the rich get richer. The entry fee has been increased too high for any1 starting out. Same with the luck factor...

I wish G killed niche blogs 100% already. Kind of stuck in them with one leg - and this is just the way I've been set to roll in life. The stuff that makes us who we are. Can't just snap a finger and change it overnight. Some are luckier than others when it comes to this.

I do wish I took the time to dabble in more baskets... Got too comfortable with this literal passive money tree. I'm back on beermoney surveys and the like to try and supplement prolonging the suffering, I guess.

This Twitter stuff might sound simple to you, but try looking at it from a completely different shoe. It's just another get-rich-quick scam scheme of a risky trial and error with insanely tight and limited funds 90% will never manage to make work from the other perspective. In that sense, every single method does work, but only under the right conditions, even blogging, apparently...

But what is this type of life worth.

Blogging is what type of skill? It can't be even classified as professional. There's no degree for it. Nobody takes it seriously. And there are firm reasons for that.

It's usually referred to as some traffic generation method. It's just a little thing in the grand scheme of marketing.

If you have tunnel vision, you have a wrong vision for life.

Marketing is about testing little variables which can take couple of minutes a day to test. Once you have a solid set, you turn it into a scalable method. Milk the hell out of a traffic source. Meanwhile find something else.

This process will never yield returns for longer time. You need to own traffic if you seek this. For that there's a need of email lists and private networks.

The worst you can do is focus on being on someone's list like beermoney surveys as a marketer. Of course temporarily it's not a problem. But it shouldn't take too much of your attention.

You can just have a site where people complete surveys for you. It's not that popular. It's doable to get 1000 bucks a day with just other people converting your offers.

 

[AmberJones]

yeah blogging is dead, you go stop doing it while we go continue making money blogging LOL

 

[Marco69]

Thing is, when I started my sites, they were low competition niches.

On-page was decent enough to outrank DR50 renowned niche authority sites prior to HCU (with near-0 DR myself - content quality and user metrics actually mattered prior to HCU).

The content was meticulously planned out and deeply researched. In addition, I used a handful of powerful tricks from psychology to hook and convert the visitors with engaging (+ SEO friendly) content. I never went overboard with optimizing because I knew the high authority sites would try and copy my content (including techniques) each and every year (each year the industry would come out with new and upgraded line of products which the bloggers and reviewers would then have to re-test and write about). It allowed me to stay 2 steps ahead of my competitors. I used "topical authority" before it became mainstream in SEO. Same with bolding, the lot...

...Come HCU, none of it matters anymore. It's all about off-page SEO, overnight at that.

When it's Forbes (and equivalents) at the top outranking even the niche authorities just because they've got the backlinks (or rather, Google just designated them as "trusted sites" probably, ranking for Anything they fart on), for me there's 0 room left even with backlinks (the main niche authority site is barely on the 1st page, too, slowly dropping out). The behemoths barged in, copied things said by the niche sites, farted on some extra keywords, and Google put them at the top, no questions asked... How can any1 tell me blogging is not dead is beyond me.

I'm not some SEO agency offering OVERPRICED services and managing a team of VA's on a payroll that would allow me to bribe every1 around me for backlinks. It's just not going to happen. I'm an average Joe. I think blogging is officially dead for people like me. I have yet to see any1 recover from this.

I appreciate the help though, unfortunately however, it's kind of the stuff I was very well aware of already. You do help with hammering in the primary problem, of course - that is, lack of backlinks.

Starting over in new niches kind of runs into the same issue - it's only a matter of time till Forbes (or equivalents) fart in its general direction and rank at the top for any and all semantically related keywords and topics (basically covering the entire niche... a la: "Oh, you want to know how the integration of advanced adaptive optics and interferometry in large ground-based telescopes could potentially enhance our capabilities beyond those of the James Webb Space Telescope, especially in the realm of examining exoplanet atmospheres and identifying biosignatures within their spectral data? Boy, do I have the article for you! Here, Forbes has written a very compelling article on the subject, titled: Best Telescopes for Beginners"). Replace the niche, the question, and Forbes with an equivalent, and you've got yourself the new Google formula where blogging does not exist...

With an equivalent with this written complicated aristocratic words no one understand? OK , gemini can do that adding a lot of fluffy hallucination to every sentence, then it sounds old poetry like the King James bible and add some aristocracy words to it- voila you have an article no one will understand.

But you will not make sales or getting email leads with this style.....

Like Brand Russell he often speaks with that britisch high advance cambride english, words I never heard of before, because I not have studied this level ( I was on the normal uk english level)

 

[Marco69]

Yes true but while traditional long-form blogging may not be as popular as it once was, there are several alternative content formats and platforms you might consider exploring:

1. Microblogging
2. Video Blogging (Vlogging)
3. Podcasting
4. Guest Blogging
5. Email Newsletters
6. Interactive Content
7. Community Building
8. Ebooks and Whitepapers
9. Live Streaming
10. Content Curation

there's still plenty of opportunity to create and share valuable content in today's digital landscape.

There are big blogs out there who get a lot of traffic and never got a google hit , they are more into obscure niches....

Video blogging selfhost or on youtube?

Podcast, I not see selfhost podcast or videos rank in google, many podcasters have it up because it Not bring's good traffic, there are better traffic sources.

 

[mingge]

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.

You are too right.

Thank you for giving me confidence.

 

[BlackMu]

yeah blogging is dead, you go stop doing it while we go continue making money blogging LOL

Hey mate, are you finally making more money now?
lol