I don't quite "get" the specific sense in which the users in this thread are reporting the infinite hurdles and problems with
"blogging" in 2025/26 and beyond. Heck, inside the
Blogging Sub-Forum there are even other threads suggesting that "blogging" might just as well be dead because so many people have quit their blogs since the early 2020s...
Well, to be a bit whitepilled about it, I would say that those people have simply quit "blogging" (I am putting the word "blogging" in between quotation marks intentionally -- and I'll get to that in a few paragraphs) because they found something preferable in terms of input (effort) and output (money). Hence why it may compensate more to, for example,
re-purpose the fine text you've spent the last hour or so writing, and with a few tweaks to tone and structure, transform it into an YouTube Script, which you will narrate in a video. And to be fair, technically this is still a form of "blogging".
And to get to "blogging" -- what exactly do YOU PEOPLE (lmao) mean with "blogging"?
"Blogging" pretty much amounts to the idea of having a website. And we cannot say that
"websites are dead". Now, one could argue that yes, simpler websites in which a bunch of nonsensical written content is plastered into them are dead. And it's not hard to understand why:
It's because of people like us (marketers). The only reason to go to a website is to find:
- Unique perspectives (need quality HUMANLY-written content; maybe some social proof; maybe some virality angle to it)
- Interact with a community (need either a forum, or a thriving comment section, or lively connections with actual social media via API or something)
- Have a database, compilation of data, curated archive, ordered information being served to users.
- Have a tool/ web app that does a specific task that I need.
- Have a store and a product that I want to buy
These are like the 5 main reasons to visit what I would refer as "end user websites" which are from, well, end-users, or small businesses. And most of those (except the stores in most instances) have the idea of a "blog" attached to them.
Now, I have had a bunch of websites throughout the years, and they have always made money and continue to make money. I don't depend on them as a primary way to earn a living, but I have had good winning streaks here and there. Yeah, my earnings are always irregular and depend a lot on the effort that I put on the website and its marketing, but 1) it does make money; 2) I can then invest the money in other businesses or in ads or something.
In regards to my approach, In the 3 niches I have worked with, I have always relied on Social Media. I have never waited for SEO to do the trick, nor have I ever waited for SERP traffic. I have always started by creating a bunch of content for my websites (posts, or, when applicable, static pages), and then just following with the news/viral stuff/ popular stuff happening on my niche. At the same time, I grow Social Media.
Once I feel like my websites look and feel premium enough (in regards to the quality and richness of the content; design; themes; color; fonts; logo; nice comment section; etc), I double down on "blogging". I start by writing a bunch of posts, to make the website feel alive and well. Those posts are always very personal and opinionated (even contrarian); never cold and "informational" -- and then I post those to Social Media. On Social Media, I never post in a boomer-esque manner, in the sense of doing them
"Hi guys, this is my website and these are my Socials, please visit them...". Instead -- and this is my starting point -- I will have multiple Social Media pages, all independent from my website and operating under different names. In there I will post other opinions of mine (I do type a lot), memes, other hot takes, short videos related to the niche, etc. Among that content I post on socials, my actual "money articles" from my "money website" will be a drop in the ocean -- but I make sure they're controversial enough (title and opinion expressed in them) that it incentivizes people to click, comment, etc. When they do well, I may try to post them on Reddit too. I also like have domain names which "sound cool" and which I can just namedrop and have people google them (like meathead's method).
Suffice to say, I monetize the websites via affiliate marketing. And I still haven't found a systematizable go-to strategy in regards to monetization: Sometimes I namedrop and link a product in the article; other times the article links to another article of mine where the product and/or service in question.
And I tend to have some success. Not BIG SUCCESS. But small successes. Successes big enough to fund ads. Successes big enough to fund buying another phone or a laptop. Some months I make only $300 or even as little as a big fat zero, but there have been other months where I've made like $3000+. Luckily I don't depend on this, but this extra money has helped me A LOT here and there.
TL;DR -> Great design, opinionated textual voice, and a
Social Media First approach continues to work for me on a small, unpredictable scale. But it does work.
To finalize, I am not claiming to be some sort of authority, and to be fair, I have never "made it big". I am just saying that yes, "blogging" still does work at smaller scales. Just maybe not in a systematized SERP-algo-first manner
