If I had a dollar for every time someone on social media asked if blogging was making a comeback, I could probably take a month long trip to the beach. (twice)
I started seeing it earlier this year with email marketing. Now blogging and before long, it’ll probably be podcasts or something else.
I have a couple of thoughts as to why this is becoming a thing, so grab a chair and your favorite snack and let's talk about it.
People want instant gratification
First why I think this is now becoming a thing is because people attempt a marketing method, don't see the results they want or were expecting in a 30 to 60 day timeframe, hell even 15 days, and then believe the method is broken.
Like they started a blog, post six times, got twelve page views mostly from themselves, their mom and a couple of friends. and now "blogging is dead."
Or they sent an email campaign to a list of 50 people they haven't talked to in eight months, got a 9% open rate, and now email marketing is on life support.
They fail to realize the method itself isn't broken. It's probably their content, messaging, positioning, and maybe even their offer if they are selling something or offer services.
No matter how popular a marketing method may seem with all the “experts” saying how much money they made from it, it still all boils down to your own content and you yourself as the creator.
These established creators and owners get great results because they're saying something their audience wants to read, they have offers that brings relief to their audience daily life, and they allow it to build no matter how slow or long it may seem to take (which is the most important part).
People get to comparing someone's month 30 results to their day 5 and expect thousands of dollars to start flowing in just because someone gives them some of their best tips and techniques, and it doesn't work like that. You still have to tailor it to your brand and audience.
What’s that famous quote “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.
Reason two: It’s trendy
This one just makes me laugh a little every time I see it happen, not just with this particular topic, but overall across multiple things.
Somebody makes a post genuinely asking "is blogging dead?" or “is email marketing not a thing anymore” on social media, the post gains traction because it is a relatable question, and suddenly everybody and their mama start posting the same thing, just in different variations, including people who don't even blog or do the whole online marketing thing.
It's like a certain pattern you start to notice as you're doom scrolling especially on sites like Threads where it's mostly words and not images and video. I call it the bandwagon posts.
They just want the engagement and honestly? It works and I don't blame them.
It crazy what likes, comments, and shares do for people on social media but that’s a different topic for a different day.
The only thing I don't like is that the ones who couldn't tell you the difference between a permalink and a meta description, are the ones who actually inflate the trend into something that feels like an industry wide crisis when it's really just people out here who actually want to know if something is not the move anymore.
Although in my opinion, even if it's not the move anymore, you can still do it. You don't have to follow the crowd but what do I know. 🤷🏾♀️
Now what's actually shifting
I do believe blogging specifically has shifted just a little and I'd argue it's shifted in a really interesting direction that I'm happy to see happen.
The lifestyle, hobby blogging is coming back and the era of bending yourself backwards to hit every SEO checkbox, stuffing keywords into posts that read like they were written by someone who has never had an in person conversation before, writing exclusively about your business or your niche because that's what the algorithm wants is fading and honestly.... good riddance.
People are going back to what blogging actually was before the internet turned it into a marketing strategy, where they can write about whatever they want - gardening, crocheting, running, video games, cars, beauty, arts and crafts, personal essays about life and work and figuring things out all at once without having to fit into a box.
Blogs that sound like a person wrote them and not a brand.
Slight plug, but like right here on my own hobby blog.
Yes I’m still writing about business related things - email, SEO, and blogging, but it’s not the typical copy-paste ‘5 Ways To’ formula and these aren’t the only topics I’m gonna be writing about. It just the most pressing things on my mind at the moment.
So what do you think? Are any of the online marketing methods actually dead or is it just the most popular trend?
The internet is loud and it loves a good panic. Try not to let it make decisions for you.
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