Is blogging just a fad? Will we all wake up one day and find that the careers we were building are suddenly gone with no warning? Many people try to tell us this is the case. One phrase that I’ve heard quite a bit from people not in this industry is that “blogging is a bubble that is going to pop”. People love asking for my backup plan, and giving us looks that lecture, as if we’re too young to understand that this new-fangled internet thing is going to just go away one day.
It’s hard to know what to say. Especially in the early days these statements really upset me. I was trying to figure out if I could make it in this industry. Having a bunch of people tell me that I was going to eventually fail before I even had a chance to start is not only disheartening, but downright rude in most contexts. (I say this with the exception of the people we actually count on to give us good advice, call us on our blindspots, and talk through ideas and schemes with us.)
Being several years into this industry myself and now the sole breadwinner for our family because of this whole “blogging fad”, I have a few things to say about the way blogging is perceived.
Blogging is not a bubble or a fluke. It is an industry.
When people ask me what I’m going to do when blogging just “goes away”. I tel them this:
Blogging is not going to go away until people no longer want to be entertained, have stopped wanting to connect with other humans and no longer feel the need for seeking opinions outside their own inner circle.
Blogging is not going to disappear overnight, because it speaks to the human need for connection, entertainment and education.
However, blogging will change. Industries always change and the people in that industry must learn to go with the changes or get left behind.
Print books became audio books, and then ebooks. Reading is not obsolete but there are multiple ways to digest a book now and the publishing industry has had to keep up to match the ever changing demands of consumers.
We aren’t going to wake up one day and our entire industry is gone. That’s not how marketing and advertising works.
As writers and bloggers we are also marketers and advertisers and in an industry so much larger than what the people who think we just “play on the internet” could ever understand.
If you doubt this, check out this post where they ran the numbers and compared different types of advertising. See how blogging and social media are shooting their way to the topmost rungs of effective marketing, while some of the more traditional ways of advertising (like newspaper ads) are sinking into obscurity. The industry is changing.
Newspapers are now starting websites with blogs like ours, in order to stay relevant, yet no one asks a newspaper owner what his “backup plan” is in case the whole “news” fad doesn’t work out.
It’s true, eventually blogging will change and morph into something else, and we will have the choice to change right along with it, or choose a new career path. This is no different from the choice that staff at the newspaper companies, and those editing for magazines and even television producers are faced with as the marketing and advertising tides change.
Industries change all time. Our business is not a fluke or a mistake, it’s intentional and we represent one of the most effective marketing tools available to advertisers right now. That’s not a happy accident. It’s a fact.
Blogging is here to stay. We won’t wake up and it’s gone, but each morning when we wake up it will be a little bit different, and we will need to adjust what we are doing in order to stay relevant and at the top of our game. Just like every other business owner out there.
It might be hard for friends and family members who are not familiar with our space to understand the type of business that we run. But don’t let that stop you. You are a marketing powerhouse and that influence is not to be taken lightly nor will it vanish on a whim.
If you are looking to start a blog and join this massive industry, we can help you get started!
- You can start a blog here, really easily, if you haven’t started on already:
You can read our book about what we do to make our blogs successful:
- If you are trying to grow your blog and feeling stuck, Becky and I offer blog coaching. We will go over your site and social media with you and show you where you are doing great and what you should focus on to grow. It’s one of our favorite ways to help bloggers!
- You can see our income reports here, to get a monthly breakdown of how I am making money each month.
Or you can see how I got my first million readers here:
- If you are wanting to get serious about your blog this year and connect with other bloggers join our facebook group. You can ask questions, network and share your goals!
BAD blogging is dying, thankfully. There will always be a demand for high quality information and entertainment online. Whether that comes from a digital version of a magazine, news network, or a blog doesn’t matter, it just has to be what someone is looking for.
Very true!
Blogging is definitely not dying, and there is plenty of room for new bloggers to join. These are myths I despise!
I agree with Melody that “bad” blogging is dying. People no longer have the time or make the time to simply read about others’ day to day lives. We are more interested in learning and growing (and being entertained in a self-interested way). Thanks for covering this topic. I’m bookmarking it for when I do have naysayers and need a reminder of how to respond!
Thank you for this post! I’m finding that family and friends look at me like I have three eyes when I talk about my blog and online work. They really don’t understand, which makes sense since it’s new to them – but it is frustrating at times. Thank you for giving me better tools and words to be able to talk to them.
Agreed! It’s not “what will you do when blogging dies” so much as “will you be able to keep up when everything changes?” I personally think that a lot of office jobs and brick and mortar stores are going to be disappearing, that more and more people will start working from home. What will that mean for us, and for our social behaviors? You pretty much just have to roll with it…adapt or die!