Want to start something but confused between Blogging vs YouTube? Make the perfect choice today and know which is more profitable for you.
Today, we are going to cover all the major aspects here so that you can take the right decision and start your online journey in the correct path.
Writing or Shooting Videos
What’s your dominant skill? Good at both, then what are you more good at? These are some questions you gotta ask yourself before starting a blog or youtube channel.
If you are having good content writing skills, blog will be preferred more. And by writing, I mean in-depth writing. I am saying this because Google loves in depth content to show to its users in the search results.
On the other hand, if you are more comfortable speaking, explaining in front of a camera, YouTube is the go to choice for you!
This factor of your skill is the major difference to consider if you are thinking long term. Both blogging and youtube are forms of content creation. One is text based, the other being video based.
Scope: Blogging vs YouTube
Want to know how many Google searches happen per day?
5.6 Billion Searches
Yes, you read it right. Want proof? Let me show you.
And every time they search something, your blog can be one of the search results that appear in top 10. Now you know the scope of blogging.
So if someone says, “No scope for blogging as people prefer videos more” You have the answer with proof!
Now, let’s move to YouTube.
Approx 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube each day.
Now you know the potential for both.
Budget: Blogging vs YouTube
Let’s consider the budget and financial factor now. If you are having ample of money, skip this part! I am going to compare both step by step here.
Taking YouTube, now budget factor depends on your channel category here. For instance, if it’s a travel vlog channel, a good camera is a must have investment. You may start initially by using phone camera. But on long term, switching to a professional camera is required.
Also, if you want your videos to look more professional, you may have to invest in some good video editing software which can cost you some money.
Some more important investments include lighting setup, microphone, tripods, etc.
Now moving on to blogging,
You can start a blog even for free on platform such as Blogger. However, it’s advised to go for a self hosted WordPress blog if you want good results which won’t cost you more than 1500-2000 INR (domain plus hosting)
I am not considering PC as a factor because it can be substituted via smartphone. However, if you want to do any of them, blogging or YouTube, professionally, a PC is a must have.
If you want to start blogging, refer to this guide below,
How to Start Blogging (Step-By-Step)
So in the budget factor, blogging has an upper hand.
What’s Your Niche?
First, I advice to figure out on what niche you are going to create content. Niche is the topic or category around which you will create content.
I am telling you to do this because there are some niches which can serve the audience better via video content, whereas blog being the choice for some others.
For instance, if you want to create tutorials on using Photoshop, YouTube should be your choice as videos will make people understand better.
Think from the point of view of the audience. In your area of content, which format benefits them better, video or blog?
Also, there are niches such as Health and Fitness that have potential in both areas, blogging and YouTube. On YouTube, you can create exercise tutorials. On blog, you can provide diets and workout routines.
Make a list of all the topics which you have interest in. Then, select the one which you can continue with, on a long term.
How Much Time to Get Success?
Why do you want to start Blogging or YouTube? Just for passion or for making money out of it? Let me know in the comments below!
For both, you need audience right? No one will like keep creating content if anyone isn’t watching. We need audience for both the platforms. Once you start building audience, you start getting success.
Considering this, Blogging takes more time than YouTube to grow in most cases. You may have to wait for 6-8 months for a blog to start ranking on Google after doing proper SEO.
On the other hand, YouTube can see a faster growth if your video goes viral or you are targeting a low competition niche.
Note: Patience is required for both. None out of these is a “Quick Rich” scheme.
Skills Required for Blogging and YouTube
In order to get results, both require some skills to develop. If you are a keen learner, you can learn them easily. Let’s take a look on both of them.
Basic skills required for blogging:
- Content Writing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Basic Website Design
- Photo Editing Skills
- Social Networking
- Marketing Skills
Required skills for starting YouTube:
- Video Creation
- Effective Communication Skills
- Video Editing
- Photo Editing (for thumbnails)
- Pitching Ideas
These are some of the basic skills. Apart from this, you need to constantly stay updated about what’s going on the in market trends and keep yourself up to the mark.
Monetization
Next comes the ways of monetization. How do you want to monetize your content?
On YouTube, the primary source of monetization is AdSense, by showing ads between your videos. You may get sponsors after reaching a certain level of subscriber base, it depends.
When it comes to earn money by blogging, the options are more vast. You are not limited to only one ad network of AdSense. There are multiple ad networks you can join to boost your revenues if you don’t get approved on one.
Apart from that, you can sell own products, insert paid links, sell online courses, etc. Also, affiliate marketing is one of the best source of income and works great for most bloggers.
You can join multiple affiliate networks and promote their products to start making money. Affiliate can also be done on YouTube, but it’s more convenient to do on a blog according to my experience.
I am saying so as you can create landing pages, opt in forms, lead magnets and drive sales through funnels on your blog. Options are more vast here.
Does Blogging or YouTube make more money?
This is a question which can have both sided answers. I can show you bloggers like Harsh Agarwal who are earning $30,000+ per month.
Also, there are youtubers like Bhuvan Bam in India who are amazingly successful. After some Google searches, I found his monthly income to be $50,000+ (including sponsorships)
You can earn in both once you get the audience/traffic. The key point here is you cannot expect to get rich overnight. It takes years of hard work and dedication to reach to this level.
Don’t just start them for money, you will quit after some months this way. Start them by following your interests, passion and you will definitely succeed one day.
Ownership
Blogging on self hosted platforms like WordPress makes you the owner of your blog. It means that no one can take down your blog without your permission.
However, you are not the owner in case of YouTube. It’s a platform and you are a creator on that platform. You can get strikes, copyright notices, and take downs. YouTube can delete your video if it finds you violating it’s policies.
It can demonetize your videos if it finds policy violations. You don’t own the platform here at all.
Same is the case if you start a free blog on subdomains like Blogger. You don’t become the owner of your website here. This is one of the reason most pro bloggers advice to go for a self hosted WordPress Blog.
Find level of Competition
In your niche, what among blogging or youtube has more competition? You can check this using some basic keyword research techniques.
For example, if there are already a lot of articles ranking on the topic “weight loss diet”, you may find it difficult to get ranked in the organic results. That’s why it is advised to choose a niche which is having low competition.
If there are a lot of blogs already in your niche and the number of videos are less, you can opt for making video content as people will find it more innovative and engaging.
If you want to check how many people have already written articles targeting a specific topic, on Google, search this query:
allintitle:your keyword here
This query gives you all the articles that have the keyword you entered in their title. You will get an idea that to whom you have to compete with in order to outrank them.
My Suggestion: Blogging vs YouTube
After analyzing all the above facts, if you are still confused, I would say you can experiment both. Then, continue with the one you are more comfortable doing in a long term.
In conclusion, the scope is amazing in both and you can start any one or both. My suggestion is to do both the things simultaneously, if possible. Grow your audience on both platforms!
Helps attract more visitors and then you can divert your traffic from one platform to another. Most bloggers are coming on YouTube nowadays to create engaging video content too.
And also from there, they drive traffic to their blog by giving links in the description. Doing this can make your earnings double!
Otherwise, in short,
- For content writing lovers – Blogging
- For camera lovers – YouTube
I hope this post solved your queries regarding blogging vs YouTube as I covered almost all major aspects here. Share this post with your friends and drop a comment below to share your opinion!