Blogging vs YouTube (Pros & Cons)

I wanted to have a conversation with you regarding the pros and cons of blogging and YouTube. As you already know, I run a YouTube channel with 100,000+ subscribers and I love creating videos.

In Wealthy Affiliate, there is a lot of training for both blogging and YouTube (and many other things) but the main training still mainly focuses on blogging.

After you have read my post, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. I want to learn from you and I believe that I can provide you with some eye-opening insights in this post.

First, let’s start with the pros and cons of blogging.

Blogging: Pros & Cons

PROS:

1) More Control

If you are using YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, or any other platform, you’re playing on someone else’s website.

You don’t own the platform.

YouTube can decide to change the rules anytime they want and you can do nothing about it. They have control.

That’s why it’s important that as a YouTuber, you have control over your videos. Have a backup of all your important videos. Even if the platforms would change, you can simply use the videos on other platforms.

On your blog, you’re the one who decides when changes happen.

2) Faster Than Creating Videos?

On a survey created by Databox, most respondents said that it takes a longer time to produce video content than blog content (see below)

That's why some people may prefer blogging because they feel it's faster and easier.

However, I have a good solution for this if video production takes too much time:

Create videos based on your blog posts = Use your blog posts as a script for your videos.

I do that often. I write a blog post and I simply use that as a script for my video so I get 2 pieces of content instead of just one.

If you're gonna spend all that time researching and thinking about the topic, why not publish it in both forms: text & video.

Usually, research and writing is the most time-consuming part when I create videos.

CONS:

1) Is Blogging Becoming Outdated?

If we compare how the people are consuming content, the trend seems to be towards videos and audio rather than texts.

However, this doesn’t obviously mean that blogging would be outdated. In fact, you are reading a blog right now.

But how will the future turn out? Will people keep on consuming more and more videos and less text content?

The time will show.

2) Google Changes Rules Constantly

Most of the bloggers have lost a huge part of their traffic overnight when Google has changed the rules.

Google keeps on changing its rules year after year.

Therefore, I think the question is not if each blogger is going to get hit but rather when it happens.

In the other words, even if you have more control as a blogger, you are still dependent on platforms that aren't owned by you.

When you post content on YouTube, you're hoping that YouTube doesn't change the rules.

When you post content on your own blog, you're hoping that Google doesn't change the rules.

Both are owned by the same company by the way...

I have heard and seen many people losing 50% of their Google traffic overnight but much fewer stories of YouTubers losing that much traffic overnight. From that perspective, I feel that YouTube is more stable than Goole as a search engine.

YouTube: Pros & Cons

PROS:

1) YouTube Promotes Your Content

When you have a blog, you’ll need to do all the promotions (other than search traffic).

If you don't promote your blog, nobody is going to come to your website.

However, when you have a YouTube channel, YouTube promotes your content in many ways:

• YouTube Homepage
• Suggested Videos
• Notifications
• YouTube Search
• Etc.

It's awesome because when you publish a new video, YouTube immediately helps you by putting your content in front of your subscribers.

2) Video Content & Consumption Is RAPIDLY Growing

You can see all kinds of statistics and they're always telling you the same thing: More & more people are watching videos online. People want to watch videos more than ever before. And the demand is growing year after year.

Here are a few statistics:

• 85% of ALL Internet users in the US watched online video content monthly (Statista, 2018)
  
• 54% of consumers want to see MORE video content (Hubspot, 2018)
• 93% of marketers who use video say that it's an important part of their marketing strategy (Wyzowl, 2021)

• According to 88% of marketers, video marketing provides them with positive ROI. When you consider that only 33% said the same in 2015. (Smartinsights, 2020)

This surely gives a feeling that if you are not using videos in your marketing, you're being left behind.

3) Automatic Ad Management

When you have a blog and you want to run ads, you’ll need to set up the system by yourself.

Fortunately, there are ad management services such as Mediavine, Ezoic, AdThrive, etc. that make things easier but it still may require some time and effort on your part as well.

On YouTube, you can start running ads with a click of a button once you have 1k subscribers and enough watchtime.

4) World’s Most Advanced Analytics

If you have spent a few moments digging into YouTube Analytics, you know that it’s completely mind-blowing.

You’ll get all kinds of data that you couldn’t even ask for.

The purpose of this data is obviously to help you to better understand your audience and provide content that people want to watch.

That will lead to more views, more subscribers, more money, more impact and more everything.

I've been on YouTube for several years and YouTube has been constantly improving its analytics. I'm really excited to see always their improvements all the time.

CONS:

1) What If YouTube Dramatically Changes the Rules?

This is the issue of all social media platforms: You are not in control of the rules.

The solution is to learn to adapt and choose the platform that gives you the best results.

As I learned from my recent experience, YouTube isn't 100% fair with its rules. They may let other creators post the same content that you are not allowed to post.

Therefore, all creators don't have the same rules. That's obviously not fair but you just need to live with it when you get to use and benefit from their platform.

What Are YOUR Thoughts?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on blogging vs YouTube in the comments below.

What are the pros & cons of YouTube and the pros & cons of blogging in your opinion? => Tell us in the comments below!

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

- Roope

PS. I guess someone might say, "I don't use YouTube because I don't want to show my face." Well, that's not an issue because many of the biggest channels with 1,000,000's (=MILLIONS) of subscribers never show their face.

In fact, you might not even know their names, hear their voices, or know anything about the creator if they don't want to reveal themselves. You have the same freedom as with blogging in that sense.

I just wanted to clarify this because I've seen some people concerned that they don't want to show their faces online => You don't have to if you don't want to! And you can still become wildly successful.