Should You Start a Blog vs. YouTube Channel in 2024 | Which is Better?
When I started creating content in 2019, I debated whether to focus on my blog or my YouTube channel for a long time. And while I do feel the two platforms complement one another, I think YouTube offers the opportunity for faster growth.
Suppose you write an excellent blog post for a competitive term. You’re still unlikely to hit the #1 position in the SERP. New bloggers face an uphill climb when acquiring the links and domain authority needed to compete. Meanwhile, an excellent YouTube video can get outrageous amounts of Google Discover traffic (and rise to the top of the video SERPs much more quickly).
Let’s go over the advantages and disadvantages of blogging vs. YouTube for attracting an audience!
It Takes an Extremely Long Time For Blog Posts To Rank
If you publish the world’s greatest blog post, nothing will happen.
You’ll wait… And wait… And wait…
My first blog post ultimately ranked reasonably well in Google. BUT, that same post got almost zero impressions for over a year! Thirteen months is a ridiculous amount of time to wait for any success whatsoever!
As you establish more domain authority in Google, your posts should rank faster than that. That said, YouTube won’t take a year to notice your content exists. Your videos will get surfaced significantly faster than that if you’re consistently pumping out good content.
Blogs Have Cheaper Startup Costs
How can blogs cost less when YouTube is free?
That’s spoken like a person who never bought YouTube cameras, YouTube audio equipment, video editing computers, backdrops, or video editing software before. YouTube can be an expensive beast. Heck, if you tried to start a YouTube channel with an iPhone, iPhones aren’t cheap either!
Meanwhile, WordPress hosting can be quite cheap. You could easily run multiple blogs for under $200 per year. It’d be hard to even buy an iPhone for that.
YouTube Videos Have a Higher Ceiling (For Views)
I’ve written 170 blog posts over 2.5 years (as of this post). The most successful post I’ve had to date gets about 4,000 pageviews a month. And while that’s certainly not the best you can do in the blogging world, you’re rarely going to create posts that top 4,000 monthly pageviews.
Meanwhile, I’ve created several YouTube videos that have gotten hundreds or even thousands of views per DAY. And I’m not even that great at making videos.
YouTube Requires More Skills
Blogging is not easy. Writing, web development, and SEO are hard! Sticking to a consistent blogging schedule is challenging. I’m not trying to discount how difficult blogging is.
That said, editing videos, learning how cameras work, how audio gear works, writing a script, storytelling, being good on camera, etc. These are challenging skills to master. And you have to be decent at all of them to put out videos people will love to watch.
Some people are so compelling that they’ll have massive success on YouTube with lazily produced cell phone videos. But that’s probably not you. To succeed on the platform, you will have to challenge yourself and pick up some hard skills.
A Successful Blog is More Passive
The nice thing about blogs is that Google doesn’t care at all if you don’t post for several months or even several years. Meanwhile, the common wisdom on YouTube is that you need consistent content to succeed (although that’s debatable).
Your content will slowly degrade in value with a blog (after a few years). But, there are plenty of examples of blog posts that are still relevant 10+ years after the publish date. You certainly don’t need weekly content, and Google admits that they don’t care about your publishing schedule.
So blogging provides a better work-life balance once you are successful. You can take a vacation and remain reasonably confident your business won’t die.
Blogs Convert Affiliate Links Significantly Better
For an affiliate sale to count, somebody has to click your link and purchase on the same machine in an agreed-upon time. Amazon only gives you 24 hours and 3% of sales, which is non-ideal.
Unfortunately, with YouTube videos, your viewers have to find the link in the description, click it, and complete the purchase. If they were watching your video on a mobile device or Apple TV, it’s unlikely that you’re going to get credit for the sale.
Meanwhile, people reading blogs can easily click the link and convert. There will still be loss on affiliate links, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it is with YouTube videos.
YouTube Converts Product Sales Better
That logic gets turned on its head if you’re selling your own product or don’t need to get somebody to click a link to make a sale. The common wisdom among Internet marketers is that images convert 10x better than text, and video converts 10x better than images. People trust videos more because they feel like they’re getting a convincing demo or testimonial.
Ads Pay Better On Your Blog
You should be able to get a $10-$30 RPM (revenue per 1,000 impressions) on your blog with a premium ad network (like Mediavine).
However, on YouTube, you’d be lucky to see a $10 RPM from their ad program. It’s not unheard of if you choose a high-value niche. But, that’s certainly higher than the average. Meaning ads are likely to pay 3-5x per visitor compared to YouTube traffic.
Conclusion: Start a YouTube Channel Over a Blog
I know it’s ironic telling you to focus on a YouTube channel from my blog. Particularly when I focused on my blog over the YouTube channel when I first got started. And I don’t even regret owning this blog; it’s been a reasonably successful endeavor.
That said, I feel like you can get traffic faster with YouTube. Plus, you’ll convert product sales better and obtain a more valuable skillset that you can market. And a high subscriber count will make you appear more authoritative when you finally do get around to starting your blog!
If you’re deciding between the two, focus on YouTube.