Is it worth starting a blog in 2024? Compared to years past, I've seen a massive drop in traffic (and consequently in revenue) across both my blogs. So no, it's not worth blogging in 2024 and beyond. Yet it's not all doom and gloom - there are still some cases where you might might still want to blog, which I'll get to towards the end. I also cover at the end better options for you to do instead of blogging.
I'll explain clearly the reasons why I feel that blogging is dead.
First though, a word of warning: you may have seen many people online reassure you that blogging is very much alive and that you can make money from it. These people, almost without exception, are either selling a blogging course, SEO services such as keyword search, or they have web host affiliate links. In other words, they have something to gain by you blogging. They're not looking out for you, just for their income stream. So if you see someone saying it's profitable to make money online from blogging, read carefully to see if they're selling anything - they probably are.
Reasons why it's not profitable to start a blog
It's extremely hard even for established bloggers to get traffic now, and that means it's going to be even more difficult for a new blogger to break into the market. It's not impossible - just hard. Of course, every niche and every blogger is different, so I'm not going to say it'll be equally hard for every situation. But it's still not going to be easy to get blog revenue, even in a favorable situation.
Here are the reasons why blogging is dead.
1. AI scrapes your content and puts it on search results so you get less visits to your site
AI is one of the reasons you might struggle to get any traffic. Even if you wrote a really great and helpful article, AI bots will scrape your site (without compensating you) and put the information on search results. Even if they provide a reference to your site, very few people might bother clicking through to your site because AI tries to make their own mini-article about it. This means you lose out on ad revenue that you'd get if people were to visit your site.
Sure, AI companies sometimes point to compensation agreements they have with large publishers (e.g. AP News, Reddit) but they're not compensating anyone else, particularly small publishers such as yourself, even if they're scraping your content and using it for their own profit. This is not a level playing field for you.
Because of AI alone, blogging is not going to be profitable for a beginner blogger, much less an established one. But wait - it gets worse! There are other reasons behind blogging not being worth it. Before you get too sad about this, rest assured I cover some better alternatives for you at the end of this article.
2. Big publishers are now promoting affiliate products that individual bloggers used to promote
Big outlets like Good Housekeeping who used to focus mostly on interviews and other harder-hitting journalism are now doing the types of articles promoting affiliate products that individual bloggers used to do. For example, instead of interviewing a celebrity chef, they'll publish articles such "10 products your kitchen needs now".
Those big publishers already have a big audience and a ton of reliable content so they come up really well in the search results. So, even if someone was to search for something and actually click through past the AI generated mini-article, they'd most likely wind up at one of the big publishers and not on your site.
Without visitors, you're not getting ad revenue or affiliate revenue.
3. Google controls the majority of search results and of advertising revenue
Google's near monopoly on both search results and advertising placement does not work in your favor. For how much space Google Adsense takes up on your site, you earn so little, even if you're getting clicks. There are some alternative ad networks to Google, but many of those are third party buyers and sellers of ads which go through Google's ad network anyway.
This lack of competition in the advertising industry is not to your advantage.
4. Understand that people don't follow blogs
People don't read or follow blogs in the same way they might follow someone on social media. Instead, you'll have to rely on search engine traffic - which is not a bad thing, but it means you might not have many repeat viewers. Google's dominance in search means you might be relying too much on one platform (Google) which is not ideal.
Of course, as a blogger, if you're in a specific niche you can and should have an email signup where people can get notified when you have a new blog post. That is one way you can build and keep up your own audience without relying on Google. Nonetheless, people don't read blogs as a form of entertainment - instead they might read an article if it comes up in something they searched for.
5. Increasingly difficult to get a new site accepted for ad networks or affiliate programs
In 2024, competitors such as big publishers rely more on online ads and affiliate programs than on membership revenue or print magazine versions of their news. Their increasing entry into the same programs you want to use means your small site might be deemed too small to easily get accepted into ad networks or affiliate programs. You certainly can and should wait until you have more traffic before applying, but it can take a really long time to get that traffic (for reasons outlined above).
During this process you're losing money because without a source of ad revenue or affiliate revenue, you don't have a source of income from your blog. You shouldn't expect to earn money right away anyway, but now more than ever it's getting to be a longer and longer time that you'd be making a loss.
Things you should do to earn money online instead of blogging
Here are a few things you can do if you're looking to earn money online which are less affected by the problems outlined above. AI can't (as easily) scrape or copy your content with these ideas, nor does Google's dominance affect you as much here.
- Become a Roblox creator - you'll need some basic coding skills though. This is something you can learn on your own if you're interested
- Build a site other than a blog, such as this point-and-click interest-based social network, no coding required
- Craft and sell a physical product (e.g. sew aprons) and sell it on Etsy
I don't recommend YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, or Instagram in terms of making money online. While they are less easy for AI to just grab word for word like an article, the problem with those venues are that they are really hard to break into and get traffic unless you already have a really good network of followers and friends that you can bring with you. Those markets are so saturated with creators that it's hard to make money with any type of video or visual platform unless you really know what you're doing.
If you still want to blog
Of course, you can still blog if you'd like to! The startup costs are extremely low (hosting and domain name). For less than a cup of coffee a month, you can start blogging.
If you love to write anyway, at least blogging for yourself is more rewarding than being on Reddit where they own your content, plus on your own platform you at least have a chance of earning ad revenue (instead of Reddit where you earn zero). At least you own your content on your own blog - although sadly this hasn't stopped AI from grabbing all your content for their own profit without any compensation to you.
The bottom line - and why I'm still blogging!
If you're looking at it as a business, I wouldn't recommend blogging in 2024 and 2025. I'm hanging in there and hoping the blogging environment will bounce back, but this is exactly why my next site will not be a blog. I want something AI can't just grab for their own profit.
