Should You Start A Blog Or A YouTube Channel In 2020

It’s no news that content creators are on the increase at the moment, and everyone is starting a blog and becoming a YouTuber. That is amazing really. But beyond the effizy that comes with being tagged a ‘blogger’ and the vibe that ‘Hi guys! Welcome back to my channel’ gives, do you really know what you’re getting into? No? Well, that’s why you have me, as always. And even if you do,

I’m sure you’d be able to pick up one thing or the other from my experience as both a blogger and a YouTuber- Mo bad gan!. Here you go: 

10 Factors To Consider Before Starting A Blog Or A YouTube Channel

1. Starting Up

This is has got to be one of the most important things to consider. The truth is, for YouTube, apart from your face, and a video recorder which could be your phone or a camera, you really don’t need anything to start up a YouTube channel. YouTube has already been set up, you just create your own space there and grow. That’s all.

But to start a blog, this could be a bit different. You might need to buy a domain name, pay for the hosting of your blog and also pay for a website design. ‘Might’ because, there are free sites that offer free hosting, domain names and free website templates to users. But if you want a more personalized domain name and blog, then you’d be paying for it.

So for me, I’d say that, apart from having to deal with procrastination and the numerous excuses of not having enough equipment to start with, when all you basically need are your face and a video recorder, a YouTube channel is easier to start than a blog. 

2. Personal Inclination

Before you start a blog or a YouTube channel, you might want to ask yourself basic questions like ‘Am I comfortable in front of a camera?’ ‘What is my writing skill like?’

If you love the camera and enjoy talking to it and filming videos, then YouTube life is a better option. But if you write pretty well and you are able to communicate better through your pen (not literally) than talking, then you’d find blogging easier.

If you are comfortable doing both like me, well, you could make a choice based on other factors, or you could do both. But what if you can neither write nor are camera-friendly? Well, I think blogging can still work for you.

This is because, when creating content for your blog, your audience does not need to know who creates the content. They just want to read something. So, you have the option of hiring someone to write for you. But when it comes to YouTube, you cannot hire someone to film your videos for you. You are part of the content your audience wants to see, so there’s really no hiding place. Joo get?

3. Time

If you think a 10 minutes video on YouTube took only 10 minutes to produce, then you dunno warris going on. YouTube takes a whole lot of time! So if your schedule doesn’t give so much time for yourself, then YouTube would most likely not work for you.

This is because growth on YouTube is very much dependent on your consistency, so you have to continually find time to film videos, edit videos- Pre-production, post-production and everything production for YouTube takes a whole lot of time.

Although blogging also takes time, because you have to write and keep editing until you have an almost perfect post. But when compared to the time demands of YouTube, it is a child’s play, honestly. So, if you have the luxury of time, then YouTubing won’t be a problem. If not, you might want to stick to blogging. And if you have extra time, you could definitely do both.  

4. Profitability 

Money! Owo!! Ego!!! Kudi!!!

I know this is an aspect that quite a number of people would be really interested in. Anyway, as a blogger, I started making money from my blog in its third or fourth month. Amazing right? On the other hand, I didn’t get monetized on YouTube till my channel’s eleventh or twelfth month.

And at the moment, I have still not gotten a ‘payout’ from it. So if you are looking for a short term payment possibility, blogging is your go-to. This is because YouTube has a number of requirements that you might not be able to meet up within the first few months or even the first year (depending on how fast your channel grows), and it could be frustrating, trust me.

But for blogging, there are some tactics that if you know, they could speed up the money-making process for you. Because I love you, the tactics are:

• Choose to buy AdSense instead of applying for it
• Write for Search Engine bots, and not for humans. I’d explain later
•  Use SEO method of writing to put out content that would make people find your blog, without you necessarily asking them to ‘check out my last blog post’.

Summarily, if you’re looking for a short term profit plan, then blogging is your best bet, but if you’re looking for more profit over a long period of time, then you should go for starting up a YouTube channel. And as the generous person that I am, I also have a YouTube video on how I got monetized on YouTube. You should totally check it out if you haven’t. 

At this point, I think I should also put it out there that as you continue with YouTube, you would spend way more than you would, on a blog.

There would be a need to constantly improve the quality of your videos especially if you’re like me and care about details. So you would want to continually spend on better cameras, better lights, and anything that improves the quality of your content. 

5. Shortcuts

When it comes to YouTube, blackhat shortcuts are available. So it’s common for people to buy subscribers, buy views, buy likes and whatnot. So if you also want to add this to your marketing strategy, YouTube is for you.

But when it comes to blogging, there are no such shortcuts. The only thing that looks like a ‘shortcut’ is intelligently manipulating SEO to favour your blog. For example, you could get another blog in your niche to add a link to your blog in any relevant post. When this happens, it increases your page authority and some of your posts begin to rank better in search engines, and this would affect your whole blog positively.

Of course, it might be possible to buy traffic to your blog, I’m not sure, but if you do, apart from the fact that you are the only one who would notice the increased traffic, if you have a monetized blog, it could get your AdSense banned. I’m sure you don’t want that to happen.

So basically, what I’m saying is that there are ‘shortcuts’ for blogging and YouTubing. However, shortcuts on YouTube are really not the best, while for blogging, the ‘shortcut’ is also work, only that it is smart work.    

6. Power Of Luck

If you’re thinking of adding ‘luck’ to your channel’s marketing strategy, then YouTube is your guy. This is because sometimes, YouTube’s algorithm can randomly select any of your videos and recommend it to its users, and before you know it, more people start seeing it, and there’s more traffic on your channel, and you get more subscribers, all the way down until you ‘blow’. Yes, it’s possible.

However, it is not dependent on any technical factor. It is pure luck. So if you have a lucky charm that you think would work, well, this is for you. Unfortunately, when it comes to blogging, there is really no luck that can quicken your ‘blowing’. You have to diligently work your way up. 

7. Clout

Not everyone loves clout, not everyone loves the attention from social media, and that’s totally fine. So before you make your decision, ask yourself which you’d be more comfortable with. Blogging makes it easier for you to be able to write things and get away with them, or not be too noticed by people who are not exactly your audience.

However, when it comes to YouTube, it’s easier for people to be able to put your name to a face and have eyes on you, even if they are not part of your main audience. If you want that kind of attention, you can do YouTube.

 8. Technicality

This has to do with what aspect of setting things up you find interesting. If you don’t like the stress that comes with setting up gadgets and knowing and seeing how light and sound works, video editing and all of that drama, then YouTube is not for you, except, of course, you can pay professionals to do all that. But if you can’t, then blogging is a better choice.

But if you find SEO and all those other blogging jargon difficult, but enjoy everything about making a video and editing it, then YouTube is your go-to.

So, technicality depends largely on what your preferences or interests are. 

9. Traffic

The honest truth is that traffic on both platforms is not easy to get, especially after the initial wave of ‘I just started a blog or started my youtube channel, kindly subscribe’. It is not easy at all.

However, from my experience, I have discovered that it is easier to get more people to view your YouTube channel than it is to get them to read a blog post, except it is something that they desperately want answers to.

It was a better understanding of SEO that helped me gain more traffic to my blog, even than the traffic on my YouTube channel. And that is what I meant by ‘write for SEO bots and not humans’. Make them come to you through Search Engine Optimization, without necessarily going after them to check out your latest post.  

10. Niche

Another thing you should know is that the niche of the kind of content you want to create could also influence your choice of platform. What niche do you want to belong to? If you want to create lifestyle content, then YouTube is your best bet.

This is because people would rather watch lifestyle-related posts than read them.

However, if you want to create content about things like literature, reviews, health, and other things that people would prefer to ask Google and read about, then a blog will be a better option.

And if you still want to do both, then you should have different content strategies for both platforms. For example, I blog about skincare, makeup, makeup products and reviews, and beauty generally, based on what people would rather search for on Google. But on my channel, I do more of lifestyle videos. Although I started out with makeup tutorials, I gradually tilted to showing just lifestyle content on my channel.

Closely related to this point would be understanding that each platform would have its target audience, and that’s totally fine. So that’s why it is possible to have people who are subscribed to my channel and even have post notifications on (I hope that’s you), yet they have not visited my blog at all.

And this is absolutely fine. You should understand this and see how you can constantly put out content to meet the needs of different audience, on different platforms.

So yeah, who is your target audience?  

BONUS POINT:

Privacy. If you like to be on a low-key and keep your life out of the public, then it is easier to do that as a blogger. This is because people can consistently read your posts for years and know little or nothing about you. However, it is more difficult to do this as a YouTuber especially, a lifestyle YouTuber.

So yes, I think if you consider all these factors and apply them to your personal abilities, preferences and biases, you should be able to make a very informed decision on whether to start a blog, a YouTube channel, both or none! I hope you find this really helpful. 

Xoxo! 

Mimie Jay