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Are blogs going extinct?
Here’s a question.
When was the last time you went to someone else’s website to check out what they’ve been up to?
I don’t know about you, but when I think about my habits, I can’t even remember!
When I want to see what Gary Vee is doing, I don’t go to his website.
Not at all!
I seek out his latest newsletter.
I click on his latest podcast episode.
I check out his social accounts, e.g. X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or YouTube.
Going to his website is actually the last thing I do.
Yesterday, I attended a webinar. The topic was creating online with the spotlight of blogging. The speaker passionately declared, ‘Blogs are here to stay! When folks are curious about you, they dive into Google, type away, and boom! They’re on your website.’
But let’s hit the pause button and reflect. This statement in October 2023 feels a tad bit…outdated.
A cheeky note to those webinar creators using short, free video courses as bait for their premium courses: Time to refresh those clips! But that’s another article itself.
TL;DR: Traditional blogging isn’t heading to the graveyard, but it’s certainly taking a back seat.
People favour other platforms where they can read, listen, watch, and interact with creators. Easily!
Do you know what made that speaker’s words untrue?
The evolution of our search habits and tools.
With the rise of ChatGPT, we turn to it instead of spending time on Google search.
Sure, in its early days, we recognized its historical knowledge cut-off at 2021 and occasionally raised eyebrows at its insights.
But we embraced it and kept using it.
In ChatGPT-4, we can now use Bing search, so it can access the internet and pull real-time information right at our fingertips. There’s no limit!
Nowadays, even if you turn to Google instead of ChatGPT because of Google’s reliability, it finds all the answers all over the internet and pops out a featured snippet of the findings.
Google serves the content on a golden plate right from the search results, bypassing the need to click on the actual site containing the information.
We don’t even need to visit someone’s blog to have our questions answered.
Where does it leave us and our blogs?
Wherever you look, you see everyone has a newsletter now.
I’m no different. I got not one, but two of these!
If you don’t have a newsletter yet, I’m sure you’re considering starting one. Am I right?
Because the highest-valued currency in 2023 is an email list.
If you want to play the online game, you must have one, too!
People don’t seek out your website. They seek out your newsletter.
But not your dusty ‘email tucked away with no access to past golden nuggets’ newsletters. That’s yesterday’s news.
What’s the real MVP (Most Valuable Player) in the content world now?
The modern variety platform newsletter.
I’m not trying to persuade you to ditch personal blogs at all. But think about relegating personal websites and social platforms to the background and focus on building your email list.
Why?
Multiple reasons.
Nothing!
Suddenly, you can’t communicate with people who want to hear from you.
There are many reasons why modern newsletters are more powerful than traditional ones. Guess where I found this list first? Tim Denning’s newsletter. Here’s why.
There are more, but I’ll mention my favourites.
Export your subscriber list from time to time!
My personal hack: I download a fresh copy of my subscriber list every month. It’s my extra safety net so that if Substack decides to take a vacation, I can still get in touch with people who want to hear from me.
The newsletter wave isn’t just a passing trend.
If you haven’t hopped on it, then it’s time.
There’s no pressure to churn out daily thoughts like Seth Godin — we all know he’s something else. But find your rhythm, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, and stick to your schedule!
There’ll be people waiting for you.