10 Reasons Why Having a Blog is More Important than Ever

I seem to be having this chat with people more often these days and all these conversations happen on social media.

I am consistently telling people why having a blog is more important than ever and why we should be building an audience AWAY from social media!

Even in the digital age of Instagram and TikTok, blogging and having your own website is still one of the best ways to work for yourself and sell your products and services.

Social media has become completely saturated with many people wanting to become an Influencer. I’ve seen a huge shift this year in the number of brands that want to work with me on Instagram, and the amount they are willing to pay.

However, I have seen the number of brands wanting to work with me on TikTok increase.

As Instagram continues its decline in reach, popularity and engagement, more people will head over to TikTok to make money as an Influencer and I’m sure, in time, TikTok will head the same way as Instagram.

There are many reasons why we are seeing a decline in brand deals on Instagram:

• The platform has become inundated with content creators. Therefore, there are more people wanting to work with brands, but not necessarily an increase in brands offering work
• More content creators mean more accounts willing to do gifting and ads for free as they build their following and experience.
• TikTok has stolen Instagram’s thunder. According to a Wall Street Journal, TikTok users spend ten times as many hours on the app than Instagram users spend viewing Reels.
• Reel engagement is decreasing. It has dropped a huge 13.6% recently with a lot of Reels having no engagement at all. I have certainly noticed this!
• Companies are rethinking their spending strategies over concerns of a possible recession. When brands start tightening their belts, there’s less money to go around on paid partnerships.
• Supply chains! We’ve had a turbulent few years and this is had a big impact on brands being able to ship out items. I’ve had 3 brand partnerships cancelled this year because they couldn’t send me the products to produce content in time for their campaigns.

These points are just a few important reasons why building an audience away from social media should be your priority.

Why Having a Blog is More Important Than Ever

Blogs have been around for a long time and show no sign of waning. 1993 is seen as the year when blogging officially began and there are now over 31.7 million bloggers in the US alone.

The potential to earn a full-time wage through blogging is huge.

The world’s most successful blog is probably one we’ve all heard of – HuffPost! This started as a blog in 2005, called The Huffington Post, and is now estimated to earn around $250 million a year!

Most blogs will never make any money.

80% of bloggers give up on their blog after a year and I can see why. Blogging can be extremely time-consuming and takes a lot of commitment.

I was writing my blog www.melaniejadedesign.com for over 2 years before I finally started to see success and a bit of money trickle in. That was with a large social media following too!

The battle to be seen on social media and online gets tougher every year and if you don’t see any success after a few months, it can be disheartening.

This is why so many people give up.

Don’t!

I am living proof that if you stay consistent and committed to your blog, it will eventually repay you.

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So, why is it important to have a blog in 2022?

1. You have no control over social media apps

This is something I talk about repeatedly and it is now more important than ever.

I have always said, “don’t put all your eggs in an Instagram-shaped basket” and I have stuck by that since I became a content creator on Instagram.

This is one of the reasons I have always persevered with my blog. I often became frustrated with the fact I had no control over my social media accounts.

Back in 2019, when images were king, none of my posts was being shown via hashtags and it had a huge effect on my reach and engagement. This went on for several months and lead me to leave Instagram for a few weeks out of frustration.

Instagram has always insisted it doesn’t “shadow ban” accounts, but the fear of shadow banning still exists today.

You have absolutely no control over what social media apps do to your account.

Currently, I have no access to the full music library on Instagram, so can only use original audio (mainly other content creators who upload audio to Instagram).

I have no idea why, no way to contact Instagram and ask for it to be reinstated and again, has a direct impact on my engagement and reach.

Your blog is yours!

I have been writing my interior blog for 4 years now and in that time, I have had no glitches, bans, issues with posting or engagement problems.

My reach and engagement on my blog are down to me, how much effort I put into it and how much I teach myself about external influences such as Pinterest and SEO.

2. Social Media apps come and go

As I said above, Instagram has seen a large decline in users, engagement and reach this year as people are slowly moving over to other social media apps.

A lot of people have stopped using social media completely and have found other ways to be inspired, entertained or just live in the real world.

I don’t think we’ll see the end of Facebook and Instagram any time soon, but as content creators, I do think we will have to find other ways to diversify our income.

This is where a blog comes in!

Brands and companies have also realised that there is a decline in users on social media apps like Facebook and Instagram. Every month I see an increase in brands wanting me to write blog posts for them and my inbox is now dominated by blog post requests.

3. Blogging offers greater value than content on social media

How much time do you spend on a single Instagram or TikTok post? Are you a serial scroller with the attention span of a goldfish?

I spend a few minutes here and there on social media having a quick scroll. I will stop if the post is particularly engaging or if it is an account of a friend or acquaintance.

I have to admit, I am bored of being on social media. It is the same thing repeatedly with many accounts producing content to try and get that coveted viral Reel.

We are all guilty of it as that’s how social media rolls.

Blogs are an entirely different thing. Most people who end up on my blog come through Google (it used to be Pinterest, but ever since I have worked on my SEO strategy, Google has overtaken it).

This means they have searched for a topic or entered a question and Google has delivered my blog post as an answer.

The reader is there because they have an interest in what you have to say.

If you are a brand, this has huge implications. If your product is written about in a blog post and the readers are there to read it because it’s exactly what they’re after, you’ve hit the jackpot!

4. You can offer your readers an experience they are asking for

The noise of people complaining about being made to create videos and watch them is deafening on social media, and more so on Instagram and Facebook.

TikTok and YouTube are video-sharing apps, so people know from the beginning what to expect.

Instagram started off as an image-sharing app, where people would post pictures of their dinners, cats, and homes. However, video consumption has grown hugely over the last few years with 9 out of 10 viewers saying they wanted to see more videos from brands. With Reels, Instagram is trying to address this shift but is turning itself into another TikTok.

Did video kill the photography star?

I enjoy making videos and watching them, but I also think there is a place for still images. I find a lot of inspiration on Instagram, but it is now extremely difficult to find a still image that I can come back to either to share with others or to take in the finer details.

This is where your blog comes in!

If I want inspiration for a new home project or recipe I go to Google to find it. Often, it leads me to a blog or brand website with plenty of still images to draw inspiration from.

Social media apps are great for entertainment with a little bit of inspiration thrown in. But, if you want to read something in your own time, or prefer a slower pace of life, blogs offer you that experience.

5. Constant Algorithm changes

We all know about the pesky algorithm. It is probably the most hotly contested subject on social media and another reason why our reach and engagement declines.

Instagram has recently pushed out a new algorithm which had people pulling their hair out.

Trying to copy the popular TikTok FYP, they started pushing out accounts that you weren’t following, onto your feed. This meant there was even less space to be seen on the feed and users questioned why there was a need to follow people if we never saw them.

After a backlash (which resulted in the Kardashian sisters mentioning it in their stories), Instagram pulled this feature and went back to showing posts from people you follow with the ever-increasing AD post thrown in.

Apart from the odd Google algorithm change, you are in charge of the changes to your blog.

Hard work, dedication and teaching yourself the basics of blogging are rewarded with more traffic, subscribers and views which can all be turned into revenue.

6. It builds trust with your audience

It’s no secret that blogging can establish your authority as an expert in your field and help you reach your target audiences that you wouldn’t be able to on social media.

In blog posts, you can go into more detail than a quick video on TikTok or in Reels and use stats and information to back up your posts.

Social media can be a bit of a façade. All you see is a quick snapshot of someone’s life, often in under 7 seconds. It can make us feel inadequate and envious that we don’t have this jet-setting, partying work-from-anywhere lifestyle.

It is very hard to replicate this consistently in blog posts, so they tend to be more realistic. This helps build trust with your audience as they don’t feel they are being sold a false lifestyle.

7. Expand your target audience

Without sounding like a broken record, we all know that reach and engagement are declining on social media. Coupled with the fact that you are at the mercy of social media platforms’ algorithms, a lot of your content will not reach your target audience.

Although Google has its own algorithms, a lot of them are done on merit, relevance, quality, and context. It is down to you to make sure your blog posts meet those requirements and the harder you work to get it right, the more you’ll get out of it.

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I don’t think the same can be said for social media, although it is often said that consistency is key on Instagram and if you keep posting every day, surely someone is going to see it?

Yes, but that is a LOT of work to “beat” the algorithm. I also think that social media is a popularity contest and sometimes, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you don’t get anywhere with it.

Google, however, is used 91.38% of the time when people search for things on the internet. It holds most of the search engine market and has huge potential for your blog.

Not everyone is on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok but most people you know use Google at least once a day.

8. They are great for passive income

Now, this is a HUGE reason why having a blog is more important than ever.

In the last few months, I have seen my income from Instagram alone drop significantly as brands are tightening their belts and finding other ways to advertise and promote their products.

I have seen an increase in people wanting to work with me on TikTok and requests for sponsored posts on my blog have exploded!

I probably get around 20 emails a day asking if I do guest posts (a lot of them are irrelevant to my blog, so I politely decline). However, in the last 6 months alone, my blog has been my main earner through sponsored posts and ad revenue.

This is why I love writing my blog. I enjoy the creative process, writing the blog, and putting together the images.

I aim to write 1 blog post a week and then Mediavine does the rest. It places ads on my blog, relevant to my niche, and I get paid a percentage for clicks.

Even if I didn’t write a blog post for several weeks, it would still be earning me money.

This cannot be said for social media. I enjoy creating content for Instagram and TikTok, but I hate the pressure when a post is for a paid partnership. I watch the engagement nervously and it can have a real effect on my mood if it doesn’t do well. Which, most of the time it doesn’t.

I will never understand why social media users and followers will be averse to paid content (if it’s done extremely well, obviously) and refuse to engage with it!

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9. Building an audience and community

One of the things I loved about Instagram at first, was the sense of community. There were meet-ups, nights out, lots of lovely events to go to and a lot of banter and discussion going on behind the scenes.

It feels like those days are long gone. And TikTok? The community seems to be non-existent.

Having a blog or website as a small business is one of the best ways to build a “community” around your brand and products. It helps spread the word about what you can offer, and blog posts give your audience a chance to leave comments and ask questions.

10. It gives you the opportunity to be unique

A conversation I have often on social media is how repetitive everything has got. We are constantly encouraged to use trending audio, with trending formats and trending, well, trends!!

Just a quick scroll of Reels will show you how prevalent this has become. It is the same audio repeatedly with everyone jumping on the bandwagon of the latest format that’s gone viral for a few people.

I really believe that Instagram is slowly stifling creativity and uniqueness as we’re constantly served up IKEA hacks, coffee shots and quick transitions. I should know, I’m part of the problem!

I have tried to mix things up a little, but my account always suffers when I do. And no one wants to get left behind…

This is where blogs come in. They are amazing platforms where you can be creative, and unique and write about your passion without worrying about what the algorithm thinks (apart from Google! But if you apply good SEO procedures, you should be just fine!)

There are over 600 million blogs in the world covering all niches from the best clothes to wear for mountain climbing, to how to look after your pet tortoise.

You don’t even have to attach a trending audio or quick outfit change to make it successful!

It’s no secret that I love writing and reading blogs. They have been around for a long time and show no sign of abating.

It was blogging that got me into social media in the first place. When we started our first renovation, I would often google for inspiration, and it led me to 100s of amazing renovation and interior blogs. I decided to have a go at writing my own and I fell into Instagram to promote my blog.

It can take a while for your blog to get started and many people give up before their blogs reach a year old. But, once it starts to gain traction and traffic, it can bring in a whole new audience and a passive income. This is why having a blog is more important than ever!

So start that blog today!

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