This isn’t an article I needed to write down… however right here it goes.
Running a blog as a enterprise mannequin isn’t simply dying—it’s already useless.
In current months, we’ve seen main blogs shut down, course creators abandon ship, and even individuals who made thousands and thousands from web optimization declare it recreation over.
However right here’s what nobody is saying…
This isn’t nearly Google updates or AI. The way in which individuals eat content material has basically modified, and blogs are not a part of the equation.
So the true query isn’t simply “Is blogging still worth it?” It’s “If blogging is dead, what actually works now?”
Let’s get into it.
Why Even High Bloggers Are Strolling Away
For years, running a blog was an extremely profitable enterprise mannequin. Excessive-ranking weblog posts introduced in regular natural site visitors, which might be monetized by advertisements, internet affiliate marketing, and digital merchandise.
However in 2023, that every one modified. A number of the largest names in running a blog began pulling out. Even we had been supplied over half 1,000,000 {dollars} for our weblog—however we turned it down. After which, issues took a flip.
Visitors disappeared. Income plummeted. And previous web optimization methods stopped working in a single day.
So what occurred?
The Brutal Fact About Why Running a blog Tanked
This isn’t simply one other fluff story just like the 1000’s of different clickbaity articles on the web proper now. I’m not going to inform you running a blog is useless, after which later on this publish say… until you do it the best way I train in my programs.
No. I’m going to offer you my actual, trustworthy tackle the state of web optimization, content material websites, internet affiliate marketing, and running a blog as a enterprise mannequin.
When you’re at the moment a blogger and also you’ve been holding on optimistically dreaming of your site visitors coming again, or for those who’re a model new blogger and also you’ve simply put a ton of labor into your new web site… or for those who’ve at all times needed to begin a weblog however now I’m sitting right here and shitting all around the complete enterprise mannequin… don’t fear.
There IS a silver lining right here. It’s part of this story that nobody is speaking about… a shift that truly opens up the most important on-line enterprise alternative we’ve ever seen.
And those that adapt now are going to win larger than ever earlier than.
Be sure to learn to the tip of this publish as a result of I’m going to speak about precisely what that shift is and how one can leverage it to blow up your individual on-line enterprise.
So how did we get right here? Why has running a blog taken such a drastic downturn in such a short while? It wasn’t only one factor—it was an ideal storm of adjustments that hit unexpectedly. When you’ve been questioning why blogs are shutting down and web optimization methods are failing, listed here are the most important culprits behind the collapse of running a blog as a enterprise mannequin.
1. Google Modified the Guidelines
Google rolled out AI-generated search outcomes, which suggests fewer individuals are clicking over to precise blogs. On the similar time, they prioritized boards like Reddit and Quora over unbiased web sites.
When you seek for one thing like “Best Travel Credit Cards,” you’re extra prone to see a Reddit thread or TripAdvisor publish on the prime of search outcomes than a well-researched weblog article.
And this wasn’t an accident—Google struck a $60 million per yr cope with Reddit to make use of their boards to coach AI fashions. In return, Reddit’s content material will get precedence in search rankings, successfully pushing smaller blogs out of visibility.
This all began with the Useful Content material Replace in 2022, and continued with the Hidden Gems Replace within the fall of 2023. As an alternative of rewarding high-quality weblog content material, Google handed the search outcomes over to boards.
Bear in mind these site visitors graphs of your favourite journey bloggers tanking? Properly, Reddit’s site visitors elevated by over 650%, hitting 1.3 billion in that very same timeframe. This was no mistake.
For small bloggers, that is devastating. Even for those who write one of the best publish on the web, you’re preventing an uphill battle simply to get seen.
2. AI Flooded the Web with Junk Content material
When ChatGPT launched, bloggers didn’t suppose, “How can I use this to make better content?” They thought, “How many AI-written posts can I publish per day?”
Consequently, search outcomes turned flooded with generic, AI-generated content material. Google responded by rolling out updates that penalized AI-heavy web sites, however even high-quality blogs bought caught within the fireplace.
And right here’s the issue… most bloggers didn’t use AI to enhance their content material, or to assist them analysis their information, or make their websites extra user-friendly—they used it to spam the online.
For the reason that launch and mainstream adaptation of ChatGPT, analysis exhibits that as many as 7.5 million weblog posts are being revealed each single day. The search outcomes have changed into a wasteland of soulless, regurgitated AI content material. Google knew this was an issue, so their response? Burn all of it down.
Sadly, that meant even high-quality blogs bought caught within the fireplace.
3. Google’s AI Solutions Took Over Search Outcomes
Google now generates AI solutions proper within the search outcomes—pulling data immediately from blogs with out sending any site visitors again to them.
When you search “Best Places to Visit in Thailand,” Google’s AI summarizes one of the best choices on the prime of the web page. Customers get the data they want with out ever visiting a weblog.
For bloggers, this implies they’re not simply getting buried in search rankings—they’re getting erased from the equation completely.
If UGC and AI spam had been the storm, Google’s AI-generated solutions had been the ultimate tsunami that worn out every little thing left standing. It’s like enjoying a recreation the place you do all of the work… and another person takes the trophy.
Right here’s the opposite brutal reality nobody is speaking about—even when Google wasn’t killing blogs, shoppers already moved on.
Give it some thought. When was the final time you made a purchase order resolution—whether or not it was for a visit, a brand new telephone, or a course—by studying a 3,000-word weblog publish?
You didn’t.
As an alternative, you in all probability:
- Watched a YouTube overview
- Checked TikTok for fast execs & cons
- Checked out Instagram reels for real-world examples
- Requested in a Fb or Reddit group for suggestions
- Learn Amazon critiques and checked testimonials on social media
That is simply how individuals purchase now—we would like fast, visible, and trusted data from individuals we really observe and have interaction with.
You may suppose that this can be a direct results of individuals dropping belief in blogs as a result of so many are simply written with AI, however that’s not the case. The reality is, this alteration began occurring lengthy earlier than bloggers had instruments like ChatGPT and Claude.
Is web optimization Completely Useless?
Not completely—however for many unbiased bloggers, it’d as properly be.
Large manufacturers with large budgets will nonetheless use web optimization. Though ChatGPT just lately turned one of many prime 10 web sites on the planet, at the moment at quantity 7, and is climbing rapidly, Google remains to be the god of on-line site visitors for now. It’s on the prime of that record, so large firms with some huge cash will nonetheless battle for these prime spots.
However the days of latest bloggers rating with nice content material alone are gone. The battle for search engine visibility is simply too aggressive, and Google’s fixed algorithm adjustments make it inconceivable to depend on natural site visitors.
So for those who’re nonetheless attempting to develop what you are promoting by web optimization running a blog in 2025, you’re not simply competing with Google—you’re competing with how individuals really eat content material now.
When you’re writing web optimization weblog posts and attempting to rank in Google for key phrases…. Cease it.
When you’re performing some variation of that, like attempting to rank for Bing or ChatGPT… Cease it.
When you’re engaged on the technical web optimization in your web site and attempting to optimize it. Cease it.
It’s a whole waste of time.
There are different issues you ought to be engaged on if you wish to construct a sustainable, future-proof enterprise, and we’ll get to {that a} bit later.
What Really Occurred to Our Running a blog Companies (And How We Pivoted)
We nonetheless make passive revenue from our web sites, however solely as a result of we’ve been round for a few years. We have now 4 of them, and (fortunately) they’re nonetheless bringing in over six-figures a yr from advertisements and associates.
We’ve invested in web optimization and hyperlink constructing through the years, and constructed up our viewers, which gave us some cushioning as every little thing collapsed.
However we knew we would have liked to pivot years in the past. Greater than 7 years in the past, we realized that we had been placing WAY too many eggs within the running a blog basket.
We relied utterly on Google web optimization, Associates, and Adverts to pay us our wage. Nevertheless it didn’t take lengthy to understand that Adverts dropped as a lot as 50% seasonally or relying on the political scenario, and associates? Don’t even get me began…
I already wrote a publish on how Airbnb cancelled their associates program with out warning, costing us $100,000 per yr. And that was simply one in all MANY instances that occurred to us.
Principally, we had been making unbelievable cash, however we had no management over our site visitors sources, or the revenue coming into our financial institution accounts.
That’s why we began specializing in constructing our e mail record (a site visitors supply that we OWN) and promoting our personal merchandise—one thing we had management over. This took me down a rabbit gap and years of analysis into studying easy methods to create an superior course, easy methods to promote a course, easy methods to create e mail gross sales automations and funnels, and mainly easy methods to earn cash promoting our personal merchandise by emails.
That a part of our enterprise was actually profitable and it bought us to the place we at the moment are. However now, for the previous 2 years, as a substitute of counting on weblog site visitors and web optimization to usher in leads, we’re doing it by social media.
Now earlier than you say what I used to say again then and be like “I hate social media”, let me inform you that for one, you’re in all probability 40+ like me, and two, that perspective will possible be the one motive you in all probability gained’t have a profitable on-line enterprise in 5 years.
What This Means for the Way forward for On-line Enterprise
Running a blog is not a viable enterprise mannequin, however that doesn’t imply on-line enterprise is useless. In truth, there has by no means been a greater time to construct a worthwhile enterprise.
One of the simplest ways I can clarify that is by a browsing analogy. No, I’m not a surfer, however simply bear with me for a minute…
We had been driving this large wave of web optimization and Running a blog. We made thousands and thousands of {dollars} on that wave and on the time, we thought it was one of the best wave within the sea.
However whereas we had been cruising on that wave… a much bigger, extra stunning, and extra sustainable wave was constructing momentum behind our wave.
That wave was Social Media.
In enterprise, you need to know when to get off the wave. As a result of for those who trip it too lengthy, it’ll crush you. And in companies that contain expertise, these waves can come extraordinarily rapidly.
Within the tech panorama, the web optimization wave was like an enormous tidal wave. It lasted SO lengthy, and we’re extremely grateful for that.
However now, the brand new wave is right here, and it’s been right here for a very long time, us older technology simply didn’t see it.
The Way forward for On-line Enterprise: Social Media, Digital Merchandise, and E mail Advertising
If running a blog was the previous wave, social media is the brand new one. And it’s the most important alternative for natural site visitors and monetization we’ve ever seen.
This wave is the most important alternative we’ve ever seen within the on-line world:
- It’s the most important alternative to construct an enormous viewers totally free
- It’s the most important alternative for natural site visitors
- And it’s by far the most important alternative to monetize and make thousands and thousands of {dollars} from promoting digital merchandise
1. Construct an Viewers with Quick-Kind Video
Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts are the place individuals are consuming content material now. As an alternative of writing 3,000-word weblog posts, creators are constructing large audiences by short-form video.
2. Promote Your Personal Digital Product
Not like running a blog, social media allows you to monetize quick—if in case you have the appropriate product. As an alternative of incomes $0.002 per customer by advertisements, you may promote a $37 digital product and make actual cash immediately.
Individuals like Natalie from Boss Babe have revamped $100,000 per 30 days promoting a easy digital product. And we all know of a girl who revamped 1,000,000 {dollars} in a yr from her tiny viewers of lower than 3,000 individuals.
This simply wasn’t attainable with running a blog. There may’ve been some off likelihood that you just bought picked up by a giant TV community or one thing and also you went viral in a single day, however for 99.9% of bloggers who had been simply writing weblog posts for web optimization, it will take months, typically years, earlier than they’d see any revenue.
Even me. I constructed a fly fishing web site from $0 to $8,400 per 30 days in a single yr. However for the primary 6 months, it earned subsequent to nothing. And I knew what I used to be doing!
3. Use E mail Advertising to Automate Gross sales
Your weblog ought to be a web site—not a content material hub. It ought to:
- Construct authority
- Seize emails
- Promote your product
E mail advertising and marketing is the place the true cash occurs. By main social media followers to a freebie, you may construct an e mail record that nurtures leads and automates gross sales.
In fact, you may’t simply earn money on social media by posting humorous cat movies. You create extremely focused content material that speaks to a selected particular person, helps them obtain a selected transformation, and that content material sends them to your e mail record the place they enter their title and e mail to get your tremendous precious freebie.
It’s from that freebie, and from the magic of e mail advertising and marketing that you just’re in a position to promote your digital product to them and earn money on autopilot.
Look, making $17 on a $500 Airbnb reserving was nice, and incomes 0.002 cents per customer on our weblog was additionally cool, however there’s nothing like the sensation of waking up and seeing that somebody bought your $500 course or your $4,000 teaching program. It’s validation, it’s thrilling to have the ability to have a actual affect and assist individuals, and it’s the primary steps in constructing an actual, loyal group.
The Future is Right here—And It’s Not Running a blog
Running a blog was an unbelievable enterprise mannequin, however instances have modified. Google and AI have made it practically inconceivable for brand spanking new bloggers to succeed the best way we did years in the past.
However that doesn’t imply the chance is gone. It’s simply moved.
Writing web optimization blogs had develop into monotonous and boring. Ask any profitable blogger, we had been uninterested in writing the ten greatest issues to do in Bangkok and the 15 greatest price range microwaves.
Do I miss the passive revenue from running a blog? Completely, however that very same passive revenue is accessible with short-form video and nice e mail advertising and marketing.
Blogs take a TON of labor. So to do all that work simply to have a Google Algorithm replace or AI utterly wipe you out in a single day? That’s simply not price it.
The longer term is short-form video. The longer term is making a precious product. The longer term is having an epic e mail record that folks love being subscribed to. The longer term is being an actual human being, and actually connecting together with your viewers on-line.
That is the longer term. And the individuals who embrace this shift now are going to win large.
If you wish to construct a enterprise that truly works in 2025, give attention to short-form video, digital merchandise, and e mail advertising and marketing. That is the way you create an actual, future-proof enterprise.
When you’re able to cease losing time on outdated methods and begin constructing a worthwhile enterprise, seize our free coaching beneath that exhibits precisely how we—and our purchasers—are doing it.
The largest on-line enterprise alternative we’ve ever seen is going on proper now. The one query is—are you going to take it?
