This isn’t an article I needed to jot 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 tens of millions from search engine optimisation declare it recreation over.
However right here’s what nobody is saying…
This isn’t nearly Google updates or AI. The way in which folks devour content material has basically modified, and blogs are not a part of the equation.
So the true query isn’t simply “Is running a blog nonetheless value it?” It’s “If running a blog is useless, what truly 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 visitors, which may very well be monetized via adverts, online marketing, and digital merchandise.
However in 2023, that each one modified. A number of the largest names in running a blog began pulling out. Even we have been provided over half one million {dollars} for our weblog—however we turned it down. After which, issues took a flip.
Site visitors disappeared. Income plummeted. And outdated search engine optimisation methods stopped working in a single day.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 put up say… until you do it the best way I train in my programs.
No. I’m going to offer you my actual, sincere tackle the state of search engine optimisation, content material websites, online marketing, and running a blog as a enterprise mannequin.
For those who’re at the moment a blogger and also you’ve been holding on optimistically dreaming of your visitors coming again, or should you’re a model new blogger and also you’ve simply put a ton of labor into your new website… or should you’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 largest on-line enterprise alternative we’ve ever seen.
And people who adapt now are going to win larger than ever earlier than.
Be sure you learn to the top of this put up 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 personal 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 modifications that hit unexpectedly. For those who’ve been questioning why blogs are shutting down and search engine optimisation methods are failing, listed below are the largest 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 persons are clicking over to precise blogs. On the identical time, they prioritized boards like Reddit and Quora over impartial web sites.
For those who seek for one thing like “Finest Journey Credit score Playing cards,” you’re extra more likely to see a Reddit thread or TripAdvisor put up on the prime of search outcomes than a well-researched weblog article.
And this wasn’t an accident—Google struck a $60 million per 12 months 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 a substitute of rewarding high-quality weblog content material, Google handed the search outcomes over to boards.
Bear in mind these visitors graphs of your favourite journey bloggers tanking? Properly, Reddit’s 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 should you write the very best put up on the web, you’re combating an uphill battle simply to get seen.
2. AI Flooded the Web with Junk Content material
When ChatGPT launched, bloggers didn’t assume, “How can I take advantage of this to make higher content material?” They thought, “What number of AI-written posts can I publish per day?”
Because of this, 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 acquired 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 net.
For the reason that launch and mainstream adaptation of ChatGPT, analysis exhibits that as many as 7.5 million weblog posts are being printed each single day. The search outcomes have became 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 acquired 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 visitors again to them.
For those who search “Finest Locations to Go to in Thailand,” Google’s AI summarizes the very best choices on the prime of the web page. Customers get the knowledge 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 have been the storm, Google’s AI-generated solutions have been the ultimate tsunami that worn out every 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 fact nobody is speaking about—even when Google wasn’t killing blogs, customers 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 cellphone, or a course—by studying a 3,000-word weblog put up?
You didn’t.
As a substitute, you most likely:
- Watched a YouTube evaluate
- Checked TikTok for fast professionals & cons
- Checked out Instagram reels for real-world examples
- Requested in a Fb or Reddit group for suggestions
- Learn Amazon evaluations and checked testimonials on social media
That is simply how folks purchase now—we would like fast, visible, and trusted data from folks we truly comply with and interact with.
You may assume that this can be a direct results of folks 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 variation began occurring lengthy earlier than bloggers had instruments like ChatGPT and Claude.
Is search engine optimisation Completely Lifeless?
Not completely—however for many impartial bloggers, it’d as properly be.
Huge manufacturers with huge budgets will nonetheless use search engine optimisation. Despite the fact that ChatGPT lately turned one of many prime 10 web sites on this planet, at the moment at quantity 7, and is climbing rapidly, Google continues to be the god of on-line visitors for now. It’s on the prime of that checklist, so large firms with some huge cash will nonetheless combat for these prime spots.
However the days of latest bloggers rating with nice content material alone are gone. The combat for search engine visibility is just too aggressive, and Google’s fixed algorithm modifications make it unattainable to depend on natural visitors.
So should you’re nonetheless attempting to develop what you are promoting via search engine optimisation running a blog in 2025, you’re not simply competing with Google—you’re competing with how folks truly devour content material now.
For those who’re writing search engine optimisation weblog posts and attempting to rank in Google for key phrases…. Cease it.
For those who’re performing some variation of that, like attempting to rank for Bing or ChatGPT… Cease it.
For those who’re engaged on the technical search engine optimisation 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 Truly 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’ve got 4 of them, and (fortunately) they’re nonetheless bringing in over six-figures a 12 months from adverts and associates.
We’ve invested in search engine optimisation and hyperlink constructing through the years, and constructed up our viewers, which gave us some cushioning as every thing collapsed.
However we knew we wanted to pivot years in the past. Greater than 7 years in the past, we realized that we have been placing WAY too many eggs within the running a blog basket.
We relied fully on Google search engine optimisation, Associates, and Advertisements to pay us our wage. Nevertheless it didn’t take lengthy to comprehend that Advertisements dropped as a lot as 50% seasonally or relying on the political state of affairs, and associates? Don’t even get me began…
I already wrote a put up on how Airbnb cancelled their associates program with out warning, costing us $100,000 per 12 months. And that was simply one among MANY occasions that occurred to us.
Mainly, we have been making unimaginable cash, however we had no management over our visitors sources, or the revenue coming into our financial institution accounts.
That’s why we began specializing in constructing our e mail checklist (a 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 find out how to create an superior course, find out how to promote a course, find out how to create e mail gross sales automations and funnels, and principally find out how to earn cash promoting our personal merchandise via emails.
That a part of our enterprise was actually profitable and it acquired us to the place we are actually. However now, for the previous 2 years, as a substitute of counting on weblog visitors and search engine optimisation to usher in leads, we’re doing it via 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 most likely 40+ like me, and two, that angle will seemingly be the one motive you most likely 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 actual fact, there has by no means been a greater time to construct a worthwhile enterprise.
The easiest way I can clarify that is via a browsing analogy. No, I’m not a surfer, however simply bear with me for a minute…
We have been driving this huge wave of search engine optimisation and Running a blog. We made tens of millions of {dollars} on that wave and on the time, we thought it was the very best wave within the sea.
However whereas we have 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, it’s important to know when to get off the wave. As a result of should you journey it too lengthy, it’ll crush you. And in companies that contain expertise, these waves can come extraordinarily rapidly.
Within the tech panorama, the search engine optimisation wave was like a large 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 Electronic mail Advertising and marketing
If running a blog was the outdated wave, social media is the brand new one. And it’s the largest alternative for natural visitors and monetization we’ve ever seen.
This wave is the largest alternative we’ve ever seen within the on-line world:
- It’s the largest alternative to construct a large viewers without spending a dime
- It’s the largest alternative for natural visitors
- And it’s by far the largest alternative to monetize and make tens of millions of {dollars} from promoting digital merchandise
1. Construct an Viewers with Quick-Kind Video
Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts are the place persons are consuming content material now. As a substitute of writing 3,000-word weblog posts, creators are constructing huge audiences via short-form video.
2. Promote Your Personal Digital Product
Not like running a blog, social media helps you to monetize quick—you probably have the correct product. As a substitute of incomes $0.002 per customer via adverts, you may promote a $37 digital product and make actual cash immediately.
Folks like Natalie from Boss Babe have remodeled $100,000 per thirty days promoting a easy digital product. And we all know of a lady who remodeled one million {dollars} in a 12 months from her tiny viewers of lower than 3,000 folks.
This simply wasn’t potential with running a blog. There may’ve been some off likelihood that you just acquired picked up by an enormous TV community or one thing and also you went viral in a single day, however for 99.9% of bloggers who have been simply writing weblog posts for search engine optimisation, it could 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 thirty days in a single 12 months. However for the primary 6 months, it earned subsequent to nothing. And I knew what I used to be doing!
3. Use Electronic mail Advertising and marketing to Automate Gross sales
Your weblog needs to be a web site—not a content material hub. It ought to:
- Construct authority
- Seize emails
- Promote your product
Electronic 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 checklist that nurtures leads and automates gross sales.
After all, you may’t simply earn a living on social media by posting humorous cat movies. You create extremely focused content material that speaks to a particular individual, helps them obtain a particular transformation, and that content material sends them to your e mail checklist the place they enter their identify and e mail to get your tremendous priceless freebie.
It’s from that freebie, and from the magic of e mail advertising and marketing that you just’re capable of promote your digital product to them and earn a living 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 folks, 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 once an unimaginable enterprise mannequin, however occasions have modified. Google and AI have made it practically unattainable 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 search engine optimisation blogs had turn into monotonous and boring. Ask any profitable blogger, we have been uninterested in writing the ten finest issues to do in Bangkok and the 15 finest finances microwaves.
Do I miss the passive revenue from running a blog? Completely, however that very same passive revenue is offered 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 fully wipe you out in a single day? That’s simply not value it.
The long run is short-form video. The long run is making a priceless product. The long run is having an epic e mail checklist that folks love being subscribed to. The long run is being an actual human being, and actually connecting along 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.
For those who’re able to cease losing time on outdated methods and begin constructing a worthwhile enterprise, seize our free training beneath that exhibits precisely how we—and our shoppers—are doing it.
The most important on-line enterprise alternative we’ve ever seen is going on proper now. The one query is—are you going to take it?
