I recently took an inventory of today’s blogging landscape and my optimism for massively winning the blogging game has skyrocketed. I am thoroughly convinced that financial blogging success is now at an all-time high and that if you aren’t in the blogging game and want to make a lot of money, you need to get in now.
11 Reasons Blogging Financial Success Is At An All-Time High
This isn’t an exhaustive list, obviously. I’ll probably follow up this article with “11 More Reasons Financial Blogging Success Is At An All-Time High” or something, but these are the reasons that stick out at me like a sore thumb. Let’s get into it.
AI Tools: They Have Dramatically Lowered The Barrier To Entry
Here’s my warning I put everywhere when discussing AI tools: DO NOT USE AI TOOLS TO WRITE YOUR ARTICLES. Google is too smart. It will detect AI writing and will nuke your blog, also it’s a massive disservice to readers. Readers come to blogs for human opinions, advice, and writing. If they did not want that, they would have gone directly to a chatbot. Cut that shit out of posting AI articles, nobody wants it.
Here is how AI tools actually lower the barrier of entry: when I first started blogging I had to go to an actual, physical library to check out actual, physical books to research the topics I was writing about. Top writers at the time had research and writing assistants that did time-consuming tasks like research and outlining writings.
Now, all bloggers have access to a research and writing assistants via AI, the playing field has been leveled. Bloggers no longer have to spend hours and hours just to write an article. Thorough research can be done through prompts with chatbots, blog articles can be quickly structured and outlined, and the blogger can focus on, well, blogging.
This is not cheating, in my opinion. Famous authors (Yes, even THAT famous NYT Bestselling Author) have teams of assistants doing research and even writing sections of the books. This has been common practice for a long time that is kind of brushed over, like a MLB home run slugger who credits God, hard work, mom and dad and not the massive amounts of injected steroids. Before, a team of assistants were the writer’s steroids. Now it’s AI. You’d be foolish not to use AI the same way you’d use an enthusiastic, somewhat intelligent assistant.
Niche Audiences: They Are Easier To Find Than Ever And They Want Unique Content
“Build in a niche!” is the common advice. It also happens to be good advice. We now live in an era where building a hyper niched-down blog works. The audiences have already been organized across the internet on platforms like Reddit and Facebook Groups, real niche stuff like growing tropical plants in Ohio.
A blogger looking to launch a new blog can find the perfect niche by scrolling through third party platforms, study what the community is talking about and asking about, and then create a blog that serves the needs of the community. Ideally, it will be a tiny, little niche that you know something about.
It’s possible to make a decent income serving the needs of a small community, sometimes as little as 5,000 dedicated readers is enough.
Monetization: Options For Blog Monetization Strategy Have Multiplied
Monetization strategies are largely the same in the age old question of how to make money writing a blog but each avenue has more branches, options, and niches than ever before.
Which goes hand in hand with my last point about hyper-niche audiences, now there are deeper, more niche affiliate programs to target those audiences and you don’t have to rely just on writing an ebook to sell something. Set up accounts with affiliate programs and did deep in the type of offers they have. You’ll be able to find something for your unique audience.
SEO: Google Is Rewarding Genuine Expertise More Than Ever Since 2020
Everybody knows that Google dropped a nuke on the SERP results and everybody that was gaming SEO system got dropped. Google now favors Reddit and bloggers with genuine expertise. That means in the Google SERP shakeups opportunities have been opened to the rest of us honest and earnest bloggers and now is the time to strike; which means make it your mission to create a lot of AI-free content in your niche now and get established on the Google rankings.
When I look at the SERP results I’m even seeing old-school blogspot blogs making appearances. Anything is game and if you want to win the blogging game there is a huge window of opportunity right now to really move the ball forward toward the goal line, but it won’t be open forever. Best get to work!
Cancel Proof: Owning Your Own Platform Is Increasingly Valuable In The Age Of AI Moderation
I’m not just talking cancel proof as applied to which political party is currently pulling the levers of power in Silicon Valley, although that is important to know. I’m talking about the over reliance on AI in monitoring third party platforms and getting banned for no reason. Recently, while answering questions on Quora I hit the post button and BOOM. Instantaneous ban from the entire platform. No warning, no nothing. Instant ban the second I hit the post button because I got flagged for something by the AI moderation system.
Luckily, I was able to appeal and my account was restored after a human review, but the experience left me uncertain if I wanted to continue blogging on the platform, answering questions in detail, and building a reputation. I’m currently on hiatus there, unsure how I’d like to proceed. I suspect AI moderation on third party platforms is going to be the norm in the future and random bans like I experienced might become more common. Also, in the future there might not even be an option for a human review to get an account reinstated. All that to say, owning your own platform will become increasingly important in the future of AI moderation instant bans.
Limited Competition: Bloggers Who Have Historically Dominated Niches Have Quit
The blogosphere is not as saturated as it may look. While there are about 600 – 700 million blogs out there, many of them are dormant. Recently, doing research for a niche blog I’m preparing to build, I noticed that while there are competitor blogs in the niche, most of them have been abandoned for years with no signs of life. I realized there is not near as much competition in the niche as first appeared to the naked eye.
Many bloggers who have absolutely dominated certain niches since 2010 have thrown in the towel, deciding instead of learning how to navigate the new world of blogging they’d rather take their money and retire or turn to podcasting. Either way, when doing niche research, make sure to check if all those blogs that pop up in the SERPS are active. If not, you’ll be able to quickly displace them with quality, frequent posting and you can become the new kingpin of the niche.
Budget Blogging: Starting Costs And Costs Of Professional Tools Are At Historic Lows
It doesn’t cost much to get started. A hosting account with Bluehost costs $3.99 per month and comes with a free domain. Then throw in a premium theme for your website costing $50 – $100 and you are good to go with a beautiful, professional-looking blog. Heck, even some of the free themes look pretty good and is an option for somebody on a very strict blogging budget.
The above is all you need to get started for your first 100 posts or so. Once you get a good feeling for the blogging game you’ll want to add some additional blog tools, such as keyword search tools and a paid tier for your email provider. But those are minor costs once you have blog money rolling in. The bar for cost has never been lower for being able to launch a professional, legitimate blog.
Content Repurposing: It Has Become Increasingly Easy To Repurpose Blog Posts
Okay, content repurposing has always been easy. All you do is write a sick post and take pieces of it, perhaps with slight edits, and post it to social media to drive traffic to the article. Make a pretty image or three and post it on Pinterest.
The main thing to remember is to make video for your blog posts. YouTube is the best. Make a simple, no frills YouTube video talking about your article and link back to it. One of the simplest ways to drive traffic.
Long Form Content: It Is Making A Comeback
With the explosion of Substack, it shows one thing: readers are craving smart, long-form content. I suspect they always craved it but nobody was giving it to them for about a decade until Substack came along.
Conventional blogging wisdom used to be “write a 400 word post and get ranked bro” but now bloggers should be posting a minimum of 1,000 word posts, but 2k, 3k, and 5k is appropriate if you can do so without a bunch of filler.
One useful strategy I’ve found for increasing word count is going back to old posts and adding new sections. Perhaps I’ve learned something new that doesn’t warrant an entire new post or I remember something I should have written originally but my brain was too mush after finishing writing the original post.
Either way, this strategy works on two levels: Google loves it when old posts are updated and readers love big, smart posts. It’s a double win!
Evergreen Content: Compounds Over Time Like No Other Platform
Blogging is one of the few platforms that hangs onto it’s evergreen content. There is no such thing as evergreen on social media platforms or TikTok. There is on YouTube, though. Your blog posts can keep on paying you for a decade or more, as long as you update them every now and them. That’s some pretty good staying power!
And the more pieces you publish, the greater the compound effect becomes. We’ve all heard the story of the blogger making $10,000+ per month on a blog that they haven’t posted on in a year. That’s because of the evergreen content that they diligently built up over a long time frame. So, whenever you feel like you are posting in the void, just remember that you from 5 years and 10 years from now will be very happy that you put in the effort.
Content Demand: Higher Than Ever
More people with more interests than ever are on the internet. And they all want content, content, content. Don’t be the content consumer, be the content creator. Experiment on different platforms and different styles of doing things until you hit upon what works for you. Don’t be afraid of making a fool of yourself. Don’t be afraid if you take your blogging shot and fail. There are lessons learned and more opportunities right around the corner if you just keep going because demand for new content is out-of-control and will be for the foreseeable future.
Time To Build Your Blog While Financial Success Blogging Is At An All-Time High
The world desires more blogs and whoever gives the world what it wants is going to make a handsome profit. You can either sit on the sidelines or you can get in the game and make money. Up to you.
I for one am fully taking advantage of this opportunity. I hope you do too because it’s my desire to create a loosely affiliated group of bloggers who have families that have earned their freedom via blogging. Then we can hang out, help each other, and live life free with our families. I hope to see you out there, friend!