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Should You Start a Blog or a YouTube Channel? (Beginner’s Guide)

Are you wondering whether you should start a blog or YouTube channel?

Blogging and vlogging are good ways to engage with your audience and grow your brand’s credibility. We are often asked by readers which they should start first blog vs YouTube?

In this article, we’ll explain our pick on blog vs YouTube and which you should start first with detailed explanation of our take.

Should You Start a Blog or a YouTube Channel?

TLDR: we recommend you start with a blog and add a YouTube channel later if needed

This is a comprehensive guide, so we’ve included a table of contents for easier navigation:

What Is a Blog?

A blog is a type of website where articles, called ‘blog posts’, are presented in reverse chronological order with newer content appearing first. Blog posts are a great way to share your expert knowledge with your audience, build credibility, and attract visitors to your site.

If you want to start an online business, or communicate better with your existing customers or audience, then you should think about starting a blog.

Blogs typically present information in a conversational style and are run by individuals or a small group of people. However, there are now tons of corporate blogs that produce a great deal of useful informational and thought-leadership content.

Typical blog posts also have a comments section where users can respond to the article by making comments or asking questions.

Blogging has been around since 1993 and has become an essential marketing tool for many businesses. But is it still relevant in the age of YouTube and social media?

Why Starting a Blog Is so Important Today

There are currently 1.9 billion websites in the world, and over 600 million are blogs. That means that blogs make up a third of the web.

Blogging has become an important marketing strategy for businesses due to its benefits. You or your business can use a blog to promote ideas, brands, stories, products, and more.

Here are some of the more important benefits of blogging and why you should consider starting a blog.

1. A Blog Will Bring More Traffic to Your Website

A typical business website consists of a few important pages. For example, you may have a homepage, landing pages for your products and services, and a contact page.

Unfortunately, search engines may often decide that your website is less important than thousands of other websites in the same industry, especially if they have been around longer.

Adding a blog allows you to publish additional content which over time will help you bring more traffic to your website.

That’s a major reason to start with a blog rather than a YouTube channel because YouTube videos will attract traffic to the YouTube platform instead of your own website. You own and control your blog, while the YouTube platform is owned by Google and will benefit them.

2. A Blog Will Help Strengthen Brand Recognition and Build Authority

A blog helps you strengthen your brand identity. It gives you more opportunities to use your custom logo across your website, your social profiles, search results, and more.

This brand recognition when combined with customer trust and authority adds enormous value to your digital assets.

Adding a blog allows you to establish authority by regularly publishing content on topics related to your industry.

If you are consistently publishing new content, you’ll become the go-to place for your users and other businesses interested in those topics.

3. A Blog Will Help You Generate More Leads and Conversions

More than 70% of people visiting your website today, will never find it again. That’s because there is so much content and information on the internet.

Starting a blog will help you convert website traffic into potential leads, subscribers, and social media followers.

For example, you can use tools like OptinMonster to build an email list and grow a social media following. And with push notifications, you can send targeted messages to your blog visitors and bring them back to your website.

4. A Blog Will Help You Build an Engaging Audience

A static website doesn’t leave much room for a conversation. Why not add a blog to your site where users can engage by leaving a comment and sharing your posts on social media?

This helps you build a community around your business which is extremely useful.

It will help your visitors develop an affinity with your brand which pays off when they are looking to make a purchase or recommend your products and services to friends and family.

5. A Blog Will Let You Educate Customers and Share News

Blog posts allow you to educate customers about different ways they can use your products. This will allow you to compare your product with competitors, showcase product features, inform users about benefits, and more.

They’re also the best place to share your business news, announcements, and sales events.

For instance, if you are launching a Black Friday sale, you can promote it with a blog post. And then promote that blog post across your website with a floating header or footer banner.

6. A Blog Will Let You Build Additional Revenue Streams for Your Business

Blogs provide many opportunities to generate additional revenue and make money online. For instance, you can display ads in your blog posts using Google AdSense.

You can also promote affiliate products and make money with affiliate marketing or use your blog to sell premium content using MemberPress or Easy Digital Downloads.

7. A Blog Helps You Repurpose Content for Other Marketing Channels

Adding a blog to your website allows you to actively use blog content across your other marketing channels, such as making YouTube videos based on blog post content.

For example, we use our written WPBeginner tutorials as a helpful starting point for creating YouTube videos. This makes our video producers’ jobs easier and saves time. Then we embed the YouTube videos into the tutorial so our visitors can choose to read or watch the content.

Still not convinced? You can learn even more reasons to start a blog by taking a look at our article on the benefits of blogging.

Starting a Blog vs Starting a YouTube Channel

Now that you know about some of the benefits of blogging, you can see why we recommend that you start a blog first, and then add a YouTube channel in the future if you need.

Let’s summarize the most important points. When you build a blog, you are creating a platform that you own and control. The content you create will attract visitors to your website where they can learn more about your products and services.

On the other hand, the YouTube platform will always be owned by Google. The search traffic generated by your content will take people to the YouTube website, not your own.

Creating blog posts first also makes it easier to create other types of content, such as YouTube videos. Usually, the first step in creating a video is to write a script. Because you have already created written content on your blog, a lot of the work is already done.

Besides that, creating YouTube videos requires expensive equipment such as a camera and lighting, and you’ll also need to purchase video editing software and learn how to use it.

Finally, your blog is the perfect place for your visitors to watch your YouTube videos. You can easily embed YouTube videos in a blog post, giving your visitors the choice of watching or reading your content. That’s a great user experience.

What You Need to Start a Blog

We know that starting a blog can be a terrifying thought specially when you are not geeky. Guess what – you are not alone.

If you want to start a blog, then WordPress is the most popular blogging platform recommended by experts.

Although WordPress is free, there are some costs involved in creating a self-hosted blog. You will need to choose and register a domain name and decide on a web hosting provider.

You may also want to pay someone to design your website and purchase premium plugins to add features. The total cost will depend on your needs and goals.

The good news is that you can build a fully functional WordPress website for yourself and keep your costs under $100. Bluehost, an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

You can learn the details and options in our guide on how much it really costs to build a WordPress website.

Even better, when you signup with Bluehost using our link, they will automatically install WordPress for you, so you can start building your blog right away.

All you need to do is log in to your Bluehost account, and then click the ’Log in to WordPress’ button to get started.

Bluehost Dashboard - log in to WordPress

After that, you will need to set up your WordPress install, choose a theme and some plugins, then get started on your first blog post.

We take you through the entire process step by step in our beginner’s guide on how to start a WordPress blog. We’ll summarize the main steps below.

The end result will be an attractive and functional blog that you own.

Selecting a Theme to Customize Your Blog’s Appearance

Customizing the look and feel of your blog is by far one of the most exciting and rewarding parts of the journey of creating your WordPress blog.

WordPress comes with a powerful templating engine that allows you to change the appearance of your website by installing themes.

There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes available. You can choose one that looks closer to what you have in mind for your website.

WordPress Theme Stats

You can look for themes under the Appearance » Themes page. It will show you a bunch of default themes that come with your WordPress install.

For more themes, click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top to find more free themes.

Add new theme

For premium or paid WordPress themes, you can try trusted WordPress theme shops like SeedProd, Thrive Themes, Astra, Elegant Themes, and more.

However, there is such an abundance of WordPress themes that it may become difficult for beginners to decide which theme they want to use.

We recommend choosing a minimalist design with plenty of white space. This provides you plenty of room to customize the theme and make it your own.

For more details, see our guide on how to choose the perfect theme for your website as well as our list of the best free WordPress blog themes.

Creating Your First Blog Post

Once you have selected your WordPress theme, you are now ready to create your first blog post. You just need to click on the Posts » Add New menu in your WordPress dashboard.

You will see an editor area where you can write your first blog post.

Writing Your First Blog Post

WordPress uses a block-based editor that allows you to create beautiful content layouts for your blog posts.

To familiarize yourself with the editor, see our WordPress block editor tutorial.

Once you’re done writing, go ahead and click on the Publish button on the top-right corner of the screen to make your blog post publicly available.

Publishing Your First Blog Post

On the posts screen, you will notice several other sections such as Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your blog posts into sections. We have a great write-up on the difference between categories vs tags, which we highly recommend that you read.

To utilize all the features on the posts screen, you should read our article on how to add a new post in WordPress (video included).

We also offer some helpful resources to help you brainstorm new post ideas to write about:

A lot of pro bloggers choose their specific topics strategically by doing keyword research. This helps their content rank higher in Google searches and get more traffic.

We have a step-by-step guide on how to do keyword research for beginners using the exact same method that we use on WPBeginner.

Extending and Growing Your Blog With Plugins

Once you publish your first blog post, you’ll probably want to get started with adding other usual elements on your website such as a contact page, galleries, sliders, and an email list. To add all these additional features, you need to use plugins.

Plugins are like apps for your WordPress website. They allow you to add new features and extend the functionality of WordPress without writing any code.

There are more than 60,000 free plugins available in the WordPress.org plugin directory alone. Plus, there are premium WordPress plugins sold by third-party developers with priority support and guaranteed updates.

WordPress plugins

However, you also need to consider which plugins you need to use to keep your WordPress website secure, private, and anonymous.

Here are our top picks of the best plugins to grow your blog.

  • All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market and helps your anonymous website get more traffic from search engines.
  • SeedProd is a powerful WordPress page builder that allows you to use a drag-and-drop interface to create any type of page for your website.
  • MonsterInsights is the best WordPress Google Analytics plugin which helps you see where your visitors and coming from and what they see on your website.
  • OptinMonster is a conversion optimization software, which helps you convert website visitors into email subscribers and customers.
  • WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin and allows you to easily create forms for your website.

That’s just a start. You can learn how to add plenty of other features to your blog by checking out our list of useful tools to manage and grow your WordPress blog.

Monetizing Your WordPress Blog

WordPress is the largest publishing platform on the planet, and it powers over 43% of all websites. Many bloggers have successfully monetized their blogs, and you can too.

That’s why we put together a detailed list of proven ways you can make money online blogging with WordPress.

Unlike other articles on how to make money online, this is a comprehensive guide on how to make money at home legitimately, using blogging and WordPress.

Many of these methods require some investment of time and money to get started. As long as you’re willing to put in the effort, you’ll reap the reward.

Here are some of the main strategies we cover:

We hope this tutorial helped you learn why you should start with a blog instead of a YouTube channel. You may also want to learn how to create an email newsletter the right way, or check out our list of the best YouTube video gallery plugins for WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Should You Start a Blog or a YouTube Channel? (Beginner’s Guide) first appeared on WPBeginner.

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Best Blogging Niche – 7 That Will Make Money (Easily)

Are you thinking about starting a blog but not sure which topics or niche to choose?

Choosing the right niche for your blog makes it easier to create engaging content and even make money online.

In this article, we’ll explain how to easily choose the best blogging niche that will eventually help you start earning online.

Best blogging niche to start a blog

What is a Blog?

A blog is a website that’s updated regularly with new pieces of content, which are normally written articles. These are called “posts” and appear in reverse chronological order, with the newest at the top of the list.

To learn more, see our guide on the difference between a blog and a website.

When blogs first started, they were mostly personal diaries, sharing information on a range of topics of interest to the person writing.

That’s still how some blogs work today, but a large number of blogs now focus on specific niches that interest the blogger and their target audience.

For instance, WPBeginner is a blog focused on helping non-techy users do more with WordPress through helpful tutorials, how-tos, and other articles.

How to Make a Blog?

To start a blog, you need three key things:

  • A domain name: the address of your site (ours is wpbeginner.com)
  • Web hosting: online storage for your site, so visitors can access it
  • A blogging platform: special software that lets you easily create a blog without needing to do any coding

Normally, a domain name costs around $15-20 per year and web hosting starts from $7.95 per year.

That’s a significant investment, especially when you are just testing the waters.

Luckily, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and a generous discount on hosting. Basically, you can get started for $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Deal ←

Need more options? See our guide on how to choose the best web hosting detailed comparison of top hosting providers.

When it comes to your blog platform, there are plenty of choices available, including many great free ones. See our list of the best blogging platforms for detailed comparison.

However, if you want to make money from your blog in the near future, then WordPress.org is your best option (this is what we use on WPBeginner).

It is easy to use and comes with thousands of design options and add-ons. Most importantly, it gives you the freedom to monetize your blog in any way you want.

For more details, see our detailed guide on how to start a WordPress blog.

Related: Why you should use WordPress

Can You Really Make Money Blogging?

Starting a blog isn’t going to make you rich overnight, but you can definitely make money blogging.

Many popular blogs make money online using different methods. Often, this is called “monetizing” your blog.

Smaller blogs with a specific target audience can easily make a nice side income. Many popular blogs make six and even seven-figure income (see: WPBeginner income – how much money does WPBeginner make?).

The following are just some of the most popular monetization methods used by blogs all over the world.

Advertising: Running ads, often through an advertising network like Google AdSense. Some bloggers sell ads directly to companies instead.

Sponsorship: Running sponsored (paid for) content from an advertiser. This is often in the form of sponsored blog posts, but could also include social media posts on Instagram or other social networks.

Affiliate marketing: Linking to products or services that offer commission when someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase. This is a great way to monetize your blog. We have lots of affiliate marketing tips and tools to make it easy for you.

Digital products: By selling digital products like Ebooks, online courses, printables, apps, software, music, and more. Digital products generally have low overheads and can work for almost any niche.

Services: If you’re a writer, photographer, coach, or similar, that can be a great way to monetize your blog. You might even start a blog to help you market an existing service you offer, like logo design or freelance writing.

Physical products: Although they have higher costs than digital ones, physical products can be a great way to make money. It’s easy to add an online store to your WordPress blog and start selling.

Things to Consider When Choosing Your Blogging Niche

Many new blogs die within a few weeks and most don’t even make it to a couple of months.

Whatever blogging niche you choose, make sure you are genuinely interested in that topic. This would make it easier to stick to it and keep yourself motivated.

It’s also important to consider:

Do you know enough about your niche to be able to write confidently? You don’t need to be an expert, but it’s best to start a blog on a topic that you’re able to write about without having to do loads of research.

Can you easily make money from your niche? While blogs on all sorts of topics can and do make money, some niches are a lot easier to monetize than others. A blog about a little-known or uninteresting topic might not get enough readers to make much money.

Have you chosen an appropriately sized niche? It’s best not to go too broad. If you’re aiming for an audience of “everyone”, you’re likely to end up with “no one”. Try to find a sub-niche that’s a great fit for you.

Are you happy to have your name associated with your niche? While it’s fine to blog anonymously if you want to, however you might find it difficult to monetize.

Top Blogging Niches That Will Make Money

You might already have a topic in mind for your blog, or you might not have any ideas at all. All the niches below are great ones to try, so long as you pick a topic that you’re truly interested in.

These are all big, popular niches that have been around for years and that can make a lot of money.

1. Health and Fitness

Health and fitness
Health and fitness are huge topics, and you’ll definitely find an audience if you’re blogging about something in this area.

Health and fitness is one of the most popular blogging niches. It is a lucrative niche which means there are a ton of blogs that will be competing with you.

The easiest way to build your voice is by narrowing it down to your general interest.

There are lots of different angles that you could take:

  • A particular diet: paleo, gluten-free, raw food, 5:2, keto…
  • A particular type of exercise: running, weight-lifting, CrossFit…
  • A specific audience: women, men, young, old, geeky…
  • A particular approach to health: homeopathy, acupuncture, wellness…
  • Sharing your progress: if you’re on a health journey of your own, you could update readers on that and share your lessons learned

Tip: We’ve got a list of the best WordPress themes for CrossFit gyms. A lot of those could work well for other health or fitness topics too, so take a look and see if one would be right for your blog.

2. Personal Finance

Personal finance

We all need money, and many of us want to earn more, spend less, or save more. Blogs on personal finance have found huge audiences, and again, there are lots of different angles and approaches you can take.

You might choose to write about:

  • Frugality: money saving tips, using coupons, anti-consumerism…
  • Investing: market tips, best index funds, angel investors…
  • Debt: paying it off, mortgages, student loans…
  • Budgeting: software, motivation, cost-cutting tips…
  • Sharing your progress: this is quite common with blogs that focus on getting out of debt

Related: Best WordPress themes for financial blogs.

3. Fashion

Fashion blog

Fashion is another immensely popular blogging niche and one that could be a great money-maker. It’s a particularly good fit if you love posting on Instagram, which is where some fashion bloggers have become especially influential.

Many fashion blogs focus on the blogger and include lots of photos. If you want to remain anonymous, or if you hate being photographed, then this type of fashion blogging probably isn’t for you. Instead, you might want to blog about particular trends within fashion, or share fashion-related news.

Although you might associate fashion blogging with female bloggers, this niche isn’t just for women.

There are plenty of men’s fashion blogs (often called “men’s style”) out there too. These tend to focus more on tips and product suggestions than on personal photos.

We have a complete guide on how to start a fashion blog and make money with step by step instructions.

4. Lifestyle

The Stack theme for WordPress

What’s the “lifestyle” niche in blogging? It can be a little confusing if you’re new to blogging, so let’s break it down.

Lifestyle means writing about a range of different topics that are connected through having the same audience.

For instance, you might have a lifestyle blog where you write about food, fashion, and motherhood. The connection is that you’re writing for women in their 30s and 40s who want to eat well and look great while raising young children.

Alternatively, you might have a lifestyle blog aimed at single women that focuses on travel, beauty, and hair. Or you might have a blog aimed at men aged 20 to 40 that’s all about style, fitness, and music.

The mix of topics is up to you, but it’s important to make sure your blog has a very clear brand to give it focus and direction.

Tip: Many fashion WordPress themes or fitness WordPress themes can be a good fit for lifestyle blogs. As with fashion blogs, design is really important in this niche, so invest in a premium theme if you can.

5. Business and Marketing

Business blog

There are loads of blogs out there that cover business and marketing related topics. If you’ve been reading a lot about blogging, you might feel like every popular blog talks about something to do with blogging, marketing or building a business!

If you’ve got a business or marketing background, then starting a blog in this niche could be a great idea. As with the other niches on our list, this is a huge one, so you’ll want to find a clear focus and voice for your own blog.

Depending on your expertise and interests, you might choose to blog about:

  • B2B (business-to-business) marketing
  • B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing
  • Entrepreneurship: starting and growing companies
  • Small businesses: more and more people are moving into self-employment, so this is a great area to target
  • A particular type of marketing or area of marketing: networking, social media marketing, copywriting, direct response marketing…

Tip: Almost any of these multi-purpose WordPress themes could work for your business or marketing website. Divi is an especially good option as it’s fully responsive and you can customize it however you like.

6. Technology and Gaming

Technology and gaming

The fast-paced technology niche is great for making money from affiliate income, either directly from manufacturers and software companies, or through a website like Amazon.

Your best monetization routes are likely to be through advertising and affiliate marketing. Even if you’re not writing in-depth product reviews, a technology or gaming blog will give you lots of chances to link to products or software using affiliate links.

You might not be able to break industry news or share insider information, but there are still lots of things you could write about in this niche:

  • Specific equipment or gadgets: phone handsets, digital cameras, fitness trackers, Chromebooks…
  • Games: for consoles, PCs, mobiles, Facebook…
  • Tutorials: either for a specific piece of software (e.g. Photoshop) or more wide-ranging
  • Latest news: usually about a particular company or type of product
  • Technology or gaming for a specific demographic, such as teens or boomers

Related: See our step by step complete affiliate marketing guide for beginners.

7. Travel

Start a travel blog

The final niche on our list is travel. Again, it’s a hugely popular niche, both with bloggers and with readers, and there are a lot of different approaches you could take to build a successful blog.

Blogging about your own travels could be monetized through affiliate links to hotels, recommended travel buys, and so on. It might even give you opportunities for free vacations.

Great photos are, of course, an important part of your travel blog. Even if you’re just writing about local attractions, people will want to see pictures.

You could focus your travel blog by writing about:

  • Specific countries or continents: things to do, restaurants to visit, ways to get around…
  • A particular type of traveler: families, solo female travelers, digital nomads…
  • Travel deals: for flights, hotels, packages…
  • Your own travels: having a key theme or brand can make this easier to monetize

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to start a travel blog and make money from it.

Other Popular Blogging Niches to Consider

Of course, these aren’t the only ones you could make great money from. There are bloggers out there with successful blogs on almost any topic you could think of.

Maybe none of the ideas we’ve looked at sound like a good fit for you. Don’t push yourself to start a blog on a topic that you’re not interested in.

Here are some other good options to try. They all have the potential to make plenty of money.

Crafts Blog

If you love to knit, paint, sew, make jewelry, or engage in some other type of craft, why not blog about it? There are lots of great crafty blogs out there, and they tend to do really well on Pinterest.

As with other highly visual niches, like fashion, lifestyle, and travel, you’ll need to be able to include great photos. You could monetize by using affiliate links to any crafting tools and supplies that you want to promote or by selling your crafted items through a marketplace like Etsy.

DIY Blog

Do you enjoy decorating and remodeling your home? Or maybe you’ve gone further and redesigned or even rebuilt your home. There are plenty of DIY blogs out there, and this can be a great type of blogging to try if you enjoy writing tutorials and “how-to” articles.

Parenting Blog

Do you have kids? There are thousands of blogs out there about parenting, covering all sorts of different angles. While you might think the niche is already full of mommy bloggers, the audience for parenting blogs is so large that it’s definitely worth considering.

To help your parenting blog stand out, you’ll want a clear angle. You could write about a stage of parenting (like parenting toddlers) or you could write for a certain group of parents (like older parents or teen parents).

Educational Blog

Is there a topic that you know well and that you could teach others about? That could become a great niche for you.

For instance, perhaps you’re a keen amateur photographer and you could write detailed tutorials for beginners. Or maybe you’re an experienced developer and you could offer tips for people learning to code.

Sites that teach people how to do something can almost always be monetized through selling ebooks, online courses, or other information products.

Tip: You can also create and sell online courses along with your blog posts to make some serious dough.

Food Blog

We all need to eat! Blogs about food can be hugely popular. In this niche, you’ll almost certainly be sharing recipes, so you’ll want to take photos that make your food look great.

Again, it helps to have an angle or specific area that your blog focuses on within the broader niche. Perhaps you’ll be writing about quick and easy meals that taste great or about gluten-free or dairy-free recipes.

Advertising, affiliate links, or your own recipe book could all be great ways to monetize your food blog.

See our complete guide on how to start a food blog and make money for more advice and details.

Final Thoughts on Choosing the Best Blogging Niche

You could spend forever trying to pick the very best blogging niche. Or you could start your blog and, six months or a year from now, you could be making good money from it.

First, choose a niche that interests you and make sure you have a clear idea about how you can monetize it.

Then, choose a domain name that works well for your blog topic.

Finally, sign up for a hosting account and register your domain name. We recommend Bluehost, which will cost you just $2.75 / month, with a free domain name included (this is a special offer for WPBeginner readers).

That’s all you need to do to get started with your blog.

We hope this article has helped you choose the best blogging niche to make money from your blog. You may also want to look at our list of online business ideas to make money, and our article on how to increase your blog traffic.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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