We were huddled up under a tent as the rain fell outside, I sat in front a group of 20 women at my mastermind retreat last week and one of the girls point blank asked me “is blogging dead?” This wasn’t the first time I had heard this question or led this discussion, in fact, over the years I feel like I only hear it more often.  The questions continued: “If most people listen to your podcast from iTunes and your biggest following is on Instagram, what’s the point in blogging every week? Is it even worth the time?”

As a girl who started this entire business by launching a blog almost eight years ago, it’s safe to say that blogging is in my blood. Have you questioned if blogging is even relevant anymore? Well, you’re not alone, sister and today I am sharing the 3 reasons it will remain a priority in my business.

The content lives on longer

Gone are the days when you’d religiously read your favorite bloggers content each week. You know what days they put out fresh content and you could not wait to hear what they were going to share next. It’s true that the way blogging USED to be has changed. Today, instead of thinking of my blog as almost a journal where the posts are read and then forgotten, I think about each post as an opportunity to attract new people to my site that are interested in a very specific topic, serve them up great content and ultimately, invite them to go deeper with me and my brand.

Maybe it’s my “How to Start an Airbnb” or my capsule wardrobe posts that attracted someone to my site initially. Perhaps they were searching for how to set up Google Analytics or what apps I use manage my Instagram. It’s possible they found me when searching about how to write a better bio or to update their pricing.

Because I have thousands of posts that took years to write, I have very specific topics to offer my audience and attract them whether it’s through a pin on Pinterest, SEO, a Facebook post or guest posts. I recently checked out my top 10 all-time blog posts and some were from back in 2015! That means, work I did 3 years ago is still attracting new people to my site each and every day. To me, it says that blogging is alive and evergreen.

You have more control over the user experience

Besides attracting this new audience to your site with your specific content, once they are there, you are better able to control their experience than anywhere else online. What journey do you want to take them down? What do you want them to feel as they visit your site? How do you want to connect with them beyond the post they are reading?

These are all things in your control on your website that you can not do on social media alone. I always teach that social media should be the handshake, the introduction and then the invitation where I invite people to my blog and website where we can go deeper and continue the conversation. I don’t have to worry about pesky algorithms not getting my work seen or the reader getting distracted by other things vying for their attention. I get to be in charge of that user experience and how someone interacts with me and my brand! 

My blog is also large way that I grow my email list and it gives me an opportunity to invite readers to sign up whether it’s for a freebie, more education or just as a direct invitation. Capturing a new audience that I am able to serve on my own terms is vital to the profitability of my business and has been my #1 priority for 2018.

It provides invaluable data to direct your priorities

I’m a numbers girl and one of the best ways I decide what my audience wants from me is by looking at what posts they are clicking on most. Each month I pull my top posts and see how I can serve up content in a new way, create new content that attracts more people to my page, and how I can continue to serve people on the topics they are most interested in!

I dig into the data: What were the most popular topics? How can I create more of that type of material for them? Do I see any trends that would offer insights into future podcast episodes, products, services or free content I should create? This information helps me serve my target audience even better with concrete data to back it up.

So, is it worth it? Is it dead?

Over the years I’ve published hundreds upon hundreds of posts. I used to blog every single weekday and never missed a day for years… yeah, let’s just say I don’t exactly do that anymore. Now? I focus on quality and not quantity, posts that will live on beyond the publish date, and content that isn’t irrelevant a week after it’s shared. Blogging is alive and well my friend — it’s just grown up with our generation and with that, we’ve had to adapt.

At the end of the day, I have half a million people visit my blog each and every month. That’s over 500,000 eyes being exposed to me, my content, and my site. So, my short answer? No, blogging is not dead. It may look very different than it did when I started 8 years ago, but as with anything in this online marketing world, we need to be able to adapt and change routes pretty quick. So what do you think, will you continue blogging for your business? Why or why not?

Looking for more blogging tips?

Tune in to hear my 5 best tips for writing a killer blog post.