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 latest months, we’ve seen main blogs shut down, course creators abandon ship, and even individuals who made hundreds of thousands from website positioning declare it sport over.
However right here’s what nobody is saying…
This isn’t nearly Google updates or AI. The best way individuals devour content material has basically modified, and blogs are not a part of the equation.
So the actual 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 could possibly be monetized by adverts, online marketing, and digital merchandise.
However in 2023, that every one modified. A number of the greatest 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 And outdated website positioning methods stopped working in a single day.
So what occurred?
The Brutal Reality 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 way in which I train in my programs.
No. I’m going to provide you my actual, trustworthy tackle the state of website positioning, content material websites, online 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 visitors coming again, or in the event you’re a model new blogger and also you’ve simply put a ton of labor into your new website… or in the event you’ve at all times needed to start out a weblog however now I’m sitting right here and shitting all around the whole 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 really opens up the most important on-line enterprise alternative we’ve ever seen.
And those that adapt now are going to win greater 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 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 adjustments that hit all of sudden. When you’ve been questioning why blogs are shutting down and website positioning 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 persons are clicking over to precise blogs. On the similar time, they prioritized boards like Reddit and Quora over impartial web sites.
When you seek for one thing like “Greatest Journey Credit score Playing cards,” you’re extra more likely 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 take care of 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.
Keep 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 in the event you write the perfect 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 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?”
In consequence, search outcomes grew to become 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 hearth.
And right here’s the issue… most bloggers didn’t use AI to enhance their content material, or to assist them analysis their details, or make their websites extra user-friendly—they used it to spam the net.
Because the 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 become 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 hearth.
3. Google’s AI Solutions Took Over Search Outcomes
Google now generates AI solutions proper within the search outcomes—pulling info instantly from blogs with out sending any visitors again to them.
When you search “Greatest Locations to Go to in Thailand,” Google’s AI summarizes the perfect 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 solely.
If UGC and AI spam had been the storm, Google’s AI-generated solutions had been the ultimate tsunami that worn out all the pieces left standing. It’s like enjoying a sport 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 determination—whether or not it was for a visit, a brand new cellphone, or a course—by studying a 3,000-word weblog publish?
You didn’t.
As an alternative, you in all probability:
- 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 opinions and checked testimonials on social media
That is simply how individuals purchase now—we would like fast, visible, and trusted info from individuals we truly observe and have interaction with.
You may assume that it is a direct results of individuals shedding belief in blogs as a result of so many are simply written with AI, however that’s not the case. The reality is, this transformation began taking place lengthy earlier than bloggers had instruments like ChatGPT and Claude.
Is website positioning Completely Useless?
Not solely—however for many impartial bloggers, it would as effectively be.
Large manufacturers with large budgets will nonetheless use website positioning. Although ChatGPT lately grew to become one of many prime 10 web sites on the 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 listing, so massive corporations with some huge cash will nonetheless battle for these prime spots.
However the days of recent 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 not possible to depend on natural visitors.
So in the event you’re nonetheless attempting to develop your enterprise by website positioning running a blog in 2025, you’re not simply competing with Google—you’re competing with how individuals truly devour content material now.
When you’re writing website positioning 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 website positioning to your web site and attempting to optimize it. Cease it.
It’s an entire 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 earnings from our web sites, however solely as a result of we’ve been round for a few years. Now we have 4 of them, and (fortunately) they’re nonetheless bringing in over six-figures a yr from adverts and associates.
We’ve invested in website positioning and hyperlink constructing over time, and constructed up our viewers, which gave us some cushioning as all the pieces collapsed.
However we knew we wanted 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 website positioning, Associates, and Advertisements to pay us our wage. However it didn’t take lengthy to appreciate that Advertisements 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 among MANY occasions that occurred to us.
Mainly, we had been making unimaginable cash, however we had no management over our visitors sources, or the earnings coming into our financial institution accounts.
That’s why we began specializing in constructing our electronic mail listing (a visitors supply that we OWN) and selling our own products—one thing we had management over. This took me down a rabbit gap and years of analysis into studying the best way to create an superior course, the best way to promote a course, the best way to create electronic mail gross sales automations and funnels, and principally the best way to earn cash selling our own products by 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 an alternative of counting on weblog visitors and website positioning to usher in leads, we’re doing it through 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 doubtless be the one motive you in all probability received’t have a successful online business 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 reality, 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 website positioning and Running a blog. We made hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on that wave and on the time, we thought it was the perfect wave within the sea.
However whereas we had been cruising on that wave… a much bigger, extra lovely, 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 in the event you journey it too lengthy, it’ll crush you. And in companies that contain know-how, these waves can come extraordinarily rapidly.
Within the tech panorama, the website positioning 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 E-mail Advertising and marketing
If running a blog was the outdated wave, social media is the brand new one. And it’s the most important alternative for natural 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 a large viewers at no cost
- It’s the most important alternative for natural visitors
- And it’s by far the most important alternative to monetize and make hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from promoting digital merchandise
1. Construct an Viewers with Quick-Type Video
Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts are the place persons 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 helps you to monetize quick—when you have the correct product. As an alternative of incomes $0.002 per customer by adverts, you possibly can promote a $37 digital product and make actual cash immediately.
Individuals like Natalie from Boss Babe have remodeled $100,000 per 30 days promoting a easy digital product. And we all know of a girl who remodeled 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 probability 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 had been simply writing weblog posts for website positioning, it might take months, usually years, earlier than they’d see any earnings.
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 and marketing 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 actual cash occurs. By main social media followers to a freebie, you possibly can construct an electronic mail listing that nurtures leads and automates gross sales.
After all, you possibly can’t simply earn cash 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 electronic mail listing the place they enter their identify and electronic mail to get your tremendous worthwhile freebie.
It’s from that freebie, and from the magic of electronic mail advertising and marketing that you just’re capable of promote your digital product to them and earn cash 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 influence 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 once an unimaginable enterprise mannequin, however occasions have modified. Google and AI have made it practically not possible for brand new bloggers to succeed the way in which we did years in the past.
However that doesn’t imply the chance is gone. It’s simply moved.
Writing website positioning blogs had develop into monotonous and boring. Ask any profitable blogger, we had been bored with writing the ten greatest issues to do in Bangkok and the 15 greatest finances microwaves.
Do I miss the passive earnings from running a blog? Completely, however that very same passive earnings is out there with short-form video and nice electronic 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 value it.
The longer term is short-form video. The longer term is making a worthwhile product. The longer term is having an epic electronic mail listing 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 massive.
If you wish to construct a enterprise that really works in 2025, deal with short-form video, digital merchandise, and electronic 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 training under that exhibits precisely how we—and our shoppers—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?
