YouTube vs Blogging: What You Need to Know for 2022

YouTube vs Blogging in 2022 is a common question for content creators. Should you start a blog OR should you start a YouTube channel? My answer is always to do BOTH but there are some big differences between a blog and YouTube. I could talk forever on this! So I figured why not put my thoughts into a blog post and YouTube video!

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YouTube vs Blogging

Three years ago I attended a video creator conference. I met a lot of people in person that I knew online and connected with many content creators. Some of those creators had big audiences, some with small audiences, and people in all kinds of niches. It was fantastic!

But I met two people, in particular, in two separate instances, where the conversations led to two different outcomes. These outcomes perfectly exemplify my thoughts on the blogging community versus the YouTube (video creator) community.

In this post, I want to address some of those differences. But I also want you to know that there are some very technical differences that you should know about too. Especially if you’re already a content creator and thinking about what 2022 will bring. This is also for you if you’re just getting started with either a YouTube channel or start a blog in 2022.

VIDEO: YouTube vs Blogging: What You Need to Know for 2022

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Setting up a YouTube Channel is Simpler than Blogging

In general, there are more steps to learn for setting up a blog than there are for setting up a YouTube channel.

Think about it… with a blog, you have to choose a platform, like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix. You also have to think about hosting companies, themes, plugins, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, indexing, sitemaps, and SO MUCH more.

With YouTube, it’s as simple as creating a Gmail account and hitting a button to create a channel. Then, you need to create a banner, profile picture, and links. There is also the About page to think about but the rest is mostly just creating the content.

The upside of your own blog is that you essentially own your platform. This is true especially with a self-hosted WordPress site and I explain a lot of that in my Step by Step Blog Setup Series here on this blog too.

As you can see there are many differences already with YouTube vs Blogging!

YouTube Growth is Faster than blogging

Not only is it easier to get a YouTube channel set up and running, but you’ll also see faster growth. Generally, faster growth generally will happen on YouTube than with blogging.

By growth, I mean traffic to your channel and views on your videos. Traffic and views are what you need to generate any kind of revenue. For Ad Revenue, Affiliate revenue, sales, services, clients, you name it, you need traffic in order to make that happen.

It can take weeks or months for Google to know that your blog exists! You can sometimes wait a while for Google to index your content (to place your content in the search engine). Whereas with YouTube, it’s almost instantaneous that YouTube will know where to put your video in the search results. This is assuming that you have really nailed your SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Which is faster: writing a blog post or creating a video?

YouTube is faster at generating traffic for you, but it may be faster and easier for you to create a blog post than a YouTube video.

It all depends on you, though!

For many people, it’s easier and less pressure to write a blog post than to create a video. Especially if it’s a talking head video where your face is on camera! With videos, you might feel apprehensive about “putting yourself out there.” With a blog post, you may feel less vulnerable.

Plus if you’re new to creating videos, you have to figure out how to use the camera. Learning how to edit videos which can take a long time for some people.

But this is completely dependent on you and what YOU want to create. I know a lot of video creators who would hate writing a blog post even though it sounds easier to others.

Blogging community vs YouTube community

I mentioned that there is a difference between the blogging community and the YouTube creator community.

I’m not talking about the community you will create in your niche as a content creator. I’m talking about the blogging community (as a whole) and the video creator community as a whole.

Remember, this is 100% from my experience being in the blogging community and the video creator. I’ve been in these communities as a participant online, on social media, within paid programs, and in person at conferences and events.

The tale of two conversations

Let me tell you the tale of two conversations that I had at a conference I went to 3 years ago.

I was chatting with a woman who I had just met and I asked her what her channel was about. And she showed me her channel on her phone. And it looked great! Her thumbnails were amazing, she had lots of subscribers and many views. She seemed to be really thriving in her niche, and she had created that out of also having a really successful blog!

My niche, as you may or may not know, is that I help people figure out how to use cameras and software to create and edit videos for YouTube and social media. Her niche was SO FAR from that, it might as well have been about how to change the oil in your vintage Mustang! It wasn’t… but that’s how far away and super specific her niche was to mine.

So when I told her what kind of videos I create on my channel, her response almost knocked me over!

She said, “Oh I know you, we’re competitors.” And she cut the conversation off completely. She explained that we’re competitors because she was also teaching other bloggers how to get started on YouTube, and she clearly felt that I was somehow encroaching on her business.

I’ll be honest, I felt so defeated at that moment. I wanted to crawl under a rock and not come out. She made me feel small, not by what she said, but by how she said it. It was very clear to me she wasn’t interested in being friends, collaborating, or having anything to do with me at all.

On the flip side, what I witness in the video creator community is that the YouTube community is warmer and more welcoming to new creators than the blogging community is to new creators–especially, particularly–when it comes to their niche.

Bloggers can be very territorial while video creators (in my experience) tend to be more collaborative.

This is something I noticed almost right away when I started blogging and creating YouTube videos back in 2015.

Thoughts on YouTube vs Blogging in 2022

Those are just some of my observations about YouTube and Blogging, based on my experience over the last 6 years. And there are some awesome blogging communities like Tracie Fobes and Mike from Stupid Simple SEO.

YouTube and Blogging in 2022 – My Thoughts

The question should not be “should I do one or the other,” my answer is almost always going to be both. BUT my advice is to focus on the YouTube content, build out your spider web strategy to gain traffic, views, and revenue quickly, and just turn the videos into blog posts.
Your blog doesn’t have to be pretty, it doesn’t have to be fancy, it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money or time to set up, but to get the benefits of gaining traffic (which can lead to affiliate revenue, ad revenue, email list building, and more) you have to, at the very least, just get the words on the page so Google knows you’re there.
Let’s not ignore what’s going on outside of the massive platform of Google and YouTube because TikTok and short-form vertical video content in general, is catching on fast. 2022 might be a good year to stop ignoring those platforms if you have been.
Also, email marketing is alive and well and ready to take on 2022 as well so make use of the organic traction you can get on YouTube, Blogging, and TikTok by building your email list as well so that you’re ready for whatever 2023 and beyond brings our way.

What about other content platforms?

One thing that I am putting more focus on right now and into 2022 is developing a niche site/niche channel that is small but hyper-focused and highly profitable, and I think there are a LOT of opportunities for that kind of model that’s not really a “personal brand” business model like I have here right now.

And I want to hear from you on what your plans are for creating content 2022! If you want to learn more about anything I mentioned here in this video please drop me a comment and let me know, that will help me come up with ideas for future videos.

Related: YouTube Studio Setup at Home