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 lifeless.
In current 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 eat content material has basically modified, and blogs are now not a part of the equation.
So the true query isn’t simply “Is running a blog nonetheless price it?” It’s “If running a blog is lifeless, what truly works now?”
Let’s get into it.
Why Even Prime Bloggers Are Strolling Away
For years, running a blog was an extremely profitable enterprise mannequin. Excessive-ranking weblog posts introduced in regular natural site visitors, which may very well be monetized by way of adverts, internet online affiliate marketing, and digital merchandise.
However in 2023, that every one modified. Among the largest names in running a blog began pulling out. Even we have been provided over half one million {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 And outdated website positioning methods stopped working in a single day.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 Fact 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 let you know running a blog is lifeless, after which later on this publish say… except you do it the way in which I educate in my programs.
No. I’m going to present you my actual, sincere tackle the state of website positioning, content material websites, internet online affiliate marketing, and running a blog as a enterprise mannequin.
For those who’re at the moment a blogger and also you’ve been holding on optimistically dreaming of your site visitors coming again, or when you’re a model new blogger and also you’ve simply put a ton of labor into your new web site… or when you’ve at all times needed to start out a weblog however now I’m sitting right here and shitting everywhere in the complete 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 people who adapt now are going to win larger than ever earlier than.
Be sure you 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 individual 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 modifications that hit all of sudden. For those who’ve been questioning why blogs are shutting down and website positioning methods are failing, listed below 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 implies fewer persons are clicking over to precise blogs. On the similar time, they prioritized boards like Reddit and Quora over impartial web sites.
For those who seek for one thing like “Finest Journey Credit score Playing cards,” you’re extra more likely to see a Reddit thread or TripAdvisor publish on the high of search outcomes than a well-researched weblog article.
And this wasn’t an accident—Google struck a $60 million per 12 months 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 site visitors graphs of your favourite journey bloggers tanking? Nicely, Reddit’s site 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 when you write one of the best 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 suppose, “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?”
Because of this, 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 fireplace.
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 online.
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 fireplace.
3. Google’s AI Solutions Took Over Search Outcomes
Google now generates AI solutions proper within the search outcomes—pulling data instantly from blogs with out sending any site visitors again to them.
For those who search “Finest Locations to Go to in Thailand,” Google’s AI summarizes one of the best choices on the high 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 completely.
If UGC and AI spam have been the storm, Google’s AI-generated solutions have 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 reality nobody is speaking about—even when Google wasn’t killing blogs, shoppers already moved on.
Give it some thought. When was the final time you made a purchase order choice—whether or not it was for a visit, a brand new telephone, or a course—by studying a 3,000-word weblog publish?
You didn’t.
As an alternative, you in all probability:
- Watched a YouTube assessment
- 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 evaluations and checked testimonials on social media
That is simply how individuals purchase now—we wish fast, visible, and trusted data from individuals we truly observe and have interaction with.
You would possibly suppose 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 modification began occurring lengthy earlier than bloggers had instruments like ChatGPT and Claude.
Is website positioning Completely Useless?
Not completely—however for many impartial bloggers, it’d as properly be.
Large manufacturers with huge budgets will nonetheless use website positioning. Despite the fact that ChatGPT just lately grew to become one of many high 10 web sites on the earth, at the moment at quantity 7, and is climbing rapidly, Google continues to be the god of on-line site visitors for now. It’s on the high of that record, so large firms with some huge cash will nonetheless combat for these high spots.
However the days of recent bloggers rating with nice content material alone are gone. The combat for search engine visibility is simply too aggressive, and Google’s fixed algorithm modifications make it unimaginable to depend on natural site visitors.
So when you’re nonetheless attempting to develop your small business by way of website positioning running a blog in 2025, you’re not simply competing with Google—you’re competing with how individuals truly eat content material now.
For those who’re writing website positioning weblog posts and attempting to rank in Google for key phrases…. Cease it.
For those who’re performing some variation of that, like attempting to rank for Bing or ChatGPT… Cease it.
For those who’re engaged on the technical website positioning on your web site and attempting to optimize it. Cease it.
It’s a whole waste of time.
There are different issues try to be engaged on if you wish to construct a sustainable, future-proof enterprise, and we’ll get to {that a} bit later.
What Truly Occurred to Our Running a blog Companies (And How We Pivoted)
We nonetheless make passive revenue from our web sites, however solely as a result of we’ve been round for a few years. We’ve got 4 of them, and (fortunately) they’re nonetheless bringing in over six-figures a 12 months from adverts and associates.
We’ve invested in website positioning and hyperlink constructing through the years, and constructed up our viewers, which gave us some cushioning as all the pieces collapsed.
However we knew we would have liked to pivot years in the past. Greater than 7 years in the past, we realized that we have been placing WAY too many eggs within the running a blog basket.
We relied utterly on Google website positioning, Associates, and Adverts to pay us our wage. However it didn’t take lengthy to comprehend that Adverts 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 12 months. And that was simply one in every of MANY occasions that occurred to us.
Mainly, we have been making unimaginable cash, however we had no management over our site visitors sources, or the revenue coming into our financial institution accounts.
That’s why we began specializing in constructing our e-mail record (a site visitors supply that we OWN) and promoting our personal merchandise—one thing we had management over. This took me down a rabbit gap and years of analysis into studying the way to create an superior course, the way to promote a course, the way to create e-mail gross sales automations and funnels, and principally the way to earn cash promoting our personal merchandise by way of 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 site visitors and website positioning to herald leads, we’re doing it by way of social media.
Now earlier than you say what I used to say again then and be like “I hate social media”, let me let you know that for one, you’re in all probability 40+ like me, and two, that angle will seemingly be the one motive you in all probability received’t have a profitable on-line enterprise in 5 years.
What This Means for the Way forward for On-line Enterprise
Running a blog is now not a viable enterprise mannequin, however that doesn’t imply on-line enterprise is lifeless. The truth is, 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 way of a browsing analogy. No, I’m not a surfer, however simply bear with me for a minute…
We have been using this huge 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 one of the best wave within the sea.
However whereas we have been cruising on that wave… an even bigger, extra lovely, and extra sustainable wave was constructing momentum behind our wave.
That wave was Social Media.
In enterprise, you must know when to get off the wave. As a result of when you journey it too lengthy, it’ll crush you. And in companies that contain expertise, these waves can come extraordinarily rapidly.
Within the tech panorama, the website positioning wave was like an enormous 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 Electronic 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 site 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 an enormous viewers free of charge
- It’s the most important alternative for natural site 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 huge audiences by way of short-form video.
2. Promote Your Personal Digital Product
Not like running a blog, social media enables you to monetize quick—you probably have the suitable product. As an alternative of incomes $0.002 per customer by way of adverts, you’ll be able to promote a $37 digital product and make actual cash immediately.
Individuals like Natalie from Boss Babe have revamped $100,000 monthly promoting a easy digital product. And we all know of a lady who revamped one million {dollars} in a 12 months from her tiny viewers of lower than 3,000 individuals.
This simply wasn’t doable with running a blog. There would possibly’ve been some off probability that you simply acquired picked up by a giant TV community or one thing and also you went viral in a single day, however for 99.9% of bloggers who have been simply writing weblog posts for website positioning, it could take months, usually years, earlier than they’d see any revenue.
Even me. I constructed a fly fishing web site from $0 to $8,400 monthly in a single 12 months. However for the primary 6 months, it earned subsequent to nothing. And I knew what I used to be doing!
3. Use Electronic mail Advertising and marketing to Automate Gross sales
Your weblog needs to be an internet site—not a content material hub. It ought to:
- Construct authority
- Seize emails
- Promote your product
Electronic mail advertising and marketing is the place the true cash occurs. By main social media followers to a freebie, you’ll be able to construct an e-mail record that nurtures leads and automates gross sales.
In fact, you’ll be able to’t simply become profitable on social media by posting humorous cat movies. You create extremely focused content material that speaks to a particular individual, helps them obtain a particular transformation, and that content material sends them to your e-mail record the place they enter their title and e-mail to get your tremendous useful freebie.
It’s from that freebie, and from the magic of e-mail advertising and marketing that you simply’re capable of promote your digital product to them and become profitable 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 affect and assist individuals, and it’s the primary steps in constructing an actual, loyal neighborhood.
The Future is Right here—And It’s Not Running a blog
Running a blog was an unimaginable enterprise mannequin, however occasions have modified. Google and AI have made it practically unimaginable 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 grow to be monotonous and boring. Ask any profitable blogger, we have been uninterested in writing the ten greatest issues to do in Bangkok and the 15 greatest price range microwaves.
Do I miss the passive revenue from running a blog? Completely, however that very same passive revenue is accessible with short-form video and nice e-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 price it.
The longer term is short-form video. The longer term is making a useful product. The longer term is having an epic e-mail record that individuals 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 large.
If you wish to construct a enterprise that really works in 2025, deal with short-form video, digital merchandise, and e-mail advertising and marketing. That is the way you create an actual, future-proof enterprise.
For those who’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 most important on-line enterprise alternative we’ve ever seen is occurring proper now. The one query is—are you going to take it?
