This isn’t an article I wished to put in writing… 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 tens of millions from website positioning declare it sport over.
However right here’s what nobody is saying…
This isn’t nearly Google updates or AI. The way in which individuals devour content material has essentially modified, and blogs are now 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 lifeless, 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 might be monetized via adverts, affiliate internet marketing, and digital merchandise.
However in 2023, that each one modified. A number of the largest 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.
Site 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 And outdated website positioning methods stopped working in a single day.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 hundreds 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 put up say… except you do it the way in which I educate in my programs.
No. I’m going to present you my actual, trustworthy tackle the state of website positioning, content material websites, affiliate internet marketing, and running a blog as a enterprise mannequin.
If you happen to’re at the moment a blogger and also you’ve been holding on optimistically dreaming of your visitors coming again, or should you’re a model new blogger and also you’ve simply put a ton of labor into your new website… or should you’ve all the time wished to start out a weblog however now I’m sitting right here and shitting everywhere in the total 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 largest on-line enterprise alternative we’ve ever seen.
And those that adapt now are going to win greater than ever earlier than.
Ensure you learn to the top of this put up 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 unexpectedly. If you happen to’ve been questioning why blogs are shutting down and website positioning methods are failing, listed here are the largest 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 identical time, they prioritized boards like Reddit and Quora over impartial web sites.
If you happen to seek for one thing like “Finest Journey Credit score Playing cards,” you’re extra prone to see a Reddit thread or TripAdvisor put up 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 cope with 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 should you write one of the best put up on the web, you’re combating 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?”
Consequently, search outcomes turned flooded with generic, AI-generated content material. Google responded by rolling out updates that penalized AI-heavy web sites, however even high-quality blogs received 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 received 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 visitors again to them.
If you happen to 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 knowledge 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 totally.
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 reality 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 resolution—whether or not it was for a visit, a brand new telephone, or a course—by studying a 3,000-word weblog put up?
You didn’t.
As an alternative, you most likely:
- Watched a YouTube evaluation
- 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 data from individuals we truly observe and interact with.
You may 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 alteration began taking place lengthy earlier than bloggers had instruments like ChatGPT and Claude.
Is website positioning Completely Useless?
Not totally—however for many impartial bloggers, it’d as effectively be.
Massive manufacturers with large budgets will nonetheless use website positioning. Despite the fact that ChatGPT not too long ago turned one of many high 10 web sites on this planet, at the moment at quantity 7, and is climbing shortly, Google remains to be the god of on-line visitors for now. It’s on the high of that listing, so massive firms with some huge cash will nonetheless struggle for these high spots.
However the days of latest bloggers rating with nice content material alone are gone. The struggle for search engine visibility is simply too aggressive, and Google’s fixed algorithm adjustments make it not possible to depend on natural visitors.
So should you’re nonetheless attempting to develop your enterprise via 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.
If you happen to’re writing website positioning weblog posts and attempting to rank in Google for key phrases…. Cease it.
If you happen to’re doing a little variation of that, like attempting to rank for Bing or ChatGPT… Cease it.
If you happen to’re engaged on the technical website positioning in your web site and attempting to optimize it. Cease it.
It’s a whole waste of time.
There are different issues you have 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 years. We now have 4 of them, and so they’re nonetheless bringing in a couple of thousand {dollars} per thirty days from adverts and associates.
We’ve invested tens of hundreds of {dollars} in website positioning and hyperlink constructing, 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 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. Nevertheless it didn’t take lengthy to comprehend that Advertisements dropped as a lot as 50% seasonally or relying on the political state of affairs, and associates? Don’t even get me began…
I already wrote a put up on how Airbnb cancelled their associates program with out warning, costing us $100,000 per 12 months. And that was simply one among MANY instances that occurred to us.
Principally, we had been making unbelievable 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 promoting our personal merchandise—one thing we had management over. This took me down a rabbit gap and years of analysis into studying tips on how to create an superior course, tips on how to promote a course, tips on how to create electronic mail gross sales automations and funnels, and mainly tips on how to earn cash promoting our personal merchandise via emails.
That a part of our enterprise was actually profitable and it received us to the place we at the moment are. However now, for the previous 2 years, as a substitute of counting on weblog visitors and website positioning to herald leads, we’re doing it via 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 most likely 40+ like me, and two, that perspective will possible be the one purpose you gained’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 best ways I can clarify that is via a browsing analogy. No, I’m not a surfer, however simply bear with me for a minute…
We had been using this large wave of website positioning and Running a blog. We made tens of millions of {dollars} on that wave and on the time, we thought it was one of the best wave within the sea.
However whereas we had been cruising on that wave… a much bigger, extra stunning, and extra sustainable wave was constructing momentum behind our wave.
That wave was Social Media.
In enterprise, you need to know when to get off the wave. As a result of should you trip it too lengthy, it’ll crush you. And in companies that contain expertise, these waves can come extraordinarily shortly.
Within the tech panorama, the website positioning wave was like an enormous tidal wave that began within the Atlantic and ended within the Pacific. It lasted SO lengthy, and we’re 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
If running a blog was the outdated wave, social media is the brand new one. And it’s the largest alternative for natural visitors and monetization we’ve ever seen.
This wave is the largest alternative we’ve ever seen within the on-line world:
- It’s the largest alternative to construct an enormous viewers without spending a dime
- It’s the largest alternative for natural visitors
- And it’s by far the largest alternative to monetize and make tens of millions of {dollars} from promoting digital merchandise
1. Construct an Viewers with Quick-Kind 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 via short-form video.
Certainly one of our shoppers, Nadine, is a 60-year-old girl who had by no means even posted a reel on Instagram earlier than. She took what we confirmed her and carried out it on her first reel, and her third one went completely atomic. She received 600,000 views in a couple of weeks and was quickly as much as 28,000 followers. And naturally, she made gross sales. She had a month-to-month monetary retirement aim and after simply 6 months since posting that reel, she had a month the place she not solely hit that aim however doubled it.
Or Jimmy, who didn’t even have an Instagram account when he began with us. He had zero followers and had by no means recorded a reel earlier than. He plugged away for a couple of months utilizing our sharing framework and immediately shot as much as 80,000 followers and now makes frequent gross sales of his high-ticket monetary teaching provide. He even stop his job to maneuver to Asia along with his spouse!
2. Promote Your Personal Digital Product
Not like running a blog, social media allows you to monetize quick—if in case you have the precise product. As an alternative of incomes $0.002 per customer via adverts, you possibly can promote a $37 digital product and make actual cash immediately.
Folks like Natalie from Boss Babe have revamped $100,000 per thirty days promoting a easy digital product. And we all know of a girl who revamped 1,000,000 {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 may’ve been some off likelihood that you just received 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 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 thirty days 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 to Automate Gross sales
Your weblog needs to be a web 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 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 become profitable on social media by posting humorous cat movies. You create extremely focused content material that speaks to a selected individual, 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 useful 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 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 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 unbelievable enterprise mannequin, however instances have modified. Google and AI have made it almost not possible for brand spanking 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 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 price range 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.
This put up may ruffle a couple of feathers. However I’d stand as much as anybody who stored claiming that running a blog is a viable enterprise.
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 useful 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 along with your viewers on-line.
That is the long run. 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, concentrate on short-form video, digital merchandise, and electronic mail advertising and marketing. That is the way you create an actual, future-proof enterprise.
If you happen to’re able to cease losing time on outdated methods and begin constructing a worthwhile enterprise, seize our free coaching under that exhibits precisely how we—and our shoppers—are doing it.
The largest on-line enterprise alternative we’ve ever seen is occurring proper now. The one query is—are you going to take it?