Should You Start a Blog or a YouTube Channel? (Beginner’s Guide)

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Are you wondering whether you should commencement a blog oregon YouTube channel?

Blogging and vlogging are bully ways to prosecute with your assemblage and turn your brand’s credibility. We are often asked by readers which they should commencement archetypal blog vs YouTube?

In this article, we’ll explicate our prime connected blog vs YouTube and which you should commencement archetypal with elaborate mentation of our take.

Should You Start a Blog oregon  a YouTube Channel?

TLDR: we urge you start with a blog and adhd a YouTube transmission aboriginal if needed

This is simply a broad guide, truthful we’ve included a array of contents for easier navigation:

What Is a Blog?

A blog is simply a benignant of website wherever articles, called ‘blog posts’, are presented successful reverse chronological bid with newer contented appearing first. Blog posts are a large mode to stock your adept cognition with your audience, physique credibility, and pull visitors to your site.

If you privation to commencement an online business, oregon pass amended with your existing customers oregon audience, past you should deliberation astir starting a blog.

Blogs typically contiguous accusation successful a conversational benignant and are tally by individuals oregon a tiny radical of people. However, determination are present tons of corporate blogs that nutrient a large woody of utile informational and thought-leadership content.

Typical blog posts besides person a comments section wherever users tin respond to the nonfiction by making comments oregon asking questions.

Blogging has been around since 1993 and has go an indispensable selling instrumentality for galore businesses. But is it inactive applicable successful the property of YouTube and societal media?

Why Starting a Blog Is truthful Important Today

There are presently 1.9 cardinal websites successful the world, and implicit 600 cardinal are blogs. That means that blogs marque up a 3rd of the web.

Blogging has go an important selling strategy for businesses owed to its benefits. You oregon your concern tin usage a blog to beforehand ideas, brands, stories, products, and more.

Here are immoderate of the much important benefits of blogging and wherefore you should see starting a blog.

1. A Blog Will Bring More Traffic to Your Website

A typical business website consists of a fewer important pages. For example, you whitethorn person a homepage, landing pages for your products and services, and a interaction page.

Unfortunately, hunt engines whitethorn often determine that your website is little important than thousands of different websites successful the aforesaid industry, particularly if they person been astir longer.

Adding a blog allows you to people further contented which implicit clip volition assistance you bring much postulation to your website.

That’s a large crushed to commencement with a blog alternatively than a YouTube transmission due to the fact that YouTube videos volition pull postulation to the YouTube level alternatively of your ain website. You ain and power your blog, portion the YouTube level is owned by Google and volition payment them.

2. A Blog Will Help Strengthen Brand Recognition and Build Authority

A blog helps you fortify your marque identity. It gives you much opportunities to usage your custom logo across your website, your societal profiles, hunt results, and more.

This marque designation erstwhile combined with lawsuit spot and authorization adds tremendous worth to your integer assets.

Adding a blog allows you to found authorization by regularly publishing contented connected topics related to your industry.

If you are consistently publishing caller content, you’ll go the go-to spot for your users and different businesses funny successful those topics.

3. A Blog Will Help You Generate More Leads and Conversions

More than 70% of radical visiting your website today, volition ne'er find it again. That’s due to the fact that determination is truthful overmuch contented and accusation connected the internet.

Starting a blog volition assistance you person website postulation into imaginable leads, subscribers, and societal media followers.

For example, you tin usage tools like OptinMonster to build an email list and turn a societal media following. And with push notifications, you tin nonstop targeted messages to your blog visitors and bring them backmost to your website.

4. A Blog Will Help You Build an Engaging Audience

A static website doesn’t permission overmuch country for a conversation. Why not adhd a blog to your tract wherever users tin prosecute by leaving a remark and sharing your posts connected societal media?

This helps you physique a assemblage astir your concern which is highly useful.

It volition assistance your visitors make an affinity with your marque which pays disconnected erstwhile they are looking to marque a acquisition oregon urge your products and services to friends and family.

5. A Blog Will Let You Educate Customers and Share News

Blog posts let you to amended customers astir antithetic ways they tin usage your products. This volition let you to comparison your merchandise with competitors, showcase merchandise features, pass users astir benefits, and more.

They’re besides the champion spot to stock your concern news, announcements, and income events.

For instance, if you are launching a Black Friday sale, you tin beforehand it with a blog post. And past beforehand that blog station crossed your website with a floating header oregon footer banner.

6. A Blog Will Let You Build Additional Revenue Streams for Your Business

Blogs supply galore opportunities to make further gross and make wealth online. For instance, you tin show ads successful your blog posts utilizing Google AdSense.

You tin besides beforehand affiliate products and marque wealth with affiliate selling oregon usage your blog to merchantability premium contented utilizing MemberPress oregon Easy Digital Downloads.

7. A Blog Helps You Repurpose Content for Other Marketing Channels

Adding a blog to your website allows you to actively usage blog contented crossed your different selling channels, specified arsenic making YouTube videos based connected blog station content.

For example, we usage our written WPBeginner tutorials arsenic a adjuvant starting constituent for creating YouTube videos. This makes our video producers’ jobs easier and saves time. Then we embed the YouTube videos into the tutorial truthful our visitors tin take to work oregon ticker the content.

Still not convinced? You tin larn adjacent much reasons to commencement a blog by taking a look astatine our nonfiction connected the benefits of blogging.

Starting a Blog vs Starting a YouTube Channel

Now that you cognize astir immoderate of the benefits of blogging, you tin spot wherefore we urge that you commencement a blog first, and past adhd a YouTube transmission successful the aboriginal if you need.

Let’s summarize the astir important points. When you physique a blog, you are creating a level that you ain and control. The contented you make volition pull visitors to your website wherever they tin larn much astir your products and services.

On the different hand, the YouTube level volition ever beryllium owned by Google. The hunt postulation generated by your contented volition instrumentality radical to the YouTube website, not your own.

Creating blog posts archetypal besides makes it easier to make different types of content, specified arsenic YouTube videos. Usually, the archetypal measurement successful creating a video is to constitute a script. Because you person already created written contented connected your blog, a batch of the enactment is already done.

Besides that, creating YouTube videos requires costly instrumentality specified arsenic a camera and lighting, and you’ll besides request to purchase video editing software and larn however to usage it.

Finally, your blog is the cleanable spot for your visitors to ticker your YouTube videos. You tin easy embed YouTube videos successful a blog post, giving your visitors the prime of watching oregon speechmaking your content. That’s a large idiosyncratic experience.

What You Need to Start a Blog

We cognize that starting a blog tin beryllium a terrifying thought specially erstwhile you are not geeky. Guess what – you are not alone.

If you privation to start a blog, past WordPress is the most popular blogging platform recommended by experts.

Although WordPress is free, determination are immoderate costs progressive successful creating a self-hosted blog. You volition request to take and register a domain name and determine connected a web hosting provider.

You whitethorn besides privation to wage idiosyncratic to plan your website and acquisition premium plugins to adhd features. The full outgo volition beryllium connected your needs and goals.

The bully quality is that you tin physique a afloat functional WordPress website for yourself and support your costs nether $100. Bluehost, an authoritative WordPress-recommended hosting provider, has agreed to connection our users a escaped domain sanction and implicit 60% disconnected connected web hosting.

You tin larn the details and options successful our usher connected how overmuch it truly costs to physique a WordPress website.

Even better, erstwhile you signup with Bluehost using our link, they volition automatically instal WordPress for you, truthful you tin commencement gathering your blog close away.

All you request to bash is log successful to your Bluehost account, and past click the ’Log successful to WordPress’ fastener to get started.

Bluehost Dashboard - log successful  to WordPress

After that, you volition request to acceptable up your WordPress install, take a taxable and immoderate plugins, past get started connected your archetypal blog post.

We instrumentality you done the full process measurement by measurement successful our beginner’s usher connected how to commencement a WordPress blog. We’ll summarize the main steps below.

The extremity effect volition beryllium an charismatic and functional blog that you own.

Selecting a Theme to Customize Your Blog’s Appearance

Customizing the look and consciousness of your blog is by acold 1 of the astir breathtaking and rewarding parts of the travel of creating your WordPress blog.

WordPress comes with a almighty templating motor that allows you to alteration the quality of your website by installing themes.

There are thousands of escaped and paid WordPress themes available. You tin take 1 that looks person to what you person successful caput for your website.

WordPress Theme Stats

You tin look for themes nether the Appearance » Themes page. It volition amusement you a clump of default themes that travel with your WordPress install.

For much themes, click connected the ‘Add New’ fastener astatine the apical to find much escaped themes.

Add caller   theme

For premium oregon paid WordPress themes, you tin effort trusted WordPress taxable shops like SeedProdThrive ThemesAstraElegant Themes, and more.

However, determination is specified an abundance of WordPress themes that it whitethorn go hard for beginners to determine which taxable they privation to use.

We urge choosing a minimalist plan with plentifulness of achromatic space. This provides you plentifulness of country to customize the taxable and marque it your own.

For much details, spot our usher on how to take the cleanable theme for your website arsenic good arsenic our database of the champion escaped WordPress blog themes.

Creating Your First Blog Post

Once you person selected your WordPress theme, you are present acceptable to make your archetypal blog post. You conscionable request to click connected the Posts » Add New menu successful your WordPress dashboard.

You volition spot an exertion country wherever you tin constitute your archetypal blog post.

Writing Your First Blog Post

WordPress uses a block-based exertion that allows you to make beauteous contented layouts for your blog posts.

To familiarize yourself with the editor, spot our WordPress artifact exertion tutorial.

Once you’re done writing, spell up and click connected the Publish fastener connected the top-right country of the surface to marque your blog station publically available.

Publishing Your First Blog Post

On the posts screen, you volition announcement respective different sections specified arsenic Categories and Tags. You tin usage these to signifier your blog posts into sections. We person a large write-up connected the quality between categories vs tags, which we highly urge that you read.

To utilize each the features connected the posts screen, you should work our nonfiction on how to adhd a caller station successful WordPress (video included).

We besides connection immoderate adjuvant resources to assistance you brainstorm caller station ideas to constitute about:

A batch of pro bloggers take their circumstantial topics strategically by doing keyword research. This helps their contented fertile higher successful Google searches and get much traffic.

We person a step-by-step usher on how to bash keyword research for beginners utilizing the nonstop aforesaid method that we usage connected WPBeginner.

Extending and Growing Your Blog With Plugins

Once you people your archetypal blog post, you’ll astir apt privation to get started with adding different accustomed elements connected your website specified arsenic a interaction page, galleries, sliders, and an email list. To adhd each these further features, you request to usage plugins.

Plugins are similar apps for your WordPress website. They let you to adhd caller features and widen the functionality of WordPress without penning immoderate code.

There are much than 60,000 escaped plugins disposable successful the WordPress.org plugin directory alone. Plus, determination are premium WordPress plugins sold by third-party developers with precedence enactment and guaranteed updates.

WordPress plugins

However, you besides request to see which plugins you request to usage to support your WordPress website secure, private, and anonymous.

Here are our apical picks of the champion plugins to turn your blog.

  • All successful One SEO is the champion WordPress SEO plugin connected the marketplace and helps your anonymous website get much postulation from hunt engines.
  • SeedProd is a almighty WordPress leafage builder that allows you to usage a drag-and-drop interface to make immoderate benignant of leafage for your website.
  • MonsterInsights is the champion WordPress Google Analytics plugin which helps you spot wherever your visitors and coming from and what they spot connected your website.
  • OptinMonster is a conversion optimization software, which helps you person website visitors into email subscribers and customers.
  • WPForms is the champion WordPress interaction signifier plugin and allows you to easy make forms for your website.

That’s conscionable a start. You tin larn however to adhd plentifulness of different features to your blog by checking retired our database of useful tools to negociate and turn your WordPress blog.

Monetizing Your WordPress Blog

WordPress is the largest publishing level connected the planet, and it powers implicit 43% of each websites. Many bloggers person successfully monetized their blogs, and you tin too.

That’s wherefore we enactment unneurotic a elaborate database of proven ways you tin make wealth online blogging with WordPress.

Unlike different articles connected however to marque wealth online, this is simply a broad usher connected however to marque wealth astatine location legitimately, utilizing blogging and WordPress.

Many of these methods necessitate immoderate concern of clip and wealth to get started. As agelong arsenic you’re consenting to enactment successful the effort, you’ll reap the reward.

Here are immoderate of the main strategies we cover:

We anticipation this tutorial helped you larn wherefore you should commencement with a blog alternatively of a YouTube channel. You whitethorn besides privation to larn how to make an email newsletter the close way, oregon cheque retired our database of the champion YouTube video assemblage plugins for WordPress.

If you liked this article, past delight subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You tin besides find america on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: Our contented is reader-supported. This means if you click connected immoderate of our links, past we whitethorn gain a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, wherefore it matters, and however you tin enactment us.

Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff astatine WPBeginner is simply a squad of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with implicit 16 years of acquisition gathering WordPress websites. We person been creating WordPress tutorials since 2009, and WPBeginner has go the largest escaped WordPress assets tract successful the industry.

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