Blogging Now & Then — 5 Major Differences in Today’s Bloggers
Being a millennial blogger, I have witnessed the evolution of bloggers from taking their blogs to a marketing firm. Today, let’s have a look at the significant differences you can find in this generation of bloggers compared to the then bloggers.
To make things interesting, I’m also talking about the dark faces of this generation of bloggers [some sarcasm]. So, let’s get started with blogging Now & Then differences.
Blogging Now & Then — 5 Differences:
From newspapers to mobile apps, the consumption of content by regular users has increased tremendously. Here is how bloggers have taken over the media industry and proved to be the primary source of information.
Wait a minute, isn’t that I’m going to talk about the differences between bloggers now & then? Of course, yes! The above lines are the reason why blogging has evolved from user-based content to money-based content. Let’s check out the differences now.
1. A hobby became a habit
It’s a known fact that everyone started their blogging as a hobby [filled with passion], but soon it becomes a habit for everyone, and for a few, it’s the primary source of income, or you can say their career. So, how it all happened?
It’s simple. Brands/firms came to know the power of blogging and encouraged bloggers to write about their products, do reviews, cover a story, etc. It made bloggers have their blog network because it’s tough for one to cover everything on one website.
You can’t just make a news site and fool readers with malicious content or delayed news.
So, every major blogger's plan now is to have their blogging network [a series of blogs], which includes almost all categories [niches] available.
Monetization is the primary factor why many bloggers are taking this as a habit. Leaving their passion behind, bloggers now just want to have their websites so they can earn some money that can fill their pockets. Besides monetization, no other factor’s making these bloggers make their hobby into a daily habit.
Earlier, this wasn’t the case. I’m talking about the pre-AdSense era or the days when getting an AdSense account was kind of hard.
In those days, blogs were filled with personal journals, and the number of bloggers was much less. The frequency of content posting is also subtle, and there was a destitute engagement from the readers. It’s because of very few resources [from the user end] and the involvement of high cost to maintain the blog [self-hosted].
So, most of the brands were more into newspapers & TV ads than getting in touch with bloggers to promote their products.
As already mentioned, the content posting doesn’t follow any timeline, so there’s no point in taking things seriously and monetizing it with some ad publishers. Even after the monetization [some years after], their blogs were filled with the most useful content, and there was no clickbait or a way to mislead the reader.
As mentioned in my previous article about the pre-Facebook group era, Forums have helped users understand the real potential of blogging and thus gave rise to methods that the current generation of bloggers follow.
2. Everyone’s a Digital Marketer
Everyone’s a digital marketer, SEO Expert, or Internet Marketer, and later becomes a solopreneur or an entrepreneur.
To be honest, the resources available now can make anyone [without any knowledge] a blogger. Still, it’s all about the consistency you show in your articles, and that’s what makes the difference. I’m calling every blogger a digital marketer now because they’re calling themselves one.
Though they call themselves digital marketing consultants/SEO experts [which their blog posts convey the same], no one’s an expert for real. It was not the case earlier –
We [I can say this] believe in our blogs that will make a difference in the readers as this was our main motto in starting them. No one at that time was calling themselves digital marketing experts, and there was no use of digital marketing consultants at that time as most of the promotion was offline.
When brands came to know about the use of online marketing, slowly all bloggers turned themselves into digital marketers and provided services like SEO/social media/link building, etc.,
“No matter when you started your blogging career; eventually, all bloggers started calling themselves digital marketing experts.
3. Content Sells something
As already explained about monetization, the main reason behind starting a blog network is to have diverse content that has a higher CPC & helps to earn more money through the affiliate network. Though some internet marketers don’t have any blog but making a pocket full of money through affiliate marketing [social media influencer + spam], the current generation of bloggers are still finding different ways to make a living out of their blog network.
The way they write content always has something to do with the monetization. It is not just happening with bloggers, even the corporate news websites are finding ways to make their content sell something. One good example [from the tech side] is that let’s take the top 5 gaming articles you can buy under 50K, and blogs usually list down the top 5 with affiliate links. It is considered to be a good practice, as it helps the user to check out the pricing and specifications comparison in the eCommerce website [with the links given in the listicle]. Bloggers usually take this to the next level and write the content just for the affiliate links, which sometimes may not fall in the website category. It is where it creates a problem for readers.
They visit the website for something, read something else, and end up somewhere on the web [with the links given in the article]
It was not the case for first-generation bloggers. As clearly explained in the previous lines, our main motto was to write what we loved, no one ever thought of making quick money out of it. You don’t see any bloggers writing content specifically for affiliate links, and yes, we do use affiliate links but in good practice.
4. Become an Influencer in the Niche
I believe this is the main reason why many people are showing interest in blogging. Earlier, there was no distinction in blogging, as we used to pick up stories that we liked and post them on our blogs. But, now, you should always start your blogging career with a blog that talks explicitly about blogging, or simply, become a tech blogger and start one more blog that talks about blogging. It is to give support for your blogging career, and the tech blog is to become an influencer.
Well, it seems many of the current generations have the same plan in their mind.
The point of starting a blog that talks more about blogging doesn’t make sense. Considering you as a new blogger, how can someone talk more about SEO/social media strategies, link building, etc. when they just started their blog [even their blogging] like one month back? It is where bloggers are fooling users and brands.
It’s effortless now to become an influencer. I’m not joking. If you have useful contacts with other blogger friends, you can be one of them. Just do a guest post on their blogs, and make a name for yourself. Attend events if any, along with them. Take selfies and post them on social media, and don’t forget to tag the brands. Also, do run some paid giveaways to gain a social media following and, finally, showcase your social media followers + engagement to the brand.
That’s it; you’re an influencer now.
But, real influencer marketing is entirely different from what the current generation of bloggers is doing. The influence should come from your content and not from you. Moreover, your article should positively affect the reader [not by getting paid], and the final decision should always be in the hands of the user-end, but not in your hands. It is where most bloggers use influencer marketing wrongly.
Everyone knows brands pay influencers to promote their products/services, and users just want to know more insights but not be brainwashed. Well, it was not a thing earlier. The first-generation bloggers were very relaxed with what they were doing — Increasing engagement in their articles was their main thing.
Though influencer marketing is a fundamental element in digital marketing, choosing an influencer is crucial. Every blogger in the particular niche considers themselves an influencer but doesn’t contribute in any way to the brand to improve sales or increase word of mouth about their brand. So, it’s just a waste of time if you’re planning to be one with your new blog.
5. Start a company is a primary goal
It is not only the case of today’s bloggers, even with the then bloggers, but the ultimate aim is also to have their startup that can bring a change. So, this was a significant step for every blogger.
As of now, many successful bloggers become successful entrepreneurs, and their reason for success is consistency in their work. It is where many dreams will just stay as ideas. Being a blogger, you get to know many aspects such as budget planning, managing a small team, proving not a quitter when a disaster happens, etc. All these qualities help to become a full-time blogger, but taking it as a serious career, and becoming an entrepreneur does come with a wide range of challenges.
It is where many bloggers fail and become a spammer.
Well, these are the five significant differences you can find between bloggers now & the then first-generation bloggers. Though there are many common things in both generations, the primary difference is that content-driven, user-helpful articles became money-oriented.
Note: This article was first published on my blog dated December 7, 2016, and republished here.
