The last two years have been crucial for the business of blogging, after reaching maturity in the early ’10s, it soon started to face the competition of the younger media channels. As I look at, and put my hands on, a lot of blogs for work, I have been following closely the evolution of the doyen of social media. Pressured by the peers competition and the emergence of new social media platforms, even the most successful bloggers haven’t been able to sleep on their laurels, but they had to keep their antennas up, to adapt and evolve, in order to remain relevant in an increasingly crowded field. Based (mostly) on a survey and (also) my personal observations, here are a few trends that have been affecting the blogosphere in response to these challenges.
1 SEO and Email Marketing to drive traffic
The first trend to attract my attention is of course “How are bloggers driving traffic to posts“. The research shows growing use of SEO (+11%), email marketing (+23%), influencer outreach (+25%) and paid services (+93%).
SEO, ahhh the black sheep of every blogger, they started it as a hobby, a creative endeavor, and now they find themselves mired in boring technical stuff. Yes Search Engine Optimization is very important for blogging, unless you’re a celebrity or you have deep pockets to pay for advertising. More to the point: SEO has always been important for blogging, personal logs are neither established brands nor always follow the hottest trending topics. In this case, the adage “Well begun is halfway work” is the most appropriate advice I can give: start from each new post, image, element, do not procrastinate or you will be quickly bored out of your blog.
Considering the high cost of acquiring readers in a crowded market, email marketing makes a lot of sense to foster loyalty, while networking with influencers is increasingly used to reach new audiences.
The paid media growth is associated mostly to social advertising: those boosts to content visibility that are necessary since the introduction of paid advertising on most popular social media platforms.
2 Longer posts
Although the vast majority (58%) of posts still fall in the 500-1000 characters category, its trend is negative compared to the previous year. Where have they all gone? Arguably they chose to up their game as indicated by the increase in posts longer than 1,000 words. The times of click-bait are (almost) over, good SEO requires relevant content, and remember it is not just a matter of keyword stuffing anymore.
3 More Visual and Audio
Nowadays, the rise of visual marketing, and its king, Instagram, is hardly a secret and bloggers have been actively part of it. The survey marks positive trends for use of multiple images, lists and audio, -especially podcasts seems to be undergoing a sort of revival. Only videos have lost some of their appeal, it is after all a complex media to produce for most bloggers, and, as it had reached maturity also on the web it, the biggies have quickly covered most bases.
4 Guest blogging
I have to admit, this one took me a little by surprise. Guest blogging has always been in the handbook of the good digital P.R. , and maybe for this reason I thought it a bit passe’, but no: bloggers and pundits still consider it an efficient tactic to reach new audiences and increase exposure.
5 Less blog more website
As the medium matures so do its aesthetics, the days of personal diaries on a free platform are in the past and many blogs are now competing head to head with established publishers. Today the affordability and flexibility of web design tools make it possible to have a professionally looking site with a small investment (thanks St. WordPress ;). The caveat is to be able to keep up with good quality content, without losing that personal voice that made it popular to start with. And do not forget mobile! A mobile-friendly site is not only for early adopters anymore, but it is a must, for the good of your readership and the good peace of Google’s algorithms (see #1) .
6. More engagement, less pageviews
Nowhere is the influence of social networks more evident than in the shift of success indicators. Pageviews were once a crucial metric, especially in the eyes of advertisers; now followers, fans and their interactions with the blog are increasingly used as indicators of a blog popularity and its suitability for paid campaigns.
These trends have already been in action in the blogosphere for sometime, what’s brewing behind them? What trends will come at the forefront in the next months and into 2017? here is my forecast
1. No Comment
Bloggers are closing their comment threads, better to channel their readers engagement on the social networks, where they are better valued (see #6) and monitored from spam.
2. Customized graphics
The popularity of pre-packaged themes has made good web design affordable to most, however the other side of this coin is the lack of originality. As more and more blogs adopt the prevalent aesthetic, the route to personalization points to custom graphic elements and mini-themes that identify the brand across its channels.
3. Bloggers as entrepreneurs
The move from blogging into publishing books/ebooks is nothing new, after all it is always a matter of writing on an area of expertise, however bloggers are now taking it a step further. The Italian fashionista Chiara Ferragni, now with her own fashion brand, is the forerunner of this trend, but don’t be put off if you’re not in the market of such appealing products, even a blog about blogging has been transformed into a business.
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