Is Blogging a good career in 2020? That’s one of the most common questions I get on my social media (and sometime emails.)
Short answer- Yes it is.
I’ll answer the “how” and the “why” shortly.
For now, let’s just say that it’s a much better career than most other jobs on the planet right now.
Why so? With the whole #COVID19 situation, what’s better than working from home?
Is Blogging a good career in 2020?
What you’re actually asking is, “can I make enough money with it to take on blogging as a full-time career?”
Yes, you can.
Here are the top reasons why I say it’s profitable and practical to pursue blogging as a career in 2020:
- Multiple sources of income.
- Still commercially in-demand.
- COVID19
Wait, I’ll explain.
Multiple sources of income
This I believe is one of the primary reasons why blogging isn’t going out anytime soon.
Blogs have multiple sources of income.
I heard someone say- “An average millionaire has 7 sources of income”.
Well, a single blog can be monetizing 4-5 sources (or more) of income simultaneously.
Hence, even when one or two sources go down, or have decreased in value, the other sources still keep bringing in the cash.
On the same blog, you can make money from:
- Displaying ads: There will be ads from Google (Adsense) and other ad-sources. At times, even individual companies/individuals pay a “per month fee” for putting up their banners. In fact, every single blog post can have its own ads, and hence, acts as an individual source of income.
- Affiliate marketing: Sell products from other companies, and receive a commission for each sale.
- Sponsored posts: Companies pay bloggers to review, mention, list them on their blog.
- Offering your own services: Are you good at coding? Or fixing electrical wires? Painting even? Whatever be your expertise, you can sell it through your blog. It doesn’t even have to be technical.
- “Asset-factor”: Your blog itself is an asset. E.g. Ugo.com was sold for a massive $100 million.
- Other ways to make money from your blog: Paid signups (like what the Wall Street Journal is currently doing.)
The best part?
You don’t need to do 5 different things to make money from these 5 sources.
You do the same thing, just once, and all these 5 sources bring you money.
E.g. you publish a post on “Garden Equipment”.
You can be making money from:
- Ads: You may be displaying ads from Adsense or other advertisers. Or, some Lawn Mower company may rent your blog post and pay a fee for displaying their ad on the sidebar.
- Affiliate Marketing for the equipment you’ve mentioned in your Garden Equipments’ post.
- Service-offering: Offer “gardeners for hire” maybe? Promote your electrical workshop for fixing people’s garden equipments? The possibilities are limitless.
- Sponsored posts: The post itself may be sponsored. For which you’ll be paid upfront, simply for publishing the post.
So, you just published a single blog post.
See how many income sources this one post brings up?
Additionally, each of these monetization-sources have multiple options available as well.
So, let’s say your Google Adsense account gets disabled, you can always try other Adsense alternatives.
Similarly, if you get rejected, or disabled from one affiliate network, you can always apply for other affiliate networks.
So yes, if you take a blogging career up, you’re never limited to a single source of income.
This enforces it as a pretty strong career, doesn’t it?
How many other jobs pay you 5 different dividends, for doing the exact same thing just once? Yeah, not many.
Well, let’s look at the other factor then?
Still commercially in-demand
This section will probably sound boring to you.
But hey, I don’t believe in issuing fact-less statements.
So, I’m getting you facts, and numbers, and charts and data.
You’re probably wondering “is blogging still profitable in 2020”? You’ll find the answer here.
What I mean by “commercially in-demand” is, companies still pour in money for your income sources.
In other words, when I say you can make money from “ads”, that’s only true if companies are willing to spend money on ads to begin with, right?
The good news is, they are.
According to a Hubspot report, in 2018, U.S advertisers alone spent over $50 Million on display advertising.
Another report from SEMrush shows that 86% companies still use blog posts and written text over other marketing tactics.
I personally get a lot of sponsored post requests. Some I accept, others get rejected. But they do come nonetheless.
As far as ads go, according to this CNBC report, ad-spend will probably grow by 6% in 2020. This puts the digital ad-spend at $656 billion. That’s a big pie you just need a nibble of, right?
This further proves my point of the industry still being “in-demand”.
In fact, the same report states that over 23% of the total ad-spend of a company will go to Google and Youtube! That’s money coming to you!
The CNBC report mentioned above is almost pre-COVID19.
If you’re to argue how COVID19 changes things, I’ll agree, it does, for the better!
This Ezoic report shows how ad-rates are actually higher in July 2020 (when COVID19 is at its peak) as compared to this time last-year.
This means, just because the world is on lockdown, doesn’t mean people are spending any less on ads, or you’ll not make enough money.
What this section proves?
That there are companies, networks and groups willing to pay you for your blog. And, note that the graph has an “upward” trend. Meaning, it’s growing and not slowing down.
Obviously, these reports are pretty broad.
A majority of that $656billion ad-spend goes to a number of different platforms.
However, a large chunk still does come to Adsense/display ads/ and other marketing strategies you can benefit from.
COVID19- How does it affect blogging as a career in 2020?
Yes, I agree, the world is in a bad shape.
Everything is on lockdown.
People aren’t going out. Retail sales have dropped.
People are staying home.
People still need things.
Where do people buy those things?
ONLINE!
Now, you don’t need to own products, or even an e-commerce website.
Amazon Affiliate has made millions (literally) for quite a few people I either know or follow in the industry.
Here’s a graph from QZ, showing how COVID19 has only accelerated Amazon’s product-sales.
So, having a blog promoting Amazon products was, is, and probably will be a money-maker in the near future.
Not a fan of Amazon? No issues.
Most other big e-commerce platforms have seen their profits rise. You could always sign up for a different affiliate program.
In fact, people have even started buying groceries and other items online which were earlier store-only purchases.
And, it’s not just about “buying” either.
Because people are staying home, they’re spending more time on social media.
Social media is one of the easiest and yet most effective ways to channel traffic for your blog.
Once the users are on your blog, you can either share free information, or monetize them however you want. Build a loyal reader-base.
So, the “Internet” is one of the few fortunate industries not as hard-hit by the Corona virus as most others.
But, it’s 2020! Will blogging still work?
So far, I’ve tried to establish that “blogging” as an industry is very much alive.
But, from a “technical” standpoint, will blogging work for a new blog in 2020?
I do agree that things were a lot simpler back in 2013, when I started out.
I could write anything, even copy content and rank for it.
Today, things aren’t as simple.
In order for your blog to work, you actually need to put in quality work.
Some key points you need to remember are:
- It’s quality over quantity now, not the other way around.
- The BERT update specifically focuses on user-intent. Keywords still matter, intent and context matter more, even grammar and the way you explain things have started mattering.
- Patience is key. Do not expect to rank or make money from the next week, or even the next month.
- Content and backlinks are still the king and queen (in no particular order.)
In a nutshell, yes, blogging will still work, and make money in 2020, given that you put in the work.
How much money can blogging make?
If you’re planning on making a career out of blogging, this should be one of your first questions, right?
I mean, before picking up a job, don’t you ask what the salary is?
The money you make from blogging depends on a number of factors:
- Ad income: (depends on the CPC- Cost Per Click of the ad you’re displaying.)
This CPC depends on half a dozen factors itself. However, this isn’t a guide on blog monetization.
Rather, I’m trying to answer- Is blogging a good career in 2020? So, I’ll get you a rough idea.
Here I’m using the CPC Map tool from SEMrush.
It gets me an idea of the highest and lowest average CPCs for a region, for specific industries.
As is evident, ads from some industries have CPCs as high as $15.00/click.
- Personal negotiations: Depending on the strength of your website, you may negotiate a personal price for banner ads with companies or individuals. For a website with acceptable strength, you could easily negotiate $200-$300/month.
- Affiliate Income: Depends on the product you’re promoting, and the commission being shared. Real world example: A new, low-traffic site with 1,000 hits/month, gets just 2 sales in a month, and if your product pays $20.00/sale, you make $40.00 from affiliate.
- Sponsored post: Expect an average $50.00-$80.00/post.
Note that I’ve kept things on the lower-bar.
Meaning, banner ads may pay $500+/month, some affiliate products pay $100.00+/sale, and sponsored posts may end up paying $500.00+/post.
However, I’ve kept things realistic considering you’re probably starting a new blog.
So, on average, on the realistic side, you should make an average of $100-$150.00/month after your first couple months.
Note that this is an achievable number. However, it probably depends on 100+ factors. You may end up making a lot more, or nothing.
So, is blogging a good career from a financial standpoint? That depends on your financial goals.
By my estimates? $500.00/month is a practical and achievable goal after 10-12 months of work.
What are the investments for a blogging career?
Every career needs investments, doesn’t it?
You spend a fortune, and 20 years of your life in schools and even that’s a career-investment.
Fortunately, the price of blogging is exponentially lower than that.
For a blog, you need:
- A domain: This is the URL, the www.website.com for your blog. Unfortunately, the free domain extensions do not get ranked in 2020. Fortunately, these cost less than a dollar a year with the best domain registrars.
- Hosting: You need to “host” your blog, right? The images, text, and everything else need to be uploaded somewhere, right? You can use the best cheap WordPress hosting sites to do that. Again, most will cost you less than $3.00/month.
And you’re all set!
On average, by spending less than $50.00/year (the domain + the hosting) you give yourself a potential chance at a completely different life and career.
Final Verdict- Is Blogging a good career in 2020?
Let’s not stretch it any further, huh?
Is it, or is it not a good career?
Yes, it is.
But, you need to consider the variables here.
Who are you? What are your interests? What are your goals or expectations?
Can you be the next Elon Musk with a blog? Probably not.
Can you make a million dollars with a blog? It’s possible, has been done, but, being practical, it probably won’t happen for you.
Can you make more money than most 9-5 jobs? Yes, totally probable and doable.
Can you quit your day job today and start blogging as a career?
No. Don’t. Don’t quit your day job unless you’ve made at least 70% of your day job’s worth, consecutively for 6 months.
And finally, interests. Blogging means computers, sure it can be done from phones, but, not really.
Do you have the time, patience or even the will to stare at your screen for 4-6+ hours every day?
Hey, I’ve been blogging for 7 years now. So, take it from me, a blogger career is totally a “real” career, worth paying a lot more than traditional 9-5s.
I’m sure you’ve got questions, I would too if I was in your shoes.
Use the comment-boxes below to share your doubts and problems, I’ll help you understand if is blogging a good career for you in 2020.
