I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend. She was starting a YouTube channel and she was overly enthusiastic about it.
I was curious.
I asked her why the excitement, and she replied that she was going to make a lot of money. She brazenly told me how she used to have a blog, but gave up on it due to her inability to make money blogging.
That conversation made me wonder how she was going to make money on YouTube if she couldn’t make money via blogging.
Her thinking pattern is reminiscent of many Nigerian Youtubers who believe that making money on YouTube is easier than making money with a blog.
Well, I’ll like to weigh in on the matter to find out which platform earns you more money for the same effort. Is YouTube the best platform for newbies to make money online? Is blogging the better option? Let’s find out.
Making Money On YouTube Vs Blog
To find out which platform earns you more money, we have to compare the different ways to make money on both platforms, and the winner in each case.
Google Adsense
You can make money on YouTube and your blog via Google Adsense, although the ad formats on either platforms are quite different.
On YouTube, most of the ads are in video format, while the ads shown on blogs are in image display format.
This means that the availability of ads on both platforms are quite different, as well as users’ interactions with the ads. There are more image display ads than video ads, so blogs get to show a variety of ads to users than YouTube.
But it is arguable that ad viewability is more higher with YouTube due to the fact that more blog readers use ad blockers than YouTube viewers. Also, YouTube ads are passive in nature, while blog ads are active in nature. To make money via Adsense on YouTube, your users just need to avoid skipping the ads. All they have to do is allow the ad video to play.
That is quite easier to achieve than on blogs where the users are required to click on image ads before you can earn a penny. If your blog users exhibit the same passive behavior of YouTube users, then you will find it difficult earning via Adsense on your blog.
Winner: YouTube
Direct Advertising
You can run direct advertising on both YouTube and a blog, but there is a huge difference between both platforms.
Like I said earlier, the availability of ads in image format is much more than ads in video format. So, bloggers have a larger pool of advertisers to choose from.
Also, contextual image ads is more of a norm for many companies looking to advertise. If an SME company in Nigeria for example wants to advertise, the first thing they would do is create an advert banner.
But companies looking to use word-of-mouth to grow their popularity would look towards recommendations via video ads. This is a smaller audience in the advert pool.
Winner: Blog
Personal Product Sales
You could sell on both your YouTube channel and your blog, but you need a strong personal relationship with your audience to achieve that.
Both YouTube and a blog can help you do this effectively.
You could get faster sales on YouTube via subscribed users, while you could get faster sales on a blog via an email list.
Winner: Draw
Factors That affect Making Money on YouTube Vs Blog
Even though there are similar ways to make money on a YouTube channel and blog, there are factors that affect how much you can make. Your strategy, resources, and skill will determine which factors are in your favor as well as your long-term money-making ability.
Blogger’s Personality
Your personality will determine whether you choose to be a YouTuber or a Blogger. If you are friendly, charming, charismatic, and have strong face-to-face communication skills, then YouTube is for you.
On the other hand, if you are creatively thoughtful, slow in communication, and camera shy, then blogging might be for you.
You have to choose a medium that you enjoy using and one that you have easier access to. For example, even though I like to do videos as well write, I have easier access to blogging than Youtube.
For me, YouTube has too many hurdles to overcome before you can put out your content. You need to set up a good ambience, good camera, audible mic, and then edit the video, before you upload it. Whereas, I could just whip up my Google Docs, write and publish an article in under 1 hour.
Type of Content
The type of content you make will determine whether you create a YouTube channel or a blog. Most entertainment contents such as music, comedy, lifestyle and sports are better off on a YouTube channel due to their visual appeal.
But contents such as advice, business, technology, and dating do well with textual contents on a blog.
So, you have to ask yourself, which platform will be most convenient for your ideal audience? Which channel are they currently using to access similar contents? Your answers to these questions will give you direction.
Audience Ad Interaction
I will admit that the way your audience interacts with ads will play a big role in how you make money via advertising. YouTube tends to do well with in-content ads, that is, ads mixed with content, while blogs tend to do well with link ads sprinkled across the article.
The better you are at getting your audience to enjoy interacting with your ads, the more profit you can get out of your content.
Customer Acquisition
Customer acquisition is a game changer for any serious content developer. The more effective you are at acquiring customers, the more you can monetize your audience.
I believe customer acquisition is more effective on a blog than on YouTube. This is because you can never own your customers on YouTube unless you redirect them out of the YouTube platform. You also cannot interact with your customers unless you upload a video.
This is very limiting, but it gets worse. If your channel is deleted by YouTube, you lose all the customers you’ve gained over the years.
However, on a blog, you can have an email list that you interact with outside the blog. You don’t need to publish articles frequently to interact with your audience. And, you own that audience forever, because you control all the dynamic.
That leads us to the next point.
Platform Control
The issue of platform control is a sensitive issue, but it is very important in the context of the comparison between YouTube and blog.
On YouTube, you own nothing. You are just opportune to have a corner of the YouTube ecosystem where you can voice your ideas. Any day YouTube decides to delete your channel for whatever reason, your business is over.
This is quite different with a blog, where you own and control almost everything. If there is a problem, you can rally around and correct it. You also don’t have to always be on your toes and try to follow some rules and regulations. You own the blog and you make the rules!
Platform Popularity
The truth is that YouTube is more popular than any blog you can build. Millions of audiences log on to YouTube daily for entertainment and education, and they spend hours upon hours watching videos.
This means you can literally start getting thousands of views on your YouTube channel in your first month if you know what you are doing.
Whereas, with a blog, it takes much more time to build an audience. When you launch a blog, you are starting with nothing, and there is no ecosystem to tap from and support your growth. This makes it much harder to build a successful blog than a successful YouTube channel.
Exiting Your Content Business
Finally, when it comes to exiting your business, there is a huge difference between a YouTube channel and a blog.
A YouTube channel is harder to sell because it is tied to the personality of the channel owner. Also, it may be difficult for the new owner to perform or produce the same content as the former owner.
So, buyers are wary of buying YouTube channels due to the dynamics of replicating previous performance.
On the flip side, blogs are easier to sell. It is also a lucrative business, that is why there are so many platforms for selling blogs. A new blog buyer could easily hire writers to continue writing contents on the blog and continue making money.
It is an interesting journey, and I’ve written a previous article where I detailed how I sold my blog and the lessons I learned. You can get valuable ideas from that article.
So, if you decide you want to change careers, it is easier to exit a blog and cash out handsomely than you would with a YouTube channel.
Conclusion
I will like to say that despite everything I wrote in this article, it is important to go for what you are passionate about. Which platform fascinates you the most? Which platform do you see yourself using for the next 5 years?
There lies your answer.
You can make good money on YouTube as well as on a blog, but you have to enjoy the journey. If you lose interest along the way, then you won’t be able to build a successful content business.
So, first try to enjoy the process, then you’ll be on your way to making money either via YouTube or Blogging.