Blog vs Vlog, Which should you go for in 2021. — Knowly Tech
By: Wisdom Anwana
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Blogging Tips, Entrepeneurship, Blog Vs Youtube, YouTube

Are you confused and wondering which of the platform between a Blog vs Vlog that you should join and start creating content for in 2021 in other to grow your audience quickly and also earn money online?

Then this article is for you because, after reading this article, you will get to learn and understand everything about blogging or Vlogging including its pros and cons.

Firstly, let us take a look at the definition of each terms.

What is a Blog

A blog is basically an informative website that is built with the aim of providing information on a specific category or topic.

A blog is updated almost every day or on a weekly basis and its contents are always arranged in a way that the recent post is always displayed at the top of the page.

Every blog is a website but not every website is a blog, this might sound confusing but don’t get confused about it, the difference between a blog and a website is in the frequent update of contents.

A website is basically a static page that passes all the information about a particular product or service to its viewers. A website is always used to represent a brand, a product, or a company.

While a blog is for information dissemination which could be either news content, educational content, or informative content.

Before you can actually make a choice between blogging or Vlogging, you need to, first of all, understand the difference between the two platforms.

How to Create a Blog

They are different platforms for creating a blog, most of which are free while others are paid.

However, the best way to create a blog and a website is by purchasing a domain name and also buying a hosting package to host your website which is of more advantage than using the free tools for creating a blog.

But then if you are a beginner and you want to go into blogging but you don’t want to spend any money for the start, then you can go for the free platforms using Wix, Tumblr, Blogger, etc.

However, they are limit to which you can customize your blog and other disadvantages of using those free tools rather you can read this article on how to create a website for $10 and own a standard WordPress website for just $10.

What is a Vlog

According to an online dictionary, A Vlog is a personal website or social media account where a person regularly posts short videos.

This means that Vlogging is content creation using videos.

They are different platforms which you can use for vlogging such as Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Facebook.

But the most popular vlogging platform is YouTube and in this article, we will be concentrating on vlogging with YouTube

How to Create a YouTube account for Vlogging

Creating a YouTube account for vlogging is actually very simple and free which is one of the advantages of a vlog over a blog.

All you need is a Gmail account which i believe that everybody in this world who is somehow interested in anything online should have.

If you do not have a Gmail account, you can do that now using this link.

After creating your Gmail (Google account), follow the steps below to create your YouTube channel

Sign in to YouTube on any device of your choice

Click your profile picture and then click on Your Channel.

You’ll be asked to create a channel.

Check the details and confirm to create your channel.

Now that you know what a blog vs Vlog is, lets us now look at the difference between vlog and a blog.

Blog vs Vlog, the Difference Between Them.

They are some differences between a vlog and a blog, and they are listed below

A blog is basically for written content and images, however, video contents can also be embedded in a blog post

A vlog is basically for video content, however, links to an article on a blog can be put in the description of a YouTube video

A blog is self-hosted ( you control everything)

A vlog is not self-hosted as you would be posting your video content on other people’s platforms ( however, you can create your own website for vlogging).

Advantage and Disadvantage of a Blog and a Vlog

Almost everything in this world has its own advantages and disadvantages, this is not different from both blogging and vlogging as they also have their own advantages and disadvantages which are listed below.

The Advantage of a Vlog ( using YouTube)

Free to join

You can post unlimited content (videos)

Reach a larges audience

Can be a source of income

Your audience will get to understand your content clearly because it a video content.

The disadvantage of a Vlog ( using YouTube)

Vlogging kits such as a camera, etc are kind of expensive

You need to be experienced in video editing

Most time you may need to pay someone to record you while you make the presentations for the video

However, you can use a good smartphone camera for recording your videos if you want to a YouTube video where you would have to show your face, alternatively, you can only do screen record using software like OBS Studio, etc.

And concerning the video editing part involved in creating a YouTube video, you can do that by yourself by watching and learning how to edit videos on YouTube or you pay someone to edit them for you.

You can watch the YouTube video below by Think Media to get an idea on how to use Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing videos.

YouTube video by Think Media on how to edit a video

The Advantage of a blog

Served as a source of income

Helps you build an audience, etc.

The disadvantage of a blog

You would have to be paying a renewal fee yearly for your domain name and hosting

Without proper knowledge of SEO, your content will not rank

You must be a good writer

They are a lot of success stories on the internet on how people became very successful and happy because of blogging/vlogging.

Most of them even mention that they quit their jobs because of their blogs and were even happier than when they were working under someone.

Yes this is true as you can earn big blogging and vlogging but then it takes a little time as everything does not just happen overnight and they are also some requirements you need to meet for blogging and vlogging in other to start earning, but the major problem is always traffic.

How to Make Money with a Blog vs Vlog

Both blogging and vlogging as already mentioned have a way for which you can make money with it and they also have their own requirements for which you have to meet in other to start earning.

How to make money with a blog

They are different ways in which you can make money with your blog and the most popular way in which most bloggers make money with their blog is through ads networks such as Google AdSense, Media.net, etc.

However, you would not just open a blog today and apply for Google AdSense and get approve, they are some requirement which your website needs to meet, and the most important factor is posting valuable and original content.

You can check out the full requirement for getting Google AdSense approval for your website here

Other way to make money with a blog includes

Affiliate marketing

Sponsored post

Selling Ads space

Selling your product and services etc.

How to make money with a vlog

They are different ways in which you can make money with your vlog and the most popular way in which most bloggers make money with their vlog is through Ads networks such as Google AdSense.

To also get monetized on YouTube and start making money, your need to meet the YouTube partnership program requirement which is getting 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within 12 months.

Other way to make money with a vlog includes

Affiliate marketing

Sponsored post

Selling your product and services etc.

The is no limit to the amount of money you can make blogging or vlogging, all you need for your online business to be successful in traffic and also ensure that you are providing value in whatever niche or category you decide to specialize in because you are not the only person in that niche, so try standing out by providing more value than others.

You can watch the YouTube video below by H-Educate to learn 6 methods to drive traffic to your new website or vlog(Youtube channel).

YouTube video by H-Educate on How to get traffic

Blog vs Vlog, Which should you go for in 2021

The above question can only be answered by yourself after considering your financial capacity (in terms of buying video kits or paying for a domain name and web hosting) and your level of creativity (for both video or written content).

Examine yourself first to find out if you are actually good at content creation because both vlogging and blogging involved content creation.

After you have examined yourself and come up with the conclusion that you are good at content creation, the next thing you have to look out for is what type of content can you create very well, is it video contents (for Vlog) or written contents (for blog).

The above two steps are what would help you determine which platform you should go for between blogging or vlogging.

However, depending on your time and your aspiration, it is advisable that you do start with a blog and later add vlogging to your online business, with this, you would find out that your business would experience more success because you would get connected with a larger audience.

Conclusion

If you want to go for blogging, you have to learn SEO and social media marketing firstly because without them, your website content might not be seen by many people therefore the effort and time you put into it might be in vain.

And if you want to go for vlogging (YouTubing), you need to also learn SEO for YouTube and also learn video editing because the quality of your video and the way it is presented also helps in determining how your users will engage with you or want to watch more of it.

However, both blogging and vlogging can be very productive and can also be a source of passive income if you can do them properly and provide value to your audience.