YouTube vs. Blog | Which One Is Better?

I know so many people who prefer having a YouTube channel over a blog and vice versa. Some people have both of these platforms! In today’s post, I wanted to compare a YouTube channel and blog, and see which one is better.

Obviously both of these platforms are completely different to one another but if you were wondering which one to create or go for then this post is for you! I’ll be comparing which one of them is better in terms of monetisation, opportunities, traffic, etc. Basically which platform is better to create content and grow rapidly so as always if you are interested, keep on reading!

I would like to start off by saying this is going to be a very long post. I know a number of my readers don’t like when I write long articles that’s the reason why I didn’t write this post in French. Plus I wanted to include all the main information and didn’t want leave any key information that might help you decide so grab a cup of hot chocolate, tea or coffee and let’s jump into the post!

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THE STARTER PACK

I think before we start comparing both of these platforms, it’s important to realise what materials, products or equipment you need in order to work on these platforms. You can write and publish blog posts using your phone that’s how easy it is, depending on the hosting platform – there are even apps available for you to write drafts, customise your website, reply to comments, etc. Obviously having a laptop will be much easier but it’s definitely not a must.

In addition, you can use your phone to take blog pictures. Depending on your niche, you might not even need to add pictures in your blog posts and there are a lot of free royalty free images available so technically you don’t even need to take your own pictures unless you are reviewing or talking about a specific product.

When it comes to a YouTube channel, once again you can use your phone to take and edit your videos. There are so many apps available, both free and paid which will allow you to edit your videos in a creative way – pretty similar to a video editing program. However, the quality of your videos play a huge part in terms of traffic and opportunities.

People who use very expensive gear and cameras struggle gaining subscribers or views so you can imagine how hard it can be to gain views if the quality of your videos wasn’t great. But once again, this completely depends on your niche. If you want your videos to be high-quality, you will definitely have to spend money from the very beginning unless you already have the right gear to begin with.

 

PLATFORMS

Creating a YouTube channel is fairly easy, you will only need a Gmail account and go to YouTube to create your own channel. The same goes for uploading videos, depending on the size of your file and broadband speed, it might take a while to upload but other than that, it’s very quick and easy.

Creating a blog is as easy as a YouTube channel. There are so many hosting service platforms available for free, obviously if you want to go self-hosted you will have to pay. Apart from a number of things, a blog on a hosting service platform is as good as a self-hosted website. You can create your own blog within two minutes!

Related: Self-Hosted vs Plan Upgrade | Which One Is Better?

 

TRAFFIC

The next thing I wanted to compare was the traffic in terms of which one receives more traffic and which one is more effective when it comes to gaining views/followers easily and quickly in general. Note that it will take a lot of time and effort to gain followers/views for both of these platforms and you can’t really expect to notice a difference immediately.

To start off with YouTube, depending on your niche and the quality of your videos – it’s way easier for people to notice your channel and videos as opposed to a blog. The reason being a lot of people spend so much time on YouTube therefore you have a much higher chance of people checking out your videos or for your channel to grow.

If one of your videos starts to go viral, there is a probability for your channel to gain a number of subscribers from that video and for your audience to check out your channel again. However, this doesn’t mean you will gain hundreds or thousands of subscribers every month or every time you upload a video. It’s way tricky than that. Also, just because you have 20k subscribers on your channel doesn’t mean that you will gain 10k to 20k views on your videos, you might even struggle to reach 1k views on your videos.

The opposite can happen as well in the sense, a channel might not have thousands of subscribers but their videos might reach thousands of views. People might check out your videos but they might not be subscribed to your channel. The number of subscribers you have doesn’t amount to the number of views on your videos which is the complete opposite for blogs.

Obviously the same thing can happen but if a blog has thousands of followers, it will definitely have at least that same number of page views every month. For instance, if a blog has 13k followers it will at least have 13k page views every month in general but this might differ depending on the blog in question.

If you have a strong social media presence regardless whether you have a blog or YouTube channel, you will have some sort of engagement on your platform. But overall, when you compare a YouTube channel with a blog, the former has a wider reach and audience. It doesn’t mean that a blog can’t have thousands or even millions of followers or page views, it just means that it will be much harder compared to a YouTube channel.

It’s important to note that the traffic works differently for both of these platforms. On both of these platforms, the public can see the number of followers/subscribers one has but with a blog, you can choose to hide it which is not the case for a YouTube channel. You can see how much the audience engaged on each videos through the number of likes/dislikes, views and comments whereas on a blog, you can see that through the number of likes (if you have that feature), comments and page views per month.

 

OPPORTUNITIES

Now onto the fun part! Where do you get the best opportunities? Before starting with the opportunities, you have to understand that brands/companies look for certain requirements. The elements they look for to work with a blogger are completely different when compared to a YouTuber and I’m not only talking about the end material.

There are a number of things a brand checks on a blog, both for gifted and paid opportunities:

1. your DA (domain authority)
2. the number of followers
3. the number of unique visitors per month and number of page views per month

Note that each point can vary depending on the brand in question and for both a YouTube channel & a blog, they will check the number of followers you have on your social media as well, primarily on your Instagram.

On the other hand, for a YouTube channel it’s different. They will check the number of views you receive per video on an average and the number of subscribers. A blogger might start to receive gifted products while still being on a hosting service platform (meaning they don’t even have to own their domain) if they have over 1k followers on Instagram which applies for a YouTuber as well.

But a blog will start to receive more opportunities quickly and more often compared to a YouTube channel. Most brands will only work with YouTubers who have at least 10k subscribers even for gifted products but a blogger will be able to work with the same brand even having less than 10k followers or page views per month.

When you look at the opportunities, obviously a YouTuber has more opportunities once they have reached a certain number of subscribers in general whether it’s a brand collaboration or PR products. But it’s obviously after they reach that number of subscribers before that, a blogger might receive way more opportunities compared to a YouTuber.

Related: Answering Blogging Related Questions

 

MONETISATION

I would say this is the most interesting part! When it comes to YouTube, there are a number of ways you can monetise your channel:

• AdSense
• Sponsorship
• Affiliate marketing (depending on your niche)
• Merchandise

On the other hand, as a blogger you earn money through these techniques:

• Ads
• Sponsored post
• Paid guest post
• Affiliate marketing
• Services/Products

Note that if you have a strong social media presence, you can monetise your social media platforms and turn them into another stream of income as well.

I think many people can guess by now that YouTube will be the best platform to earn money after you’ve reached over 10k subscribers in terms of paid collaborations. But the platform that will allow you to earn money quickly is a blog. If you solely depend on your ad revenues as your main source of income, your videos will need to reach thousands of people and note that the CPM (cost per mile) will differ depending on each video and the type of content you make.

If you have a DA over 20, you will start to receive blogging opportunities frequently. To be completely honest, some brands or PRs don’t even care about the number of followers you have or the number of page views you receive unless there is a specific criteria that need to be met in their campaign. Obviously if you have thousands of followers and page views, it’s always a plus but it’s not an essential factor to monetise your blog.

Related: How To Find Work As A Freelancer

 

COST

I know what you might be wondering, creating a YouTube channel and a blog is free so technically there isn’t any cost involved but you are wrong. Once again, this will only apply if you are looking to monetise either of those platforms or would like to turn your hobby into a business.

As I mentioned previously, you might start off with a free blog meaning having a blog on a hosting service platform but you will need to upgrade your plan, buy your domain or go self-hosted if you want to monetise your blog. In addition, you might need equipment such as a camera, laptop, program, etc. if you would like to improve your branding & photography and take your blog to the next level.

I’m not going to scare you with the cost because you can definitely find cheaper alternatives but in general, you will might have to spend around £100 per year and that is if you do decide to go for the cheapest option.

On the other hand, you don’t need to pay monthly or yearly for anything for YouTube but you will definitely need to pay for a video editing program as well as camera, lens, tripod, etc. You will need to have these equipment or at least a number of them in order to take your YouTube channel to the next level.

Once again, I’m just rounding the sum in order to not scare you but you will might have to spend over £500 depending on the options you choose and once again that is by not including every single equipment I’ve mentioned.

 

MY OPINION

Okay so which one is better? In my opinion, it completely depends on your needs and personal preference. Growing a YouTube channel is way more difficult compared to a blog. It might seem easy and fun but it takes a lot of time and effort behind the scenes.

Plus, both platforms are completely different to one another. One is in a visual format whilst the other is in a written format. If you find expressing yourself by writing is way easier for you compared to talking then I would suggest to create and focus on your blog. If you find that talking is much easier and comfortable for you then go for a YouTube channel.

Both platforms take a lot of time to grow so go for the one you love. If you are not passionate about either one of those platforms, it will be really hard to create content so I would advise to go for the one you are passionate about.

Related: Be Proud Of Your Blog

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!

xo N

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