Should Bloggers Start a YouTube Channel for Their Content?

A few years ago, I started a YouTube channel for one of my blogs. The idea was to simply give website visitors a different way to consume the content.

They could either watch the video or read the blog post as I would embed the video into WordPress. In other words, I merely wanted to accentuate what the blog offered those who clicked its pages.

What I found was an untapped audience who didn’t even know the blog existed.

Video vs Text Content

After creating the channel, it didn’t take long to realize that interested viewers on YouTube had no idea I even had a blog. And people who found my site through Google search had no idea I had a YouTube channel.

What this means is that I had a potential audience through video content who was more likely to watch than to read, and vice-versa. This makes sense given the nature of YouTube.

I had assumed more people were like me and took to Google search first to find information and then YouTube. That was a massive mistake.

In fact, there are plenty of people on YouTube who have no interest in reading the content on the blog, even if the videos were going over the exact same topic as the text.

And even if the text went deeper into the details of the topic.

I knew that video content was on the rise in terms of overall consumption. There are plenty of stats to show how impactful it can be. But I really didn’t understand how the audience differs until I started uploading regular content.

What Works for One, Doesn’t Work for Another

Perhaps one of the more interesting points of data is how a blog version of a topic will outperform its video counterpart in a spectacular fashion. Let’s take my review of Buy Me a Coffee, for instance.

And yes, it’s an older video than I plan on updating tomorrow.

Anyway, the BMC review on the blog pulls in roughly 25% of all visitors. That’s one blog post driving the bulk of people to the website.

The video counterpart is only the 7th most popular video on the YouTube channel garnering a third of the views the top video has. This means it is far more popular as a blog post as opposed to a video.

In fact, the video version will get about as many views in 28 days as the blog version gets per day.

On the flip side of that, though, the video showing people how I write content on Textbroker holds the number one position on my YouTube channel. Its blog counterpart doesn’t get maybe 10 visits per month!

The vast contrast between text and video demonstrates the massive differences in audience, even if the two are interested in the same primary topics.

This means that if your blog post isn’t doing very well on the website, try a video version instead.

Blogging is Much Easier to Rank in Search

One of the hardest things about blogging or vlogging is being able to appease search algorithms. In many ways, creating YouTube videos is similar to writing a blog post.

Both need a catchy title, good intros, and have great content. However, writing a blog post is so much easier to rank in Google than videos are to get into YouTube.

In video format, you need to deliver a visually and audibly golden piece of content to keep viewers coming back for more. This is far more difficult for writers than cranking out a blog post focusing on search intent.

This isn’t to mention dislikes, click-through rates, and competing with channels incredibly larger than your own. You also can’t go back to rework a video as easily as you can with a blog post.

The bottom line is that it’s far more difficult to gain traction in YouTube than it is for Google. Even if you produce the most amazing video ever crafted, it can still remain obscure because the rest of your channel doesn’t perform well.

This is why you’ll often get comments like, “Your channel is great, I don’t know why you don’t have more subscribers.”

Because the YouTube algorithm is far more finicky than Google Search.

Blogging is Much Easier to Monetize

If you’re looking to create a YouTube channel for the sole purpose of making money, it’s far easier to do it from a blog. Especially if you’re interested in using AdSense.

Last year, I added AdSense to my green blog with having only 10 blog posts at about 1000 words each. It was relatively quick to get accepted into the program.

On YouTube, I have 1,400+ subscribers but am just shy of the 4,000 hours of watch time in a 12-month period to even apply for the YouTube Partner Program. And I’ve been creating videos since September of 2018.

Also, keep in mind that my channel centers around an incredibly narrow niche. There isn’t a lot of searching going on for what I create.

The point is that it is so much easier to monetize a blog than it is a YouTube channel. Especially when you consider all the different avenues you can use that aren’t accepted through YouTube’s Terms of Service.

In fact, I know people who were able to include AdSense on their blogs with a single 2,000+ word article.

One immensely important element you should know, though, is that AdSense isn’t the best way to monetize anything. It provides a trickle of income compared to other ways to monetize your content.

Videos Take Longer to Create

When it comes to the time it takes to create content, videos take far longer to publish. And it can be even worse if you plan on adding a lot of bells-n-whistles, images, b-roll, and other visual elements to make your videos shine.

For example, it’ll take me about an hour and a half to whip out a 1,200-word tutorial on the blog about using a plugin in WordPress. This is complete as a step-by-step guide with images.

A video of the same exact topic will take me around two and a half to three hours to record, edit, and publish.

Now, that may not sound like a massive difference in time for some people. But when you have as much as I do in the day to get done, that extra one to two hours is a massive hit.

Also, keep in mind that my videos aren’t Netflix quality, either.

A good rule of thumb is that however long it takes to write a blog post, figure its video equivalent is going to take twice as long.

Then, you have those videos that you spend six to seven hours creating only for it to receive very few views on YouTube. Even if you think the information you’re providing is spot-on, good-quality videos can still sink.

YouTube Drives Traffic to the Blog

Out of the different social media platforms I use, YouTube drives the vast majority of visitors back to the blog. In fact, YouTube brings in more visitors than Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram combined.

And those visitors are more likely to explore the website rather than just land on one article and be done.

Then again, I really don’t do much with Instagram. I really should, but I often just don’t have the time. I have a mortgage to pay, which means I have clients to please.

At any rate, YouTube is definitely the social media outlet to use for driving traffic back to the website.

I Say, Do Both!

Although there are stark differences between a blog and a YouTube channel, doing both can vastly increase your base audience. Before having algorithm issues in 2021, I was driving as much traffic to the channel as I was to the website.

Having the YouTube channel literally doubled my audience. It also helped me immediately sell copies of my book as soon as it was published.

If you’re comfortable with being on camera, you might want to consider starting a channel of your own. Just don’t go into it thinking you’ll make tons of money. Focus on creating videos your audience wants to watch.

Because the odds of you going viral and bringing in that mad YouTube money are slim to none. Start the channel as a way to accentuate your blog.