Vlog vs Blog: Which Online Business Should You Pursue?

Should you blog or should you vlog? The blog vs vlog debate is a digital age-old question.

The internet and social media have given us an endless array of content to consume, whether it’s through reading a blog post or watching a vlog. But which is the ultimate way to present your content?

Both blogs and vlogs have their own unique advantages and disadvantages, and if you’re a new content creator (or someone looking to grow their brand), it’s important to understand the differences between them.

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Blog vs Vlog Meaning 

Blogging and vlogging are two popular online content formats that allow users to share their ideas with the world.

What is a Blog?

A blog is most-often defined as a website that’s regularly updated with written content that features a primarily conversational tone. Blogs can serve a variety of purposes from simply expressing oneself to building relationships with like-minded people on niche topics. However, they can also serve as an educational tool or a marketing platform used by businesses looking to grow their customer base.

What is a Vlog?

Vlogs are a type of video content — long or short form — that has become increasingly popular in recent years as social channels provide emphasis on visual content. It stands for “video blog” and it is essentially an online diary in video format.

People who create vlogs are known as vloggers or influencers, and they share their thoughts, opinions, experiences and advice with the world on various topics ranging from fashion and travel to business.

Vlogs are essentially blogs but in video format.

Difference Between a Vlog and a YouTube Channel

Vlog and YouTube channels are sometimes used interchangeably, but there’s a pretty big difference between the two.

YouTube is a platform (owned by Google) that allows users to upload videos and share them with the world. It has over 51-million creators worldwide that upload over 500 hours of video content every minute.

On the other hand, a vlog is a type of content that’s often published on YouTube (along with other similar video platforms). These videos are created by vloggers and are typically personal in nature.

While a vlogger can create a YouTube channel and post their vlogs on it, not all YouTube channels feature vlogs. There are tons of other types of video content uploaded to the platform, including tutorials, reviews, and even music.

Difference Between Blog and Vlog

The primary blog and vlog difference is that vlogs are made of video content. Blogs can include video content, but are heavy on the written content. That said, both are updated regularly and typically have a more casual, personal approach to them.

Is a Youtube channel a blog?

A YouTube channel is a platform for sharing videos. It’s similar to a blog, in that it allows users to post content. But instead of writing users upload short and long form videos. Unlike blogs — specifically self-hosted ones — which allow you to write about anything, there are certain restrictions on what kind of content can be shared on YouTube. 

Is vlog a type of blog?

Yes, a vlog is a type of blog that consists of video content. Unlike traditional blogging, which focuses on written posts, vlogging offers bloggers the opportunity to create more engaging and interactive content that can be shared on social platforms. Vlogs, like other blogs, can include anything from product reviews, travel videos, tutorials and interviews to simply diarising day-to-day events.

Vlog and Blog Similarities

The only real difference between a traditional written blog and a vlog is that the latter of the two consists of video content. Traditional blogs are often focused on written content but can included other forms of content like embedded video or audio.

They are similar in that they:

• Can cover ANY niche under the sun — from politics and current events to travel
• Allow the content creator to share their unique opinions and ideas with their audience
• Take a considerable amount of time to create and often require research in order to be published
• Typically provide unique insights into a particular industry or niche area

The primary difference between a vlog vs blog is the presentation form of the content. In fact, many bloggers are also vloggers, likewise many vloggers also have a blog.

Blog vs Vlog Income

More and more people are turning online to make a living — and with the economy the way it is, it makes sense. The rise of social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, means that anyone can start a blog or vlog and begin making money. But what is the difference in income between blogging and vlogging? And which is the better choice for your foray into digital content creation?

What is more profitable vlog or blog?

The profitability of both vlogging and blogging depends on how much effort you put into each one. While there can be significant financial rewards when it comes to either form of content creation, it’s important to consider which medium best fits your skillset and interests before diving in.

Check out my November 2022 income here!

How to Make Money from a Blog or Vlog

Ads

Advertising is the most hands-off way to make money online, and you can do it with both your blog and vlog.

To make money via ads on your vlog, it’ll depend on the platform you’re on. YouTube, one of the most popular platforms, uses Google’s Adsense program — it’s the ONLY advertising option for you. Vloggers that meet the specific criteria can monetize their videos with advertisements.

Blogs, on the other had, make money with display advertising. Bloggers that have consistent traffic can partner with an ad company, like Esoic or Mediavine, and add display ad widgets to their blog.

Ads offer a great opportunity for both bloggers and vloggers to passively monetize their content.

Affiliate Marketing

With affiliate marketing, content creators can earn money by referring their audience to purchase a product through a tracked link. When they make that purchase, they are then awarded a commission for promoting the product or service.

This is particularly effective in blogging where you can embed links right into your content. You want to make sure that whatever you’re promoting is relevant to your reader to ensure a higher conversion.

Vloggers can also earn income via affiliate marketing, but it’s a little less straightforward. Your best bet is going to be to create short, memorable links that viewers can type right into their browsers or a code that they can use at the checkout. You can also include those links in the description of your video.

Need the best affiliates for your travel blog? Get over 60 here!

Sponsored Posts

Sponsored content offers you a way to work directly with a brand and earn money. These consist of partnerships between a content creator and a specific brand to show off a product, service, or even just bring some brand recognition.

Bloggers can earn money by writing a post or including the brand in their already planned content. While vloggers can shoot a video and share their opinion.

This is an easy way to promote products you love but the income is usually one-off deal, and not a source of passive income. You usually get a larger chunk of money, but you have to do specific work for that piece of content marketing.

Email Marketing

Both bloggers and vloggers can benefit from email marketing by collecting an email list of interested subscribers. This gives you the opportunity to directly reach out to people who they know are interested in what they have to say.

This is a golden form of digital marketing that allows you to directly send them information about your products and services, or to promote sponsored content and affiliate links. By employing a well-thought out email marketing strategy, both bloggers and vloggers can monetize their platform in a variety of ways that will help them earn money.

Learn how to email market for $9 a month with this EPIC membership!

Product Sales

It doesn’t matter if you’re a vlogger, blogger or both, your small business can sell both digital and physical products to your audience and start earning money.

Vloggers have the capability to create promotional videos to directly advertise and sell their products. You can also create content that features their products without necessarily being a sales pitch.

Similarly, bloggers can also promote their products through posts that feature them in some way. This could be through reviews, styling ideas, or even giving customers an inside look of how they make and use the product.

Both vloggers and bloggers can benefit from creating content surrounding their products to inform and engage potential customers.

Learn how to make your first digital product and sell it here!

Services

Services are one of the fastest ways to make money online, and you can promote them whether you’re a blogger or vlogger. You can provide ANY type of services you want (and are qualified for), but you’ll want to make sure your content reflects that. Creating content is a great way to promote your services without feeling too salesy.

A great way to promote services with your content is to talk about the overall niche you’re in. Provide educational and informational content that can help your audience without selling to them. You can totally do sales-specific content, but you want to make sure that it’s not every single piece of content.

Selling Merch

If you want to sell merch as a blogger or vlogger, you’ll want to cultivate an engaged audience who is willing to purchase your products. This is a great semi-passive way to earn income — and you can use a print-on-demand company so you don’t have to keep a bunch of inventory on hand.

The best way to get converting sales is to make sure that your merchandise is something they want to buy is to simply ask (hence the engaged audience). Ask your audience what they’d be interested in buying and provide it to them. Like other products, while you can make sales-specific content, you want to make sure you do it sparingly. Focus on proving value instead.

Book Sales

The book is the new resume these days, or that’s what they say — but honestly, whether you’re a blogger or a vlogger, you can totally write one. Self publishing is big these days, pretty much anyone can do it. And if you have an engaged audience you’re more likely to sell!

If you’re not sure about your writing skills, there are always the option to ghost write. You can try to sell to a traditional publisher if you’re looking for a big splash, but publishing with an easy-to-use service like Kindle Direct Publishing is a great option too!

Online Course

If you’re an expert in a specific area — particularly the one you create content about — you can create an online course. You don’t need to be the ultimate expert, you just need to know more than the people you’re teaching.

You don’t have to do your course content in the same medium as the blog or vlog content you create either. If you’re a word-first blogger you can absolutely make a video course. Likewise, if you’re a vlogger you can make an eBook based course.

The online world is your oyster, how will you monetize it?

How to Start a Blog or Vlog

Both blogging and vlogging is a great way to express yourself, create content for others to enjoy, and generate passive income. But starting out can be intimidating, so here are a few tips on how to get started:

1. Decide what you want your blog or vlog to be about
2. Create a list of potential topics
3. Start building a platform — I recommend WordPress, even if you’re going to primarily be vlogging
4. Create your first few pieces of content
5. Hit publish!

Don’t forget to promote, promote, promote!

Example of Blog and Vlog 

Blogs:

• This site – She Knows SEO!
• Ottawa Things to Do
• Traveling with Your Pets
• Mocktail Mixologist
• Out and Beyond
• Nerd Wallet
• Nina Out and About

Vlogs:

• KallmeKris
• Be My Travel Muse
• Allison Anderson

Vlog vs Blog: Can you do both?

Of course you can! There’s no right or wrong decision when it comes to blogger vs vlogger.

Many bloggers have YouTube, Instagram or Tik Tok accounts where the post vlog-style content. Likewise, many vloggers have websites that they can use as an additional monetization channel.

When you’re an online content creator, you’re not restricted by medium. But it is worth deciding for yourself where your skill set lies. Running a blog and vlog are both A LOT of work — and doing them together? You’re probably going to need some help, so make sure to create a plan before you get started!

👩‍💻 Looking to start a blog? Get my FREE travel blog course here!