Confused between Blogging and Instagram? Check out this unbiased Blogging vs Instagram comparison to know which one will be more beneficial for you.
Blogging vs Instagram is a debate that has been going on for a few years now. Both of these platforms take time to build your online presence. They both have their own pros & cons. You have to keep working on them to start making money. Some people think that bloggers and Instagrammers are similar, but the reality is far from it.
That’s why I am here to clear this confusion with my Blogging vs Instagram comparison. I’ve compared both of these platforms based on their capabilities, pros & cons, and how much money you can make with them.
Let’s get into the details.
Why is the confusion?
Before social media, bloggers and influencers were the only ones who had the power to influence and change the buying behavior of people. So this is the reason that many brands collaborate with bloggers to promote their products. The main job of bloggers in collaboration is to take photos, write an honest and detailed review, and share them with their audience.
With the rise of social media, brands have also moved to Instagram influencers for help. The brand pays Instagrammers for a huge audience to write captions and post photos for their product and validate them.
Blogging vs Instagram: Overview
Here is the overview of Blogging and Instagram.
Blogging: Overview
Blogging is a platform where we write content, add media, and later on publish that content on our specific domain. Starting a blog is really easy. You just need to follow these steps:
- Select A Blogging Niche
- Buy A Domain (Website Name)
- Buy A Web Hosting For Your Website
- Install WordPress On Your Website
- Start Creating Content For Your Blog
Blogs are different websites that have written content in them. For example, this is our blog “KickAss MasterMinds” and you’re reading one of our posts.
Some unique Blogging statistics are:
- 77% of internet users read blogs regularly.
- There are over 600 million blogs on the internet.
- Blogs produce 67% more leads for businesses than non-blog websites.
- Around 400 million users view over 20 billion pages every month.
- Around 63K queries are searched on Google every second.
Instagram: Overview
Instagram is one of the best social media platforms where users post pictures, stories, and videos, and chat with friends. Starting an Instagram account is relatively easier than starting a blog. You need to sign up on Instagram using your email address or phone number, username, and password.
We have an Instagram account as well, where we inform our readers about our latest posts on the website.
Some unique Instagram statistics are:
- Over 1.3 billion people use Instagram worldwide.
- More than 500 million users are active daily.
- The total user base of Instagram is around 1.2 billion.
- Users have shared over 50 billion photos on Instagram.
- Every day, around 500 million users engage with Instagram Stories.
Blogging vs Instagram: Detailed Comparison
Let’s compare both of these platforms.
1. How Much Time Is Required To Build Your Audience
It takes a lot of time to build your audience on both Blogging and Instagram. You need to gather an audience that can relate to your content, media, and stories. It will engage them in your content.
You can find many posts on how to build a blog audience on the internet. But how much time does it take on average? It takes around 2-3 years to build your audience for your blog. You need to keep working on it to stand out in the crowd. You can not use any tricks or techniques to build an audience for your blog quickly. It required dedication, good content, SEO, links to your blog posts, etc.
Building an audience on Instagram is also tricky, and it can also take up to 2-3 years. It requires perseverance and a lot of patience. You need to keep posting good-quality content to engage your users. If you don’t want to do it organically, then you can use a few black-hat techniques. It will definitely grow your followers’ list, but they will not be your actual audience.
Verdict: Both of these platforms require a substantial amount of time to build an audience. You can try tricking the system of Instagram into growing quickly, but it will not be fruitful in the long run.
2. How Much Effort Is Required
Now the question arises: How much effort is required to run an Instagram account or blog?
To run a Blog, you need to invest 7-8 hours on a daily basis. To publish a blog post, you need to do keyword research, write a unique article on a keyword, proofread the article, add media to the post, and publish it. You also need to work on your website on a daily basis which will also take a few minutes of your daily routine.
To run an Instagram account, you need to invest around 1-2 hours on a daily basis. To post a photo, you need a good location, a good pose, a camera, take the photo, edit it, and post it on Instagram. You can create stories and reels on Instagram within a few minutes. You also need to engage with other people through their posts, stories, or reels.
Verdict: It is clear that a Blog requires more time than Instagram. To run a successful blog, you need to take care of your old posts, do link-building, improve the content quality, etc.
3. Technical Skills
Managing a blog requires technical skills. Doing good SEO for your blog is not enough. You need to have coding skills to make your website look like you want. Creating a blog does not require technical skills, but to run it properly, you need to have a few technical skills, or you can just hire someone to do that for you.
You don’t need to have technical skills to run an Instagram account. It is pretty straightforward. The user interface of Instagram is beginner-friendly. You just need to post videos, pictures, stories, and reels to engage your audience.
Verdict: You need to have technical skills to manage a blog, whereas a 7-year old can easily use Instagram.
4. Trust Level
Social media has become the go-to person to get answers in today’s fast-paced era. You just need to type your question, and it will give you the answer instantly. That’s how the social media advertising industry is booming quickly.
The level of trust on Instagram is decreasing rapidly because all the influencers only care about making money. They endorse different products without even using them. People are listening to them and buying those products blindly, and that is impacting society negatively. But people are becoming more aware of it, and now they don’t follow influencers blindly.
The level of trust on Blogs is more than on Instagram because bloggers write 1000-1500 words on a particular product. They can only do that if they have used the product thoroughly and shared their honest experience on the internet. It is hard for them to lie about it in their review. That’s why people trust bloggers over Instagram influencers.
Verdict: Blogging is more trustworthy than Instagram because, in blogs, people share their real-life experiences.
5. Algorithm Control
It is tough to understand Instagram’s algorithm. They used to show posts in chronological order, but nowadays, everything is broken into pieces. Over time the audience engagement gets lower and lower, and it is becoming harder for Instagram influencers to grow their followers’ list. The algorithm of Instagram will not change, and it is not going to make sense to anyone.
The usual traffic of Blogs comes from the Google Search Engine. The algorithm of Google is straightforward. According to the algorithm, an article ranks on the first page only if it has quality content, good SEO, and solves the user’s query. This algorithm of Google is not going to change ever because their ultimate goal is to be the best search engine in the world.
Verdict: Blog has more algorithm control than Instagram.
6. Income Streams
There is only one way to make money on Instagram, brand collaboration. Many reputed and small brands reach out to these Instagram influencers and ask them for collaboration. The influencers have to create a video, make a post, or post a story related to their products where they have to tell their audience about their experience with the products. In return for this, brands offer them money or free items, and that’s pretty much it for the income streams of Instagram influencers. There is no way to make passive income on Instagram.
You can set up multiple income streams with a blog after building a huge audience for it. You can become an affiliate of many products & services and promote them on your blog. You can make money through Google Ads, making sponsored posts, selling your own product, and so on. There are a lot of ways to make money with a well-established blog, but for that, you need to give your blog a lot of time. It can also generate passive income for you, which is great if you ask me.
Verdict: With Blogging, there are so many ways to set up different income streams, and it can easily generate passive income whereas, with Instagram, there is only one way to make money so I guess Blogging is the winner for this category as well.
Blogging vs Instagram: How To Make Money
Let’s compare how you can make money via Blogging and Instagram.
Blogging: How To Make Money
A blogger can make around $0 to $500k+ a month. This earning totally depends on the niche you’ve selected and the size of your audience. To earn even a single dollar, you have to work on your blog for almost a year or two. Let’s take a look at how a blogger makes money:
- Most Bloggers make money through affiliate marketing. They promote different products, and for that, they get unique affiliate links of the product. If a user buys the product using their affiliate link, then they will get some percentage of that sale.
- Another way of earning is by displaying advertisements on your blog posts.
- Bloggers also make money by selling digital products. These products can be anything, such as spreadsheets, photos, etc.
- If a blogger is an expert in something, then they can create courses on that niche and start selling them. It can also be a good source of earnings.
- If a blogger runs a high-traffic blogging website, they will definitely get money to write sponsored posts on their website.
Instagram: How To Make Money
An Instagram influencer can earn around $0 to $500k+ a month. Their earnings depend on their audience engagement and number of followers. It is hard to get a break into social media, but once you grow your followers list, then you can earn a lot of money.
Let’s take a look at how an Instagram influencer makes money:
- Most Instagram influencers make money through sponsored posts. They can earn up to $10 per 1000 followers.
- Selling a digital product to your Instagram audience is also a way to make money. These products can be eBooks, videos, photos, etc.
- Instagram influencers can also make money through affiliate marketing, where they can earn commissions on every sale of a product through their affiliate link.
- Instagram influencers can also sell their unique courses to their Instagram audience.
Verdict: It is hard to sell anything on Instagram or blogs without an engaging audience. So it all comes down to your audience engagement.
Is Blog Better Than Instagram?
Blog and Instagram are both completely different from one another. So it is hard to decide which one is better than the other. With Blogging, you can easily express your ideas and expressions through writing. You can make unique websites and earn a lot of money through blogging. But it is harder to build a successful blog because it requires a lot of work.
Instagram is a social media platform where you can easily share visual content and connect with people like yourself. It is also an excellent way to make money by promoting different products. But it is also challenging because your content needs to be engaging; otherwise, your audience will unfollow you.
It is hard to determine that a Blog is better than Instagram. But it is an excellent way to express views on different niches, whereas, on Instagram, you need to keep your audience in mind before posting anything.
Blogging vs. Instagram: Pros and Cons
Here are some pros and cons of starting a blog and Instagram. Let’s dive in!
Blogging Pros:
- Long-form content allows for detailed storytelling.
- SEO benefits can drive long-term organic traffic.
- Offers potential for passive income through ads and affiliates.
- Ownership of content provides control over branding.
- Helps build authority and credibility in your niche.
Blogging Cons:
- Time-consuming to create and maintain quality content.
- Requires technical skills for setup and management.
- Slow audience growth; takes time to build a following.
Instagram Pros:
- Highly engaging visual platform.
- Rapid audience growth is possible with the right strategy.
- User-friendly interface requires minimal technical skills.
- Opportunities for brand collaborations and sponsorships.
- Instant feedback from users through likes and comments.
Instagram Cons:
- Algorithm changes can unpredictably affect reach.
- Limited depth of content due to focus on visuals.
- High competition with many influencers and brands.
Final Verdict: Which One To Choose?
So this is my unbiased comparison of Blogging vs Instagram.
But one question still remains: Which one to choose? The answer to this question is straightforward. It all depends on your requirements and what you want. If you want to build your audience by showing your face and quality content, then Instagram is the right choice for you. But if you are shy and good at creating unique content, then you should start a blog.
I hope with my Blogging vs Instagram comparison, you can make your decision easier. Let me know your thoughts on Blogging and Instagram in the comments section below.
