Blogs Vs Podcast
This might be the most confusing question: “Should I write a blog or make a podcast?” when people step into the creative departments. These two are very popular and very different mediums to work on. Laning down their pros and cons and deciding which is the best medium to work on has always been a challenge to the ones working in the domain.
People often quote that ‘blogging’ is dead and "vlogging is the new trend", which seems quite untrue as blogging is still green and an ever-growing medium of content creation/marketing for anyone. Sure the days of blogging are pretty bleak but one good chance can get your writing perceived as an overnight sensation. The possibilities are limitless. In India, it is the latest trend with 6.7 million people blogging on blogging sites. Over 12 million people write blogs via social media.
Blogging is trying to retain the avid readers in the community . The thing that makes blogging remarkable is that there are no requirements of building large entry barriers as the barrier entry is low and the investment is high and you don’t even require to build large websites to make your blog work. The most expensive thing you require is a laptop or desktop to type your content and upload it which comes in a range of options with one-time Investment. You might think of other technical expertise but the blog doesn’t require excessive technical treatment from its blogger. The blogger can write with less time commitment, write it in hours or half to craft it properly. With the audience of such a medium requires less than 30% of their time to consume and read it. All you need is to optimize the search engines and be up to date with the benefits of website or platform you will be using. Blogging completely depends on your writing goals and you have to find a platform that suits your content.
But what about its counterpart, what about podcasting. Well, it has been decades and podcasting is generating 7 figures for podcasters. After 2015, 85% of the listeners heard their first podcast. Podcasting does not show any sign to slow down. In 2006, only 22% of the adult population were aware of podcasting but this figure has risen to 75 percent and the number of people hosting their podcast is very high.
I like to put it as a ‘Radio-Video Setup’. You call your guest and chat and everyone just goes home. Well but podcasting will still cost you a good amount of investment on a microphone, the rest of the setup and a recording environment. Podcasting depends on your platform which you are using which is very much different from what happens in blogging. You can use platforms like Youtube where you have your control over your podcast and mercy of the company responsible and its algorithm but there are platforms unlike them where your podcast will be just another one in a large pile and it will be only your luck where it can see a light of the sun.
Though podcasting can be high-time committing and technically expensive, it shows much of your personality than a blog and establishes a deep connection with your audience. It is popular among a young audience as well as the number of podcast listeners is growing.
What are your innate talents and traits? You just need that to discover what stuff you were born for. You choose regardless of what seems soothing and choose a medium that feels compatible with you. In the end it is the content and sticks with the audience and not the medium thorough which it had been conveyed !