What’s the Difference Between a Blog and a Vlog? (EXPLAINED)

Difference between blog and vlog

S
o, what’s the difference between blog and vlog? We’ll answer that question, and more, so that you can decide which type of content creation works best for you.

If you’re new to creating content online, you might be wondering what the difference is between blogging and vlogging. Which is easier for beginners? What makes more money?

These are the types of questions you should be researching before you decide to start a blog or a vlog. That way, you won’t waste your time with a medium that doesn’t work for you.

In this article, we’ll go over the difference between blog and vlog, including the money-making potential of each, so that you can decide which is better.

Let’s begin!

Blog vs. Vlog: Definitions and Differences

What is a Blog?

A blog is a type of website that publishes new articles, also known as “blog posts,” on a regular basis.

On the homepage of a blog, the newest blog posts are usually displayed first, which is referred to as ‘reverse chronological order.”

Blog posts mainly consist of text, but they also can include images, and even other formats of content like video and GIFs.

Bloggers can write articles on any topic they want. For example, some successful types of blog topics include personal finance, health and fitness, food and drink, parenting, marketing, and so on.

To give you a better idea, here is an example of a popular mom blog called Alpha Mom.

Example of a blog - Alpha Mom

The Alpha Mom blog regularly publishes articles on pregnancy and parenting, and displays the newest posts on the homepage.

What is a Vlog?

A vlog, which stands for “video blog” or “video log” is a type of blog where most, or all, of the content is in video form. This is different from a regular blog that mainly publishes written content.

Vlogs are typically used to document a person’s life, experience, or thoughts.

But, similar to blogging, you can actually “vlog” about anything you want, such as makeup tutorials, product reviews, video game tutorials, and more.

Here’s an example of a vlog:

Casey Neistat - example of a vlog

Casey Neistat is a popular vlogger on YouTube with 12.5 million subscribers. He releases videos on a regular basis that document his everyday life in New York City.

Many successful vlogs are published on popular platforms like YouTube. You can also embed vlogs on your own website, which we’ll explain how to do later.

As you can see, there are some similarities between a blog and a vlog. But, the key difference is that bloggers share their thoughts on a particular subject through written words, and vloggers record videos of themselves talking about a subject.

Are Vlogs More Popular Than Blogs?

Due to well-known video platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch, a lot of people assume that vlogging is more popular than blogging.

So, it must be better to start a vlog right?

Not necessarily!

Just because videos are popular, doesn’t mean that writing is outdated. In fact, blogging is still very relevant today.

Let’s take a look at the popularity of both vlogging and blogging:

Popularity of Vlogging

Based on video consumption statistics published by Oberlo, 92.8% of internet users worldwide watch digital videos every week.

There’s no denying that people love video content.

But, as you can see in the graph below, influencer videos and vlogs are the least popular type of video.

Video consumption statistics from Oberlo

Instead of watching a vlog that documents a person’s everyday life, internet users prefer watching comedy videos, live streams, how-to / tutorial videos, and educational videos.

So, rather than creating a typical “vlog,” you might consider creating how-to videos to teach users how to play the guitar, for example.

Because when you can solve a problem or help a user reach their goals with your videos, it will be easier to attract a loyal audience of viewers.

Popularity of Blogging

According to the latest blogging statistics, there are over 1.9 billion websites on the internet and it’s estimated that over 600 million of them have blogs. That means that the blogging industry takes up a third of the entire web!

Here are some additional statistics to show that blogging isn’t dead:

  • 77% of internet users read blog articles.
  • Blogs have been rated as the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information. 
  • Blog posts are among the most shared content online.

Plus, businesses that blog experience 126% higher lead growth than non-blogging businesses, and 60% of people purchase a product after reading a blog post about it. It’s clear that blogging can still help you generate leads and boost sales for your business.

It’s also important to mention the popularity of search engines like Google in relation to blogging. Based on internet usage stats, there are approximately 106,083 Google searches made every 1 second, and almost 30% of global web traffic is generated via online search.

With proper blog SEO, you can increase the chances of your content appearing at the top of Google search results. This makes it easier to serve your content to the people that are searching for it online and drive more traffic to your site.

In order for your vlogs to become more visible in search, it’s video SEO best practice to publish an optimized video transcript along with them. This proves that written content is important to growing your website.

Blogging vs. Vlogging: Money-Making Potential

This is one of the most-asked questions when it comes to blogging vs. vlogging: How much money can I make?

Of course, whether you create a blog or a vlog, it will take some time and work before you’re earning big bucks.

But, with the right strategies, you can start earning a bit of extra money on the side pretty quickly.

How to Make Money Blogging

With a WordPress blog, there are zero limitations on how you can make money.

There are tons of WordPress plugins and other tools that you can use to extend the functionality of your blog, and diversify your income.

Let’s take a look at just a few ways you can monetize a blog:

  • Advertise on Your BlogDisplay ads with Google AdSense or sell ad space on your blog directly.
  • Do Affiliate Marketing – Sign up for affiliate marketing networks and earn commission for promoting products on your blog.
  • Sell Digital Products – Easily create and sell digital products like ebooks, audio files, videos, PDFs, and more using the Easy Digital Downloads plugin.
  • Offer Online Courses – Use a plugin like Thrive Apprentice to create and sell online courses on your blog.
  • Create Membership Subscriptions – Turn your blog into a membership site where users have to pay a subscription fee to access your content.
  • Sell Physical Products – Add a complete online store to your blog to sell and ship physical products.
  • Accept Donations – Easily accept donations from your readers right from your site using a free plugin like WP Simple Pay.

How to Make Money Vlogging

If you decide to publish your vlogs on YouTube only, your monetization options are very limited. Basically, you can only earn money through video ad revenue, channel memberships / super chats, and by recording sponsored videos.

That’s why many YouTube vloggers have their own blog aside from their YouTube channel.

This allows them to drive traffic from YouTube to their website, where they can earn more money by using the methods we mentioned in the previous section, such as selling ad space directly, creating online courses, selling products, and more.

For example, popular travel vlogger, Hey Nadine, has a YouTube channel with 500,000 subscribers where she uploads her vlogs.

Hey Nadine YouTube vlog channel

She also has a travel blog where she embeds her YouTube videos. As people are browsing the blog, they can purchase Nadine’s premium online courses and ebooks, or buy the affiliate products she recommends.

Hey Nadine travel blog

Overall, blog vs. vlog income is pretty even. That is, as long as you create your own website instead of simply uploading your vlogs to YouTube.

How to Start a Blog or Vlog

At this point, you may have already decided that you prefer blogging over vlogging, or vice versa.

So, we’ll go over how to get started and what type of equipment is required for each option.

Creating a Blog

One of the best parts about blogging is that it’s so easy to get started.

First, the only equipment you need is a computer with an internet connection.

Next, you need to choose the right blogging platform. For that, we highly recommend WordPress.org.

WordPress.org - Self Hosted Blogging Platform

Over 43% of all websites use WordPress.org as their content management system, and it remains the fastest growing blogging platform. It gives you complete control over your website, allowing you to install plugins as you wish, and monetize your blog any way that you want.

Plus, the WordPress software itself is free to install and use!

Note: WordPress.org is not the same as WordPress.com. To learn the differences and avoid choosing the wrong platform, check out our post on WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com.

Then, to publish your blog online, all you need to pay for is:

  • Domain Name – A domain name is the address of your website. This is what users types in their browsers to get to your blog.
  • Blog Hosting – Blog hosting is where your website lives, and all your website files are stored. This is what makes it possible for your blog to be accessible on the internet.

For hosting and domain name registration, we highly recommend Bluehost. It’s affordable, reliable, and one of the best blog hosting services on the market.

Bluehost blog hosting service

Bluehost is also officially recommended by WordPress.org itself, and offers easy 1-click WordPress installation.

Simply click the link above to claim your Bluehost discount, then follow along with our tutorial on how to start a blog for step by step instructions.

Creating a Vlog

If you’re interested in creating a vlog, you’ll be happy to know it’s fairly easy as well.

To get started, all you really need is a smartphone.

But, keep in mind, the quality of your videos is important if you want to grow your business. So, in the future, you may consider purchasing a better video camera, microphone, lighting, editing software, and more. This can get a bit pricey.

To publish your vlogs online, you can create a YouTube channel for free. Simply follow along with this tutorial on how to create a successful YouTube channel.

As we explained earlier though, most successful vloggers have a YouTube channel as well as their own blog, because it allows them to be more in control of how much money they can earn.

That’s why we recommend that you create a blog too. You can quickly and easily set up a WordPress video blog with Bluehost for as low as $2.75 per month.

Click the button above to claim your Bluehost discount, then follow along with our tutorial on how to start a blog for step by step instructions.

Note: There is one important thing to remember when creating a video blog though. And that is that you should never upload videos in WordPress.

Instead, you should first upload your video vlogs to YouTube. Then, you can embed your videos in WordPress, which is much easier and saves you bandwidth.

For step by step instructions, see this article on how to embed videos in WordPress blog posts.

You can also use a WordPress video embed plugin like Smash Balloon YouTube Feed Pro.

Smash Balloon YouTube Feeds Pro

YouTube Feed Pro allows you to automatically display all of your YouTube channel videos in a beautiful gallery format.

You can display as many feeds or playlists on your blog as you want, customize the design to match your brand, show upcoming live streams, add custom video pause and end actions, combine multiple feeds from different YouTube channels, and more.

Smash Balloon YouTube Feed Pro example

To learn more, check out our detailed Smash Balloon review.


That brings us to the end of this article! We hope it clearly explained the difference between a blog and a vlog. Now, you can decide which option is right for you, and get started on your journey.

If you thought this article was helpful, you can also read our guide on smart ways to make money online for more ideas.

While you’re here, don’t forget to sign up for our email newsletter for more helpful blogging tips!

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