Blog vs Vlog: Which One You Should Choose?

Blog and Vlog are two trending formats of content these days. Blog vs vlog

By the end of 2023, there were 600 million blogs. And 70 million new posts are published on WordPress each month (source).

Similarly, nearly 44% of internet users engage in vlog viewing every month. And 66% of business owners consider vlogs as the most effective form of content marketing (source).

Both these formats are popular, but the question is: Which one should you pick?

It depends on multiple factors, including niche, goals, target audience, etc. So, you have to dive into the details of both to decide the right one according to your needs.

Or you may end up choosing both if both are equally beneficial. Who knows?

In this article, we are going to compare blogs and vlogs in different aspects. It will help you understand the difference between them and pick the right one.

And we will also unveil how you can empower your blogs and vlogs using AI and save time for more productive tasks.

Let’s start with the basics.

What is a Blog?

A blog is a website that posts articles or blog posts. It is regularly or frequently updated with new text content along with attractive images, infographics, factual details, GIFs, videos, etc.

There is a specific page dedicated to the blog posts, which is also known as a blog archive. Posts are arranged according to the published date, and newly published blog posts appear at the top. For the ease of users, bloggers also create categories and tags.

Blogs are usually made on a specific niche or micro niche. It depends on the area of expertise or interest of the creator. For instance, health & wellness, parenting, marketing, law, finance, cooking, crafts, technology, education, etc.

Writers share their stories, experiences, ideas, opinions, and insights. They create different forms of blog posts, including how-tos, tutorials, reviews, interviews, listicles, etc.

The writing style of blog posts is usually informal and conversational to engage readers. Its primary focus is to provide value or information to the readers.

For better interaction, there is also a comment section at the end of the blog post where users can ask questions and share their experiences. People can interact with each other and the author.

Here is an example of a welding blog, Welding Head, to provide information to welding beginners and enthusiasts.

What is a Vlog?

“Vlog” is a short form of a Video Blog. Which is just like a blog in the form of videos. People share their experiences, expertise, routines, opinions, and other things.

Like a blog, a vlog is also niche-specified. Some popular vlog niches are daily vlog, travel, cooking, fashion, beauty, food, gaming, comedy, animals, and DIY.

For vlogging, you have to choose a content platform, such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch. According to your audience and type of content, you can go with any of the platforms and create videos.

Vlog is more of a visual content. It is more engaging compared to simple text. You have to make interesting and engaging videos to entertain or hook your audience.

Some of the popular vloggers are PewDiePie, Casey Neistat, Like Nastya, Mr Beast, and Jon Olsson.

Blog vs Vlog—Key Differences

Here are a few important differences you need to consider before selecting a blog or vlog as a medium of content creation.

Content Format

The primary format of a blog is text. You have to engage your readers with your words.

However, it is a must to include images, infographics, videos, and other things to increase the engagement of the readers and provide them with more information. Nowadays, bloggers are also adding an audio format to their blog posts so that people can listen to them.

Blog posts are usually lengthy, especially if the topic is detailed. It is a perfect format if you want to discuss something in depth.

Readers need more time to read the whole content. However, most readers skim blog posts and read the relevant content only.

In contrast, vlogs are videos. It is easier to attract people through visual content compared to text.

For better engagement, content creators also add images, background music, and text to the videos. It conveys information in a better way.

You need to pay extra attention to the video and quality so that users can enjoy the content and stick to it till the end.

You can convey more words in a video compared to a blog, which is why the average length of vlogs is shorter.

Viewers find vlogs more conversational and informal, and they feel a connection with the content creator. It creates loyalty and improves content watch time and engagement.

Content Creation Process

Blog writing is highly dependent on your writing and research skills. Once you have a topic in your mind, you need to do keyword research and find the resources and information required.

After proper research, you can start writing. That said, the content creating process is extremely straightforward.

Vlogging requires more effort. Once you have an idea, you have to conceptualize it and write an attractive script. Then, you have to direct and film the scenes. It usually requires multiple takes, which is quite time-consuming.

Finally, you have to edit the video before publishing.

Popularity

Both blogs and vlogs have a huge audience.

Blog posts are being written from the start of the internet. It was the first format of content and providing information to the readers.

77% of internet users read blogs, and there are over 600 million blogs in the world. It is definitely a popular way to gain an audience.

Vlogs have gained massive popularity in the past few years. Over 2.7 billion users are only on YouTube, and around 122 million users see videos on it in a day (source).

Nearly 44% of the internet users view vlogs every month. According to Statista, 36% of female internet users aged between 16 and 24 years watched vlogs. The percentage of men of the same age range is 26.6%.

That said, vlogs are getting more popular in younger audiences. They prefer watching videos and visualizing things for better understanding.

Required Skills

The primary content of blog posts is text, which is why you need to have exceptional writing skills. Conveying information and expressing emotions in words is extremely difficult.

You must have a strong grip on the language, grammar, tone, format, and other details. Every word you write plays an important role in the engagement of readers.

You can write blog posts on your own or hire an expert blog writer. To create a higher volume of blog posts, you need to collaborate with professionals in-house or work with freelancers.

After writing a blog post, you need to do proofreading and editing. It is essential for the readability and engagement of the post. You need an expert editor in your team to cut down the fluff and make your words more appealing and easier to digest.

Apart from writing, it is better to add images to the blog post. You should create an attractive cover and find some suitable images. For this, you need some illustration and editing skills.

For vlogs, you should know how to face the camera properly and convey your words confidently. It’s a skill you need to learn to give perfect shots.

Before shooting a video, you need to write a script that can leave a lasting impression on the viewers and compel them to watch the video till the end. As a beginner, you have to do it on your own, but after some time, you can hire a copywriter.

Shooting perfect videos isn’t enough—editing is the next important thing. You have to edit your videos professionally. Add text, images, music, sound effects, effects, transitions, etc.

Beginners often overlook audio editing, but it is equally important. You must remove the background noise, add music & sound effects to the right instances, and adjust the volume and other effects.

Equipment and Software Required

For blogging, you don’t need any special equipment. All you need is a computer and a fast and stable internet connection.

You can easily sign up for a blogging platform, such as WordPress, Webflow, Weebly, or Squarespace. Even start through a free platform, such as Medium, Blogger, and WordPress.com.

You don’t need special equipment, but some applications and software are needed. You can use Grammarly to find mistakes in your text and Canva to create images.

There is minimal investment required to get started with a blog.

On the other hand, vlogs require advanced and special equipment. Firstly, you need a camera to record videos. If you don’t have one, you can start with your smartphone.

The next important thing is a microphone. It is essential to record clear audio and reduce noises in the background.

And don’t forget the lighting. Having better lighting is more important than having an expensive camera.

Your equipment plays an important role in creating quality videos. Viewers prefer videos with better resolution, lighting, and audio quality.

Other than that, you need video and audio editing software to improve visuals and make your videos more attractive.

Thus, you need more investment to start a vlog compared to a blog.

The Role of SEO

SEO is required in blogs and vlogs to derive organic traffic. However, the process of both is quite different. Its main purpose is to make the content discovered by the right audience.

When it comes to the SEO of blogs or websites, it starts with keyword research and content strategy. You have to find suitable keywords according to your niche. Then, you need to write quality articles on those topics.

You also need to do on-page optimizations, which means adding keywords at certain places and writing an optimized meta description.

Off-page SEO is also essential to improve website authority. You have to gain high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites.

Website SEO is a lengthy process and requires a significant amount of time, which could be months or more than a year.

However, consistent efforts and quality content will help you rank better on the search engines. For more details, check out Website Ranking 101.

The SEO of vlogs is a bit different. Even though it also starts from keyword research and trending topics, it’s not as detailed as ranking websites.

After finding suitable keywords and hashtags, you need to include them in the title and description of the video. It will improve organic traffic by showing the videos to the people searching for it.

Sharing and engagement on the video also play an important role. You can share the video on social media platforms, emails, and messages. Secondly, if the audience is participating through likes and comments, your video will be recommended to others and will have a better position in the search results.

SEO of your video also depends on the platform. YouTube is the second largest search engine, which is why it is preferred for vlogs. You can use various tools, such as vidIQ and TubeBuddy, to improve video SEO.

Earning Potential

You can monetize your blog and vlogs, so both of them have the potential to make money.

Blogs have multiple monetization options. Firstly, you can earn through advertising. By displaying ads on your website through Google AdSense or Ezoic, you can earn money. It could be a significant amount if you have massive traffic.

The second option for blog monetization is Affiliate marketing. You can promote others’ products and earn a commission on successful sales. Its earnings are more than advertising.

Other than that, you can do brand endorsements and paid collaborations, sell digital or physical products, teach online courses, charge for subscriptions, and accept donations.

When it comes to vlog monetization, it mainly depends on advertising and sponsorships.

Content creators on YouTube earn by displaying ads on their videos. Similarly, there are other options, such as Facebook, TikTok Live, and Twitch.

On some platforms, viewers can also send gifts in the form of the native currency of the platform. Which can later be exchanged with money.

Moreover, creators collaborate with brands and endorse and review their services and products. It is often a better source of earning as brands pay a hefty amount.

Using AI in Blog Creation

Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically Generative AI, can make blog post creation a lot easier. Using a content generator, you can write blog outlines, titles, meta descriptions, introductions, paragraphs, and even complete blog posts.

Arvin is an all-in-one AI assistant you can use for this purpose. Not only can it create unique text but also images for your blog posts. It is a Chrome extension, which means you can use it on WordPress, Medium, Blogger, or any other web page.

Let’s create a blog outline for a travel blog that aims to provide authentic information related to travel, countries, tourist spots, etc.

We asked Arvin to create an outline for a blog post on “Top 10 Travel Destinations.”

It offered a detailed outline of the topic, including the top 10 destinations. Let’s create a blog post of 1,500 words.

We have a ready-to-publish blog post and we can make some changes and adjust things according to our needs. We can also generate unique and captivating titles for the blog.

Let’s write unique meta descriptions.

You can use Arvin to assist you in blog writing. It can help in generating outlines, unique ideas, catchy introductions, and almost everything.

The best thing is that you can use Arvin in your research. You can use it on competitors’ posts and ask it to summarize everything. Similarly, you can look for resources, such as books, authentic sites, and other things to make your article more authoritative.

Using AI in Vlog Creation

Arvin can also help in the vlog creation process. It can work as an AI script generator. You can ask it to write an engaging script for your YouTube video on any topic.

We used Arvin to create a YouTube script for “Top 10 Travel Destinations.”

It created a script for the video that we can use after a few personalized changes. Let’s create some YouTube titles.

It can also help in writing descriptions, which is a boring task for content creators. Let’s do it in seconds.

You can make your vlogs more engaging using AI and that too in less time. You can write detailed prompts to personalize everything according to your needs. The more detailed your prompts are, the better results you will have.

FAQs

What is the difference between a vlog and a blog post?

A blog post is an online journal or text-based content. It provides information through words complimented by images, infographics, and videos. On the other hand, a vlog is the video version of a blog post. It is more engaging and can convey information easily.

Which is better vlog or blog?

You need to compare vlogs and blogs in different aspects. Based on your audience, skills, niche, and other things, you can select any of them. Both have a massive audience and earning potential.

Can you do blog and vlog together?

Yes, you can do blog and vlog together. Many content creators turn their vlogs into blog posts or vice versa to gain more traffic and create an extra earning stream. They direct their audience from one platform to another.