Is it Better to Start a Blog or a YouTube Channel?
Is it Better to Start a Blog or a YouTube Channel?
Once you’ve purchased a domain name and hosting you own your blog and therefore have free creative licence to do as you wish. Unfortunately, a YouTube channel is owned by Google, so you may be restricted to what content you can add. Both blogs and a YouTube channel have their individual merits, but personally we believe it’s better to start a blog.
Are You Camera Shy?
The most obvious reason that it may be better for you to start a blog is if you don’t like being in front of the camera.
Let’s face facts, not all of us are confident enough to put our face in front of the world.
Plus, some of us may even have a face more suited to radio (lol, sorry).
Then again, in the modern day and age, and with the advent of social media, there are many keyboard warriors out there.
Basically, people who have nothing better to do than troll others online, while making nasty or hurtful comments.
I’m sure that’s almost enough to scare you from ever going online again.
So, if you’re camera shy, or the thought of putting your face “out there” scares you to death, you may be better off avoiding YouTube.
With that being said, you can actually create YouTube videos, and an entire YouTube channel without ever putting your face in front of the camera.
Trust me, it’s been done many times before, and people will continue to do this in the future.
Plus, I will say, starting a YouTube channel is much like starting anything new, exciting, or frightening in life.
Once you’ve got the first one out of the way things become much easier.
And you’ll find that your confidence comes on in leaps and bounds.
However, for now, if the thought of sitting in front of a camera scares you half to death, then starting a blog will be the better option for you.
Does the thought of being on camera make you sick? Then it might be better for you to start a blog than a Youtube channel.
Camera Shyness is a real and it can stunt the creative process especially if you get physically ill at just the thought of being on camera. Sometimes camera shyness is not that serious and you just need a little practice to get over that fear. You just need to be honest with yourself.
The good news is that blogging is much easier since you don’t have to be on screen.
You will need at least one pic for your profile and “about me” (or “us”) page. You don’t want a completely anonymous blog as that can put people off, but you don’t need it plastered everywhere either.
Who’s in Control?
When you use Youtube, you are subject to their terms and rules which means you do not have full creative control of your content. Youtube can shut you down or demonetize you for any reason. Basically breaking it down YouTube owns the site therefore they have control over everything you do on their site If they don’t like the content for any reason thy can pull it. Meaning they are in total control not you.
Blogging requires a website, hosting, and a domain name, but once you make these purchases you own the property and have full creative control over your work. Since you own the domain you own the site. Your information can be put up and taken down only at your discretion. No one can tell you what can and can’t be shown on your site as long as you are not breaking any laws.
Oops I’ve Made a Mistake
Make mistakes? Of course, we all do, but can you do anything about those mistakes?
In blogging you can always go back and edit a post at any time. You can add more information to a post, rework it, or fix mistakes. You can breathe new life in to old posts.
Once your video is on YouTube you cannot edit it and the only thing you can do is edit the description.
So if you make a mistake in a video you have to start all over. Some videos just don’t age well either and you can’t go back and fix anything like you can with a blog. You are basically stuck with whatever the end result is for the lifetime of the video.
Where a blog piece can be an ever growing and changing thing the video is more set in stone. You can not alter it or change it other than notes in the description and lets all be honest not everyone surfing YouTube reads all those descriptions anyway.
While both methods are viable for getting your content out there to be seen, having something that can grow and change with you is our preferred method.
We All Love a Freebie
The Good news is that with both methods there are free ways to get started and free tools to help you along the way.
Youtube allows free video uploads so all you really need is a camera and most people have those on their phones now days. Then, if you need it, there are free editing softwares available like Vimeo and Lightworks (there are many more!).
You can get started for free in blogging if you choose to accept a subdomain with wordpress.org and siterubix.com or if you join a blogging network like medium.com. (A Subdomain is like a subheading. It has the address of the main domain. For example, yoursitename@wordpress.org or yoursitename@siterubix.com ) Otherwise you will want to purchase hosting and a domain as those are the basic costs of running your own website. The cool part is that you can still have a free site through WordPress.com and there are hundreds of free themes and plugins at your disposal.
Let’s Create More Trust
When you can be seen and heard people connect with you on a personal level and this creates trust. Videos showcase your personality and this helps to create that trust between you and your audience.
While you can build trust on a blog it is not as quick or instant like videos. It takes time and it also takes people coming back to your site over and over again. As you can see it is much harder to create trust with blogging.
How Comfortable Do You Feel?
If you are comfortable on camera then starting a Youtube channel may make more sense for you. You don’t have to write and you can speak directly to your audience. You can just film a video and upload it to a video hosting site like YouTube or Tik Tok and be done for the day. As we mentioned above this also creates trust with your audience a lot faster.
Do you feel more comfortable writing or being on camera? Personally we prefer writing over camera work.
Conclusion
Have you decided which method is right for you?
We think it is better to have both a blog and a Youtube channel, but if we had to pick one it would be blogging.
Overall, the startup costs are low for both methods and you can create trust with both. There are also plenty of freebies available for both blogging and creating videos.
You can fix mistakes in blogging but you are limited with videos. You get more creative control with blogging than with videos.
It really comes down to which one you are more comfortable with doing writing or shooting a video.
