Long-Form Content FACE OFF: YouTube vs. Podcasting vs. Blogging

Hey Friend!

All right, it’s going down. We’re having a face-off today. We’re facing off between three major long-form content outlets: YouTube versus Podcasting versus Blogging. It’s going down!

Whether you have one of these and you’re wondering if you should repurpose all three. Whether you’ve tried one and it didn’t really work, or you’re bouncing around asking the question, which one should I actually pour into Stef?

You’ve mentioned that I’ve got to pick one thing. What’s it going to be then? This blog post is going to give you that clarity. You need to pick the long-form content outlet for you. I will disclaimer and say if you want to grow a successful business online today, like in the next decade, it’s going to be imperative and pivotal that you are staking your claim in whatever your long-form is going to be.

• No, it’s not too late.
• No, it’s not too saturated.
• Yes, it’s going to be hard.
• Pick your hard and dig in.

Do you know what I’m saying? You’ve got to choose the one, and then you’ve got to take the steps, and then you have to be super duper consistent in it until that’s what you’re doing.

• There are no other options.
• There are no other ifs, ands, or buts about it.
• You’ve got to do the work.

But it all starts with the decision: where are you going to go and what are you actually going to create so that you can get started? So, without further ado, let’s do this.

Free Workshop About Making Money With a Podcast

I want to personally invite you to a free workshop. This 40-minute workshop is going to show you why podcasting is my absolute favorite way to create long-form content. Podcasting can be the vessel that you use to create an audience that is highly converting and that actually is excited to come and spend money with you as their coach or course creator.

I promise you this workshop will help you understand how podcasting is my number one driver to success and how it can potentially be the same for you. Head right now, to this link. Or if you want to work with me on some other level, head on over to the Stefanie Gass School and check out all the ways we can work together.

I promise you it’s so worth your time. The best part of all is you’re going to learn how podcasting can potentially be a way for you to truly grow, make an impact and income in an online business, and allow you to have that freedom and fruit of not feeling like you are tied to social media 24/7, or having to do 100 different things to figure out a way to be successful for the kingdom of God.

The First Example of Long-Form Content: Blogging

Let’s begin with blogging as our first example of long-form content. So what is blogging? You guys know it’s where you write out a long-form kind of essay-style training or tutorial or something on a specific topic, and then you allow that blog to live on a specific website. You can then drive traffic to that blog through Pinterest or by utilizing SEO. So let’s look at the Pros and Cons of blogging.

The Pros of Blogging

• Pro #1 SEO: Blogging has an SEO benefit because blogging can be infused with so much website SEO. It can be found organically in the search engines like Google or Yahoo search, etc. You can increase the visibility of your long-form content.
  
• Pro #2 Versatility: There’s versatility in your topic. There’s freedom when you’re blogging, you can cover a wide variety of topics. You can touch a lot of different SEO keywords that you want to rank for, and that’s really great.
  
• Pro #3 Easy for Writers: The third benefit is blogging is really easy for people who are great at writing. So if you are super great at writing, blogging is a fantastic way for you to do something that’s within your strength and skill set.

The Cons of Blogging

• Con #1 Time Consuming: The first con of blogging is it is very time-consuming. Writing, high-quality, long-form blog posts takes a lot of time and effort. That’s super challenging for those of you who have a full-time job.
  
• Con #2 Declining Attention Span: The second con is there’s a declining attention span of readers. I’ve mentioned recently in one of the episodes, attention spans are down to seven or eight seconds. To ask your consumer to sit down, read, and really stay tuned in and focused for any length of time, is a big ask.
  
• Con #3 Limited Personal Connection: The third con, is there’s limited personal connection with blogging. So when somebody’s reading something, especially in a blog format, it lacks that intimacy of hearing your voice or seeing your face. And while that’s fine for building traffic, I have personally not found it to be conducive to creating conversions.
  
• Con #4 AI: And then the last con is AI. Sorry, but that’s where we’re at. Blogging has now become a commodity in a way because AI can bust out a blog in 0.2 seconds. Not to say it’s irrelevant, but it’s much harder because everybody can now be a blogger by utilizing AI. Of course, the AI blogs are not going to get as much SEO favoritism as an organic handcrafted blog. But it’s still something to consider. Saturation was just 10Xed when AI came on the scene.

The Second Example of Long-Form Content: YouTubing

Let’s now look at YouTube as our second example of long-form content. What is YouTube? This is where you will create a video training, typically on Zoom or on some other type of video creation platform. You might edit it ever so slightly, add some fun different elements into your video, and then post it on a platform.

We’re going to use YouTube as our face-off challenger. First, you post a video and then you allow it to do a few things for you.

• It’s going to grow your brand using the keywords and the SEO that you put into the channel and titles of the videos.
• It creates conversion through people hanging out with you on that video, getting to know, like, and trust you.
• Ultimately it allows you to drive traffic to a sale or offer.

Let’s look at the Pros and Cons of YouTube.

The Pros of YouTube

• Pro #1 Visual Engagement and Reach: YouTube has over 2 billion monthly users. Raise your hand if you use YouTube. I do. I totally use YouTube. I’m researching things like eschatology, political stuff, food and macro planning, and workouts. YouTube is a gangster at curating the perfect algorithm for me. They are not dumb to get me to spend more time on their platform. Users spend an average of 40 minutes per session. YouTube reaches more 18 to 49-year-olds than any cable network in the U.S. If you have a target market under 50, YouTube is a great place to show up.
  
• Pro #2 Diverse Content: You can create a lot of diverse long-form content on YouTube. You can create video tutorials, Vlogging, and documentaries. Also training like how to create a recipe and even how to do your own makeup. If you have a visual brand teaching somebody where you need to show them, then YouTube might be a great fit for you.
  
• Pro #3 Monetization Opportunities: There are some other monetization opportunities that I think can be pretty lucrative if you grow a really large YouTube brand. YouTube has a partner program where you can earn an average of $16,800 per video if you’re in the Top 1%. But the question begs how and what does it take to become a 1% top YouTuber?

The Cons of YouTube

• Con #1 Higher Production Costs: Before I started podcasting, I had a YouTube channel where I was trying hard for a while to be a YouTuber. I can personally attest to the investment it took to have the right cameras and editing software. If I was going to take it seriously, I would have to start paying people to take over the editing because it was so time intensive. It was so much work.
  
• Con #2 Time Intensive: When you do a YouTube video, just video curation in general is going to take a lot more time. You’re going to have to outline the video and get ready. That typically means things like makeup, getting dressed, and getting appropriate lighting just right. You also have to make sure that your kids are taken care of and not making a bunch of noise in the background. The production time alone can be anywhere between 2 to 10 hours. Then you have to edit and market.
  
• Con #3 Higher Competition: 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every single minute. It’s a struggle to stand out among millions of videos. The only way you’re going to do that is by getting laser focused on who you serve and focusing on the power of one, which I talk about a lot. Then getting super clear, having clarity, being extra consistent, and digging in no matter how long it takes. As with any long-form content, you don’t get to just show up and be an overnight success. That is a lie from the enemy to keep you stopping and starting and staying stuck.

The Third Example of Long-Form Content: Podcasting

You’ve got to pick what your thing is going to be and go all in. Even with the cons. Even though some of these things are going to be hard about the platform you choose, any of these are okay for you. You have to go with your heart and your gut. I’m just giving you a really honest depiction of what the pros and cons look like. Finally, let’s look at my personal favorite long-form content, podcasting.

Consider with me the Pros and Cons of podcasting.

The Pros of Podcasting

• Pro #1 Convenient and Accessible: Edison Research reports that 75% of Americans are familiar with podcasts and 55% have listened to one. Every single day, I listen to an episode. I love to binge on a podcast when I’m interested in that topic. I listen while I’m cleaning, doing laundry, or working out. Podcasting helps you shine as the creator. It helps you to get into more ears quickly than a blog where you have to stop what you’re doing to read. Or video, where you have to stop what you’re doing and watch.
  
• Pro #2 Low Barrier to Entry: All you need to start is a phone and software. You can get super gangster and scrappy. In my course, I teach you how to get a $100 microphone and how to use free editing software. Hosting costs about $7 a month. It’s extremely inexpensive to start a podcast.
  
• Pro #3 No Vanity Metrics: Even though there are a lot of podcasts, there are no vanity metrics, which I think play well to your consistency because other people are looking for them. My students are not looking at those. We are looking at income-producing data and superfan-specific growth. We’re looking at the information behind the numbers. I’m much more interested in how many sales you’re making than how many downloads you have.
  
• Pro #4 Niche Community Potential: You can cultivate a loyal, engaged audience that is excited about what it is that you’re teaching. 80% of podcast listeners listen to all or most episodes of a podcast. When you find somebody that loves your show, they’re going to binge-listen and become part of your community. Niche communities convert quickly as well.

Bonus Pros of Podcasting

• Bonus #1 Faster Than Other Long-Form Content: Granted, I’ve been doing this for five years, but I can bust out three episodes in two and a half hours. Sometimes in just two hours. I have it down to a science where I teach you guys in my courses how to record your podcast without having a whole bunch of pre-work and without having to edit. You edit as you go.
  
• Bonus #2 Do Around Your Family: If my kids are here and they need something, I can pause the episode. If my dog barks, I can edit it out. I cannot do that in a video. And forget writing for me because, “WHOA,” it’s so much easier for me to speak than it is to write.

The Cons of Podcasting

• Con #1 Limited Visual Appeal: If there’s something you’re trying to show people, it’s hard to do it with podcasting. You can drive people to a Facebook group to have a video follow-up. Or you can email people a follow-up video, but it is more difficult. If you have a brand around applying makeup, styling your hair, applying eyelashes, or showing people how to create recipes, and things of that nature, you may have to consider something like YouTube.
  
• Con #2 It’s a Slow Grow: It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to build something sustainable and foundational. Some of my most successful students took 24 to 36 months. I’ve been in this for five years now. It takes time to rise up. Podcasting is the kind of honest platform where you can fight your way to the top. The algorithm doesn’t magically bump others up. I’m here for that!
  
• Con #3 You Need to Be Super Strategic: I guess I could say this for blogging and YouTubing as well, but you can’t just throw a podcast out there. Maybe you’re a really exciting person to watch and they don’t really care what you’re saying. But when you’re podcasting, the visual element is gone. So it really does matter how you strategically position yourself. What does your messaging say? What does your marketing say, and what are the titles of your show? You do have to have a little bit more education about how to grow a successful podcast so it can grow more quickly.

Follow Your Dream

If you are obsessed with writing and it’s stolen your heart, or if your dream has always been to be a blogger, then you go girl! Maybe you have a brand where you are visually creating something and you’re teaching using visual methods. You love video. If you have more time on your hands than some of us who have kids and jobs and all these other things, YouTubing would be great long-form content for you. For the rest of you, I would go podcasting. All it takes is to carve out just 2 hours a week, you can do a podcast.

You can eliminate all the extra stuff. It’s a time-saving way to reach the masses. It’s easy and simple. Most people quit and give up before they ever are twelve months in. You can out-podcast 99% of other people simply by staying in the game.

A Fantastic Way to Build Your Brand and Business

Podcasting is a fantastic way to build your brand and build your business from behind a mic. I love the flexibility. I love the ease of the whole thing. And it’s something you can learn, grow and become better and better at.

Know that you will have to commit to long-form content if you want to stand out because you have to find a place where people can know, like, and trust you. That’s what’s going to create future sales and clients for you. Showing up on Instagram isn’t going to do it. Neither will TikTok videos.

Anything that gives you a vanity metric, I would run from because it’s a waste of your time. Find out what your thing is going to be. Go all in and don’t look up. I trust you to make this decision. I believe that you can.

And I know that you are resourceful enough to get it going. It’s time to start. It’s time to take that big leap of faith and it’s time to take the step.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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