Do blogs struggle nowadays because of YouTube?

[Martin]

It seems like a more easy to consume source of information that many people are flocking to nowadays. Has anyone noticed a drop in blog activity as a result of YouTube? Have you considered going into making YouTube videos to accompany your blog? I have in the past and might do it soon to draw some eyes to DiscussPF.

[MrT]

My blogs are doing OK. The main problem for blogs is that Google will not rank anything unless you're in an ubereasy niche OR you have a Domain Authority 4+ site. Most bloggers just can't get that Domain Authority without creating something that naturally attracts organic backlinks.

What's still working?

Making something USEFUL. I built a keyword tool and it gets a shedload of natural backlinks from Quora and the like.

[Martin]

Yeah blogging is really a game of balance between something readable and enjoyable for members and something that will actually appear in search results - a balance which is very hard to achieve. I don't doubt there is still room for some successful blogs but I think more and more people are converting from written information to visual/audio information.