Still running a blog that covers news? If so, you've fallen far behind the times. The blogging environment has changed radically in the last few years, and the changes won't stop any time soon.

Thankfully, there is a way for bloggers to pivot and change focus. Blogs will still exist, but they will serve other functions as well. It will take some work, but bloggers can make that transition and actually earn money not through ads, but through eCommerce.


We're more than a decade removed from the birth of blogging. Given the democratic nature of the platform, more than a fair share of people have given it a try. Even if 99 percent of blogs fail, that one percent is still a huge, huge number. And what's the easiest type of blog to start? News, of course.

Given the ease of buying a domain, obtaining cheap hosting, and installing WordPress, combined with the ease of blogging the news, these sites have become less and less viable. A number of platforms with actual budgets, including the Daily Beast, Huffington Post, and others, have adopted the commentary-style news that blogs have thrived on since the beginning. That leaves little room for independent outfits.

That's not to say that traffic to individual independent blogs is declining. It's to say that there is a real and near ceiling for traffic to these sites. Chances are, your current numbers represent something close to your traffic ceiling.

2. There's no money in news

Market saturation is just one angle on the problem with news blogs. The other is the level of attention consumers pay to the news. According to economics blogger Felix Salmon, people spend just 2.7 percent of their time on news sites. That's a huge blow for anyone who runs one. Not only are they working in an overcrowded market, but people just don't pay a lot of attention to them overall.

This was a problem even in the days of print. News made the front page, but didn't pay the bills. Fluffier entertainment and lifestyle sections brought in the bulk of a paper's advertising dollars. The same remains true, but the internet decentralized publishing. Sites like BuzzFeed can bring in the dollars by publishing dozens of junk-food posts per day, but a site like the New York Times has trouble filling its digital ad inventory.

News has historically been a loss leader, and the internet has done little to change that reality. News sites that want to survive need to either 1) prove indispensable to people's daily lives, or 2) find other avenues to revenue. Since the former has proven elusive even for the best-funded operations, the latter remains the only realistic option.

3. The money is moving

Would you feel confident in the viability of your news site if CNN were abandoning news? That appears to be the case. We learned recently that CNN will focus on fluffier entertainment. Why? Because that's where the money is headed. If the world's biggest name in news is planning an exit strategy, how can an independent publication survive long-term?

Soon enough, though, sites like BuzzFeed and Gawker, and even CNN.com, will dominate online entertainment to an even larger degree than they do today. That is, following them might not prove as lucrative as you imagine. Moving into eCommerce, though, can provide a stream of revenue from the most proven model of all: selling things to people. And that's quite easy for any blog to accomplish.

4. Reviews attract audiences, and sales

When people are thinking about buying, they'll almost certainly search around for reviews. If you can get to the top of places that people search, such as Google and Bing, then you can be in line to collect those sales. You'll need a large selection, competitive prices, and a number of reviews, of course. But those are just investments in what could be a winning strategy.

Why eCommerce and not an affiliate model? An affiliate model might be easier to implement, but you're not establishing much of a brand in that case. People come to you for the review, but leave your site in order to buy, so there's no real connection. (Plus, Google has been destroying affiliate sites in their algorithm updates. Setting up an eCommerce platform with online credit card processing might cost a few dollars, but you can create more customer loyalty when people are buying directly from your platform.

Of course, you'll need more than just blogging skills in order to implement such a change. That brings us to the final point, one that could change everything for you and your company.

5. You'll learn new skills

When you blog, you need minimal technical skills. If you can write and use WordPress, a very user-friendly engine, you can run a blog. Other people take care of keeping your website online, and chances are someone else designs your blog. Selling advertising is as easy as signing up for an exchange and plugging some code into your site. It's all readily available, with very little skill required.

In order to run an eCommerce site, you'll need many many more skills:

• SEO, so people will find your reviews when they search.
• Copywriting, so people are enticed by your reviews.
• Coding, so you can implement and tweak designs that help you stand out.
• Sales, related to copywriting, so you know what people look for in products.
• Finance and accounting, so you're not spending more than you earn.
• How to run a business, because you can't do it by yourself.

That's just the start, really. Running a blog is easy. Running a profitable website requires skills that are better learned than paid for. With those skills in hand, owners can take those blogs and turn them into other ventures -- following the money, perhaps, rather than following the blogging trend.

Author Bio 
Joe Pawlikowski founded a publishing company in 2007 and has worked with and alongside dozens of startups in the ensuing six years. He keeps a personal blog at JoePawl.com.