Blogging vs Instagram – which one is better? Is there any difference between them?
If you’re looking for the answers to these questions, you are in the right place. With the recent rise of social media and Instagram in particular, many people fail to see the difference between bloggers and Instagrammers. It’s not hard to understand why since many Instagrammers identify themselves as bloggers even though they don’t have a blog per say.
Writing long captions for your Instagram posts doesn’t make you a blogger. Also, taking good photos doesn’t automatically mean that you’re an Instagrammer.
Let’s start from the beginning and set things straight.
1. The difference between bloggers and Instagrammers
Instagrammer definition
Any person who uses Instagram. It could be a person who has 5 followers or a person who has 100k followers. It doesn’t matter. As long as you are using Instagram, you are an Instagrammer.
Blogger definition
A person who owns a website where he/she writes blog posts about different subjects. It could be travel, fashion, food or anything else.
Influencer definition
Now here comes the tricky part. An influencer is a person who can influence the behavior and opinions of other people. Both bloggers and Instagrammers can be influencers as long as they have an audience who feels inspired by them.
An easier example to understand who influencers are, are the TV celebrities. Take your favorite singer. If he or she appears in a commercial about a perfume, chances are you will buy that perfume because you like that singer and you trust him/ her. That’s the power of influencers.
The terms Instagrammers/ bloggers and influencers are complementary, not opposite.
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2. Why the confusion?
Before social media, blogger influencers were among the only ones who had the power to influence or change people’s buying behavior. This is why many brands invested in collaborations with bloggers to promote their products. A blogger’s job in a brand collaboration is to shoot photos of the product, write a detailed and honest review and share it with his audience.
Although this practice is not dead, with the social media rise, brands have also turned to Instagram influencers for help. The way this works is that brands pay Instagrammers with large audiences to post photos and write short captions about their products and endorse them.
The focus shifted so quickly from bloggers to Instagrammers that nobody even bothered to spot the difference between them.
3. Blogging vs Instagram – comparison
Required time to build an audience
No matter what you choose to focus on, blog or Instagram, the first step you’ll have to take is to build an audience. You will need an audience who identifies with your photography or stories and who will engage with your content.
I’m not going too much into details about how to build an audience because there are already hundreds of useful blog posts on the internet about this subject. However, what I’m gonna talk about is how long does it actually take to build an engaging audience.
To read about how to build an audience for your blog, click here.
To read about how to build an audience for your Instagram, click here.
The truth is that for both platforms (blog and Instagram) it’s gonna take around 2-3 years to build a substantial audience. It takes a lot of perseverance to make your brand stand out from the crowd. However, there’s one little difference between blogs and Instagram when it comes to building an audience.
If you are willing to use black-hat techniques, you can grow extremely fast on Instagram. Even though it takes a lot of time to grow organically, you can trick the system and pay for giveaways or simply buy followers. These techniques will guarantee you lots of followers in a short period of time.
However, there’s a downside. These followers are not your real audience. They won’t engage with your posts because they are simply not interested in your content, they followed you for the giveaway. Using techniques like these will make it hard for you to prove your value to a potential brand collaboration. Since your audience is not interested in your content, how would it be interested in a product you’re trying to promote?
Blogging is a bit different. There is no way to trick the system and build your audience faster if your content is not good enough. Google has an algorithm which determines how good your articles are according to factors such as: content quality, SEO, links to your blog, etc. No one knows the exact formula of this algorithm so tricking it is impossible.
Bottom line, growing a blog or an Instagram page takes a lot of time if you’re doing it organically. However, you can accelerate your Instagram growth if you are willing to trick the system. Will it be beneficial in the long run? Most probably not.
Required effort
So, how much effort does it actually take to run a blog or an Instagram page?
Running an Instagram page is pretty easy: you find a nice location to shoot your photo, you come up with a pose, take the shot, edit it (check out my presets here) and post it on your Instagram page. You’ll also have to engage with other people’s posts (like and comment them).
According to Instagram, the average user spends 32 minutes per day on Instagram. Add another half an hour to shoot the photo and we can assume that the you’ll spend around one hour per day on Instagram (if you post daily).
Now, let’s see how much time it takes to post a blog post. You’ll need to come up with an idea (what you’re going to write about), structure your thoughts, search for keywords, take photos, edit them, write the article (around 500-1000 words) and publish it. Moreover, you’ll also need to constantly improve your website layout and functionality which is gonna take about another half an hour daily.
Trust me, writing a blog post takes much more than an hour. After about one year of blogging, I need around 5-6 hours to finish a blog post and publish it. Of course, I don’t publish daily. My average is around 4 blog post per week but even so it’s still a lot more effort than running an Instagram page.
The conclusion? Running a blog is definitely more time-consuming.
Required tech skills
Posting on Instagram and managing an account is pretty straight forward. The interface is extremely user friendly and you don’t need any particular tech skills.
Blogging is a bit different. If you want to build a successful blog, SEO is not enough. You will need certain tech/ programming skills to make everything the way you want it to be.
You can definitely build a blog if you are not a tech person but in this case you have 2 options: you compromise (the website won’t look exactly the way you want, your blog will have basic functionalities) or you can pay someone to take care of the tech stuff.
Even though building a blog doesn’t require you to be a programmer, a basic understanding of technical issues is necessary. Instagram on the other hand is much simpler to use.
Income streams
This is my favorite subject. Let’s face it: whether you choose to invest your time in building a blog or an Instagram account, you’re gonna want to make money out of it after some time.
Instagram has one income stream and that is: brand collaborations. Brands reach out to Instagram influencers. Influencers post photos and short captions about those products or services/ experiences and in exchange they get free stuff or money. It’s pretty easy.
When it comes to Instagram, passive income is out of discussion. For every paid gig, you will have to work and provide something in exchange.
Now let’s think about blogs. There are many multiple income streams that you can set up on your blog once you’ve built an audience. Take a few examples: ads, affiliates, sponsored posts, selling your own products (e-books, courses, presets). There are so many ways to make money out of your blog that all you really need is time to implement them.
The biggest advantage of blogs is that you can set up passive income systems. Once you implement ads or affiliates on your blog, the money will keep coming without any effort from your part. It’s that simple.
With the rise of social media, everybody seems to pay attention to Instagram and focus on it without realizing that blogging can bring more money in the long run.
Level of trust
Let’s face it, in today’s world where everybody is in a hurry, social media seems to be the answer since you can scroll through tens of photos in just one minute. However, the social media advertising industry is booming and out of 10 posts, more than half are sponsored.
People are starting to notice that Instagram is not about authenticity anymore but about making money. Instagram influencers accept paid gigs just to increase their income even though they don’t actually use or like the products they are endorsing. And it’s easy to do so since they only have to post a photo with a tag or a short one-phrase caption.
The market is already over-saturated and people are getting smarter about letting themselves ‘influenced’ on Instagram. Therefore, the level of trust on social media platforms is decreasing.
Blogging, on the other side, is different. When a blogger reviews a product or an experience, he has to write many details about it. Writing a blog post that attracts readers should be detailed and useful for the reader. It is much harder to lie or overestimate the quality of a product when you have to write at least 1000 words about it.
Therefore, people tend to trust more the opinions of bloggers than the ones of Instagrammers.
Algorithm control
We are all frustrated a bit about the Instagram algorithm. After the elimination of the chronological feed, it all seems to break into pieces. The engagement is getting lower and lower, it’s harder to attract followers and every growth method I’ve read about on the internet doesn’t seem to work.
The truth is: on Instagram, we are all the algorithm’s slaves. We have no power to influence it and there is no way to change that.
In an ideal world, most of your blog traffic will come from Google (other traffic streams are: social media, referrals, other search engines). Google also has an algorithm according to which it decides which article should appear higher in the search results but this algorithm is pretty easy to understand.
Google’s goal is to answer people’s questions. This means that if your article has good quality, it is written in depth and it has good SEO, chances are you’ll get that sweet Google traffic.
Google’s goal will never change. Google wants to remain the best search engine on the planet. Therefore, it will always show qualitative articles on the front page. Instagram, on the other hand, has shifted its focus from building a community to making money and this should speak for itself.
5. Conclusion
Choosing between blogging and Instagram is a hard decision. Each of them has its ups and downs but in the long run, I would definitely choose to invest my time into blogging. Yes, it takes more time, you need some tech skills but the rewards are higher. You can create multiple income streams, your work doesn’t depend on an algorithm and the level of trust when it comes to sponsored posts is much higher.
Choosing to focus on building a blog shouldn’t mean that you have give otoup on Instagram for good. You can still post on your Instagram and create good content while focusing on your blog.
I hope that this article has helped you decide whether it’s better to start a blog or an Instagram page. Now you know my opinion but the final decision is yours!
May the travel bug bite you!
Aurelia Teslaru is a professional travel blogger and the writer behind Daily Travel Pill. With a 4-year experience as a travel writer and photographer, Aurelia only shares travel guides about destinations that she visited.
She has been to more than 40 countries during the past 10 years and aims to explore 50 countries before turning 30 years old. Aurelia is a digital nomad who transformed her passion for travel into a lifestyle. Read more about her here.
To follow her adventures, check out her Instagram and Facebook pages!
The was very helpful!! Thank you!
I am glad! Which one would you choose – blogging or instagram?
Blogging is definitely better in the long run. This article was really insightful. I think I am going to start a blog soon! 🙂
Yes! Definitely go for blogging!
Thanks so much for the detailed analysis. This article is exactly what I have been thinking about recently. Setting up a blog even on a supposedly simple web based tool is a big commitment. This led me to think in depth about my “why” and whether Instagram would do the trick. Your analysis has helped me see the up and down side of both options.
I am so glad I could help! 🙂
I really appreciate this because I have been debating whether to create a blog for my Instagram for a while. Now that I am serious about developing a spicy food/travel blog, I have wondered whether it was worth combining with my instagram or not. What I think your post has made me realise is that I should spend more time doing my Instagram and creating more of a community with ways to develop my audience and know who I am trying to market.
After I think I will work on my blog. I’m just wondering if having an all food instagram + spicy food/potiental travel blog will work to my favour?
Thanks, I’ll be following you on instagram!
If you are serious about blogging, I would start with the blog. Converting people from Instagram to blog is quite hard but not impossible! I wish you good luck in your blogging journey!
Thank you, made my decision much easier, really appreciate the time you put into writing.
I am setting up a media system for a friend of mine who wants to promote his property, which is really a wildlife sanctuary full of endangered and rare species in South Western Australia.
I will probably change the website to a blog with connected Instagram (to attract traffic).
cheers!
So glad I could help!
This is a very good article, I also wrote on my blog the advantages of owning a blog over social media and there are endless reasons.
Social media is oversaturated especially Instagram with the same content from every user and lack of creativity.
Couldn’t agree more!
If you decide to blog,can it be about one subject??
Hi, Lori. You can blog about absolutely anything. It can be travel, finance, tech, marketing, SEO or any other subject you are passionate about. Good luck in your blogging journey! 🙂
Hi, Thank you for nice article. I just started my own blog just few minutes ago 🙂 It is a great feeling but I really have to learn sooooo much.
Building your blog is a continuous process of learning. Even after all these years, I still learn new things about the blogging world. This is what I love about this job! You never get bored! Good luck with your new blog! I am sure it will be an amazing journey!
I love this thanks, i made the right choice then
Happy to hear this! Good luck!
I would like to add both are very competitive in terms of getting monetization. If a person sole purpose is about money for Blogging or Instagram in under 6 months, I would recommend keeping your day job.
However not to deter anyone, blogging and instagram is great for people that have valuable and unique content to share. Both have great opportunities for people to live out a lifestyle many people only can dream about. As a social media agency owner and former headhunter, ask yourself what skills you have and the mental/work habits system you have in place, who’s your audience, create a content schedule and track progress.
I’ve seen bloggers get consistent traffic, subscribers, and monetization while Instagram can turn random people into social media stars. Everyone good luck with their journey.
This comment was just as insightful as the whole article! Love all this info 💜
Hi! It was very helpful, although I have a question about blogging in Instagram. I guess, instagram is more visual, and people often scroll without stopping to read the caption, so my doubt is if I want to post a text do you think people are going to read? How could I engage people to do so.
Thank you very much!
The only thing you can do is post quality content and hope that people will read the caption. You can also try to share the post on your stories and convince your followers to go read the caption 🙂 Hope this helps.
This was so helpful. I have been doing lots of travel and decided I needed a fun and creative way to: keep my friends and famliy informed of my lication, keep a log of my travels and thoughts, and organize and share a few photos. Now I know I definitely want to do a blog.
Next I just need to figure out where and how to start
I am so glad I could help! You took the best decision! Start registering on wordpress.com and then upload your first blog posts! It will all fall into place after that! Good luck on this blogging journey!
I have tried blogging professionally (fashion) about 7 years ago. It took up all my time, space, mind, mood, everything… It’s exhausting and frustrating… All the things you mention here as ads, affiliates etc – the income they bring isn’t worth it, not one second.
Another thought against blogging – is your audience loyalty. Even after all the years of drama building your audience, it’s not guaranteed your very audience will click the ads you post, or convert into any customers. Affiliates worth the bother are all under .5% commission (of a thing worth 5 bucks!), and conversion rates are 1-2% from your audience at best. And even with all that in mind, not many people tend to stick around particular blogs and follow them religiously. People tend to use blogs whenever they need some particular information. No one needs daily information on running their blog, or travel, or whatever.
My blog (even the domain is now removed) didn’t bring me one penny of income, and I’ve learned from that failure.
Blogs are great for the early adopters, 10+ years ago, Instagram could be the way to go but we don’t know for sure as it’s out of control. But i’m sure the future of influencers is not blogging. Blogging to me is like that suitcase without a handle. You drag it because it’d be a pity to drop it, but truth is – you don’t really need it anymore.
Hi, Tatiana. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and experience! I have started blogging one and a half years ago in a supper competitive niche – travel. It’s true, I am a full time blogger and this is my full time job and I can tell you that after one and a half years, I’m already making a full time income (I earn more than at my previous job in advertising). I’m not saying it’s easy. It’s hard, challenging, and you have to learn a lot of technical stuff. However, I think it’s worth it! I am location independent and I make enough money to live comfortably. Blogging is about patience and perseverance. I only started to see the results of my hard work after one year of working almost daily on the blog. And yes, my income is only from ads and affiliates. 🙂
I think blogging is better than instagram but both are very important as a marketer. Very nice post, Thanks for sharing, appreciate your efforts
I just would like to thank you so very much for taking the time to break down the difference in blog and Instagram…..very helpful i may add. Thank you!
Glad I could help!
Thank you so much for this article ; it means much to me to see people who have walked the path I’m trying to walk now and giving me some encouragement to also do same.
My blog is about to go LIVE!
Debating between using IG as my blog or creating my own website to blog. As of right now, I am using my IG to blog. But, as I work on my “IG blog” I am feeling kind of lost. I know my topic. But, I feel that I am writing too much that I am losing my “audience”. A part of me wants to create my own website and start blogging there instead. What should I do?
Hey. You can’t use Instagram as your blog. Instagram is a social media platform not a blog. I always recommend starting a blog (a website) but you have to keep in mind that it takes a lot of time and effort, comparing to Instagram.
Great tips, I needed to see this.
Thank you, that is a very helpful read.
Very nice article..I am planning to start a blog and the content in your article really made my understanding and my decision easy and stronger Thanks a lot!
I am entering into my third year of blogging and I’ve found/find the technical side so challenging. I am ( at last) starting to see a return on my investment and hard work with a few pennies coming in via affiliates. I do become a little despondent when I see my fellow instagrammers being offered this and that from reputable brands, not sure if they are actually getting paid. I dislike the time Instagram eats into my day, so have cut it right back. The feeling of fulfilment I get from my posts (I do my own photography too) is great – but hard work as you describe . It’s a slow process but I’m beginning to grow a few followers on my blog too. It is a shame that brands don’t use bloggers like they used to – they would get so much more in return.
Hi! I’m a portuguese high-school student (sorry for any writing mistakes) and I created an Instagram food account six months ago. It has 440 followers so far and I’m really proud of it! However, I loooove reading blog posts. I find it to be more organized and you can really understand it all. On Instagram, I always have to keep it simple and concise or I feel like people aren’t going to read it 🙁
Do you think I should create a blog too or just stay with Instagram? This is a big passion of mine, despite the fact that I actually want to persue medicine. Do you think blogging is doable with a post per week? With school and all of that, I don’t have more time. Should I creat it now or wait until I have a bigger audience on Instagram? Thank you!!
Author
Hi. If you think like blogging is the right path for you, the sooner you start it the better. However, growing a blog to a point where it becomes profitable takes a lot of time. It’s a full-time job to really grow a blog but as a side-business or side-passion you can do it part-time. 🙂
Thank you so much. I have been contemplating both platform but have leaned toward blogging. Cant wait to start writing and posting
I’m thinking of leaving Instagram at least for personal posts. I’d rather run a blog for personal stuff.
I just feel like Instagram is so distracting and addicting. Immadiately when you log in you’re bombarded with posts, that won’t happen upon logging into your blog. It feels more personal, less distracting for the brain plus it’s fun to play around with designs.
I so wish blogs could make a massive comeback!
Perfect! Just what I was looking for. I am writing a Blog in German and I must admit it is a ton of work and (so far) my audience is fairly small…I was wondering if Instagram would be a shortcut to a larger audience and your article helped me a lot answering this question. Thanks for that 🙂 Keep up the good work, Herr Zeitreich
Great article. I am just starting to think about having a food blog and this was very helpful.
It is a wonderful article. Now i know that what is the power of writing a blog. I have also a website. After reading your article, i am looking forward to add a blog section to my website. It may be very helpful for me to reach more people around the globe. Thanks for all this!!
This was super helpful. Thanks for the compare and contrast explanation; this was exactly the information I was looking for. I recently started a blog as I work on increasing traffic to my TPT store. It’s slow going and it will be helpful to me to keep in mind the timelines you mentioned–years to really build momentum rather than weeks or even a couple of months.
Hi Aurelia,
Thank you for writing this blog post. I have been on IG for a while, but find it a soulless place where people compete for likes, with mostly inane content (selfies of things that have utterly no story behind them). For this reason I am interested in starting a blog or a vlog, I am not much of a writer, but then I am not great on camera either, but I suppose both take practice.
What do you think of Blogs vs Vlogs, or can you combine both?
I totally agree with you and hence I am focusing more on my blog than IG for long term benefits. Thank you for your post and your validations to blogs!
Very well laid out article with a solid conclusion!
I’ve been feeling the burnout on Instagram over the last few months. It seems unless you post 1-2x/day minimum you’ll barely be seen, even by your followers.
At this point it seems much more worth while to play the long game and just write well written optimized articles. After all, Instagram will probably fall out of favor at some point. A website on the other hand can live on forever with new traffic coming all the time. After all, I’m leaving this comment in 2023. That’s proof enough.
Thanks for the article!
Thank you for your excellent post that helped me make a decision! I choose blogging over Instagram for two reasons. First, I enjoy writing as a journalism major and literature lover. Writing long posts on Instagram simply doesn’t feel the same because I know people are more interested in images than captions on Instagram. Second, blogging has existed longer than Instagram; thus, it caters to a more diverse audience. I enjoy interacting with people of all ages on my blog, while my audience seems to be people around my age on Instagram.
I wonder what others think about my points!