Which one do you think is better, a blog or a vlog? In reality, it comes down to who you’re trying to target with certain information. For instance, a gaming channel YouTube usually draws a much better audience than a gaming blog. But which is better for you?
In 2025, I am comparing a writing blog to a writing channel to see which one is the easiest to maintain, which has the stronger audience, and which draws the most AdSense revenue.
As both the site and the channel have similar, if not nearly identical content, it’s a good one-to-one comparison.
The Premise of the Case Study
Overall, I was curious to see which would perform better and provide the greatest return on the investment of time. It roughly takes the same amount of time to write a blog post as it does for me to create a YouTube video, give or take 10 minutes or so.
So, what kinds of things am I comparing in this experiment? For the most part, I’m focusing on month-to-month growth. This means comparing the current month’s data to that of the previous period.
Content vs Content
Perhaps the hardest part of the case study is providing the same rate of content for the blog as well as the vlog. And although I am trying to juggle everything all at once, sometimes one of the balls is dropped.
The biggest difference is the YouTube channel uses both VoD and live-stream content as opposed to simple blog posts. What I’m mostly interested in is how much consistent publishing impacts either platform.
Visits vs Views
The number of visits for a blog post is essentially the same metric as views on YouTube. It’s how often the content is consumed by the audience. I could go a step further and keep track of the time-on-page vs watch time, but there are too many variables that affect blogs that can skew the results.
Impressions vs Impressions
Both the Search Console (Google) and YouTube use impressions. This is a tally of how many times the content is shown. A lot of this has to do with SEO for both blog and vlog. It all comes down to how well the topic is covered for every piece of content.
If no one is looking for it, it’s not going to be seen on a search result page.
AdSense vs AdSense
AdSense for the blog is much different than AdSense for YouTube. Both use the “AdSense” network but deliver separate styles of ads. For one thing, ads on YouTube center around video content. As such, they are more expensive than ads on a blog. This translates to a higher total revenue going to YouTube creators than bloggers.
In this experiment, the idea is to see which grows the fastest from one month to another and which has the highest RPM potential for the content.
The Results Thus Far…
Each month, I’ll have an update post listed below breaking down the growth of the blog and YouTube channel. At the beginning of 2026, I’ll post the final results and what the data shows.
The Data
Monthly Updates
Blog vs Vlog: January 2025 – Not Quite What I Expected
Blog vs Vlog: February 2025 – Lack of Effort and Algorithm Changes
Why Not Manage Both?
There’s nothing wrong with managing both a regular blog and vlog. That is as long as you have adequate time to put into both platforms to ensure their success.
Keep in mind that dividing your attention comes at a cost. And if you spread yourself too thin, that cost could be the overall quality of the content.
Doubling Your Audience & Income
Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of managing a blog and a vlog is that you’re doubling your audience. Although you might get a few viewers and readers who will follow content on both platforms, the vast majority of both audience types will stick to their medium of choice.
This lets you connect with viewers and readers using the same content. The end result means more followers or subscribers and more money.
Doubling Your Workload
The drawback to managing both platforms is that it could double the workload. Even if you repurpose blog content to make a video, you still have to record, edit, and publish it on YouTube. All of that takes a bit of time.
Considering how video content seems to have a higher rate of pay for AdSense, though, it’s more the worth the effort.
Do You Prefer to Blog or Vlog?
I am foremost a writer. Meaning that I am happiest at my keyboard and would prefer to write over anything else. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy making YouTube videos. But if I absolutely had to pick one, it would most likely be blogging.
Yes, YouTube has a higher income per one thousand views than a blog. However, I still prefer writing.
In the grand scheme of things, though, I don’t have to worry about picking one over the other. I enjoy doing both and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.