My insight into Blogging, SEO, Ad Networks, and AI Emergence – by Micheal Ace

I’ve seen a lot of posts here debating the possibility of SEO dying due to the emergence of AI.

I mean, Google has now launched Gemini. The same way Microsoft launched Copilot.

While I know, nothing catches Nigerians off guard. Update is always up-to-date here (in Layi’s voice), I think it’s high time we all go from Blogging to Digital Publishing.

I don’t answer the name Blogger any more. I am a digital publisher, and that’s evident in what I’ve been able to build over time. You can read more on My Journey as a Blogger and Digital Publisher.

The screenshot below shows what I was able to do in 2023 from direct ad placements and guest postings on one of my blogs.

This record doesn’t include income from AdSense ads. It’s just what I was able to do organically from one of the blogs.

The particular blog in question is still on its way to becoming a platform that wouldn’t need ad networks to survive.

I mean, from this same blogging, I have been able to grow a platform from an ordinary blog to an e-learning academy where I have currently done 5,000+ enrolments.

Also, I have been able to turn my literary blog into a digital book publishing site, with 7 figures made in 2023.

I didn’t wake up one day and decided to build a business from my blogs, though. It started after my first ever Google update hit in 2022 which almost crippled me.

Since then, I have vowed to sustain my brand and her several blogs through a local market instead of these ad networks with their inconsistencies and uncertainties.

Same with traffic as well. I bank my traffic, retain them and treat them as customers. SEO or not, I’m fine. That’s the goal.

If you are a budding blogger reading this, please start doing strategic thinking on how to turn your blog into a brand with a local market.

Start looking for an existence outside of SEO, and outside of Ad Networks, and even outside of search engines as a whole.

Even if the search engines and SEO will die, it won’t be in a decade, so make all the money you can from it and start thinking outside the box.

Never say never.