With this monthly episode, we will discuss how blogging is getting affected with Coronavirus spread worldwide. Let’s check the impact and what can we do to reduce the impact.
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Hey Everyone, welcome to yet another episode of Blogging Monthly. This month we will discuss one of the hottest topics running around the world – Coronavirus and its impact on the blogging world.
Until and unless you are living outside of this world, you would have already heard about the Coronvirus which is causing the major disturbance across the world. Blogging world is no exception and we are seeing the impact of the virus on the online sites also.
Coronavirus Impact On Blogging World
Before we start digging in on the impact around Blogging, I would like to mention that across the world governments are trying hard to control the impact and loss of life due to Coronavirus. So, irrespective of where you are, please listen to your local authorities and make sure you are helping them in defeating the virus.
So whats happening at my place?
We are at complete lockdown and can’t go outside of our home for anything other than shopping for essentials (only one person per house is allowed to go out for shopping.). It’s already been 14 days and we have to go another 15 days more in the same mode before we can make a final assessment. I am following the directive given by the government and local authorities and trying to remain safe.
So I would request each and everyone to do their bit in this fight as we have to come out as a winner while saving our loved ones.
Coronavirus Impact On Blogging
Now how does this is impacting the blogging community? Lets talk about that.
Lets first understand the search trends of Coronavirus. As per the trends shown in Google trends, Coronavirus was most searched last month. Which is true giving its expansion in countries like the United States, UK, and India. The search interest is substantially high giving almost no searches before the last few months.
So people are searching for the Coronavirus and search interest is peaking. How it will behave in the next few months will depend on how better we will be able to handle the outbreak.
Though if you think you have good information or any idea which can help in stopping the virus, you can handle this search term as a seasonal keyword. Don’t expect it to last longer than the virus, there may be small ongoing interest afterwords.
What About Other Niches?
From the looks of it, Coronavirus is impacting the blogging community like seasonal trends for now. Depending on which niche and geography you are targeting, results are mixed.
For example, niches like Travel, Tourism, and Hotels are badly hit. Travel across the world is reduced so that the earning from that niche. Most of the sites around that niche have also reported reduced traffic.
The e-commerce based sites or affiliate marketing blogs for e-commerce sites are impacted based on the geography you are targeting. Though sales are down at most of the places, there are few countries where only sales of the essential items are allowed.
For Example, in India, Amazon or any other e-commerce sites can’t ship any item other than essential things. So most of them have stopped taking orders and also stopped their affiliate programs. This will reduce the affiliate earnings for the webmasters.
It’s a different situation in US-based e-commerce sites. People are ordering more and more things online and we are seeing an increase in sales (for certain niches).
So is anyone doing better in this time?
We have a guide on the setup of the home office desk on one of the other blogs which list some of the essential products you need. The guide has suddenly started getting a lot of traffic, looks like many people are looking to set up home offices at this time.
Let’s check at some of the Google trends for Work from home keywords. The trends are falling into similar lines as Coronavirus. We see a good amount of increase in the search around this keyword which means more and more people are looking to work from home.
We are also seeing an increase in posts like Best Monitors for iPad or MacBook, which also falls in similar lines as the earlier mentioned post. You can see similar trends for search terms like Home Office etc which explain the increase in traffic for this post.
The other example I have is from the gaming niche. Our list of best Apple TV games is getting increased traffic. The post was ranking before also but we see a growth in terms of traffic. This means people are also looking for entertainment stuff inside the home.
We also see a decline in the post related to outdoor activities, which collaborates with the earlier assumption. People are preferring to stay at home and not looking for outdoor activities.
So overall we are seeing a mixed result which can impact traffic or revenue. The impact depends on the niche and geography.
What can we do now?
So if your site is impacted with the Coronavirus effect what should you do?
We do not suggest taking any impact (positive or negative) granted. As I have mentioned earlier, this should be seasonal trends and will keep changing according to how Coronavirus spread will happen.
You should keep working on your sites, even if traffic or earning is dropped. This is a good time to take a breath and figure out what things you are holding off for some time. Get them done, spend some time doing technical SEO for the site, see if you can spend some time on the outreach efforts. Another good way to revisit the old posts and see if you can update the existing content.
What am I doing? I am trying to spend this time to create a community around AWS LightSail. This is something that I have been holding on for some time.
I have many people who have joined this blog for the specific tutorials of AWS LightSail. They would love a platform to discuss and help each other. I am already seeing the increased traffic on this blog which might be due to many people sitting at home and browsing. Or maybe many people are looking for alternate ways to create an income stream.
The second thing which I want to do at this time is creating videos for MetaBlogue YouTube Channel. The channel was created some time back but I never got the time to create videos or promote the channel.
So keep doing hard work and make sure you utilise this time properly. Many of us are staying at home with no travel time, no social gatherings so let’s use that time to improve our blogs.
Stay Home, Stay Safe!
WordPress 5.4 Release
In the last episode, we have talked about the imminent release of WordPress 5.4 (Adderley). It is available to the public on March 31st and you can update your site from the dashboards.
Many of the WordPress plugins are also updated to take advantage of the latest changes. So go ahead and update the WordPress, Plugins, and Themes to the latest versions.
WordPress 5.4 brings a lot of improvements including new blocks in Gutenberg Editor. If you want to know about it in detail, you can listen to our last episode on WordPress 5.4 Update.
Though the process was simple I have lost all of my reusable blocks in this update. I have to recreate those blocks and update the existing posts. I would suggest exporting the reusable blocks in case you are using them. So that if you face a similar situation, you can easily import them back.
Is there something else you would like to listen about or like us to cover as part of this Blogging Monthly series, please write to bm.feedback@metablogue.com. If you have any tips for the news around blogging, you can send it to us on bm.tips@metablogue.com. You can always follow us on Twitter or Facebook for the latest updates.
