IS BLOGGING STILL RELEVANT IN SA AND AFRICA AS A WHOLE? DO PEOPLE/AUDIENCES STILL CARE ABOUT BLOGS?

Blogging is one the most fun and creative exercises that many of us globally have and still use as our very own personal creative spaces to pour out our creativity and express opinion on subjects we feel strongly about and that are close to our hearts. Even with the emergence of video blogging as we have seen in the last couple of years with the popularity of instagram, you tube and now tick tock, the long-text (long-form) art of expression instead of loosing relevance, runs alongside these emerging short video formats. Why?

…Because the need for detail and razor sharp thought processes on any subject and analysis will always exist and plus, blogging is a great and effective marketing tool and who can dispute that when statistical evidence of that is available everywhere from the net to published print sources.

In our continued search to collaborate and feature other bloggers both locally and internationally, TZA was fortunate to have Valery Nangula of valerynangula.com a young, gorgeous, vibrant and honest African and South African writer (blogger) write a piece for us to answer the question 'Is Blogging Still Relevant?' and this is what she had to say:

“I have been blogging on and off since 2012… and I can tell you that through my eyes, the blogger sphere has grown quite a lot. And at a really fast pace. This however doesn’t necessarily mean that this is due to audience demand, but it also does not mean it isn’t.

Blogging is reported to have started in the late ‘90s and became popular/ mainstream during the mid-2000s (don’t quote me on that). Writing is an important form of communicating, and blogging is basically sharing your writing on whatever topic with anyone through the worldwide web. And although the current hype seems to be around the video format of blogging, otherwise known as vlogging, blogging is still seen as something worth your while.

As a blogger whose audience is predominantly African (mostly from the Southern-African region, as per my blog stats), I definitely think blogging is still relevant in South Africa and Africa as a whole. As much as many creatives use video formats to share content, writing will never go out of style. I’ve seen my blog grow in the last year, both in terms of viewership and subscribers (even being asked to collaborate or guest blog), especially from fellow African bloggers. I know that there are people starting blogs every day, and maybe that’s another reason why I’m adamant that blogging is still relevant. There are some African or Africa-based bloggers that I’ve been following since I started this blogging journey, who are quite literally still making a living off their blogs, just as much as I’ve seen newer bloggers doing the same.

Blogging is not necessarily new around Africa, but it definitely hasn’t been around for as long as it has been in the West. And it has only become mainstream during the 2010’s, so we as Africans are definitely still finding our feet when it comes to blogging. African brands, creators and business have definitely taken a notice to blogs with different focuses, and that has led to the rest of the world taking notice too.

Audiences still care for those who choose to express themselves through writing and pictures on their blogs. As stated above, bloggers communities are growing every day (my own included).  For bloggers who do blogging as a hobby, I doubt it will ever go out of style. It might become an issue if some creators get into blogging for the sole purpose of becoming popular and turning into a source of income, because if things don’t go as planned, they tend to say blogging isn’t relevant anymore.

So if you want to start that blog, do it. Especially if you’re passionate about it.

Nothing done with passion will ever lose its relevance.

Thanks for reading.”

Piece by: Valery Nangula
Blog: valerynangula.com 
Instagram: @val_nangula
Twitter: @val_nangula

Valery Nangula (TZA August 2021 Guest Blogger)

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XX

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est 2016/08/09

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