Where should bloggers / creators pivot if ad traffic drops (due to LLMs)?
I’ve been wondering about this a lot lately.... If LLMs keep pulling from blogs, news platforms (and obviously other content sources) -> this results in ad revenue keeps shrinking for most folks reliant on this source of income -> what is the pivot for these creators?
My wife runs a food blog that’s heavily ad traffic based. Right now her niche (make based content seems to be some of the safest on the internet.. likely way worse for someone with an information based blog) hasn’t been hit too hard, but it feels like something that could change quickly.
That’s got us thinking about what a pivot could look like.
Is the shift toward more curated paid content / courses / memberships? Or is it more about leaning into community models like Patreon and building a one to many setup where the audience funds the work directly?
Personally - I lean toward the paid access / Patreon / membership (monthly fee for access and if you're drastically affected - move your content behind paywalls so the LLMs can't access) - packaging content in ways people are willing to pay for.
But I’m curious what others are seeing or planning. If you run a blog / work in SEO / are in some way working in tandem with Ad rev / Google ads / work with ad networks etc - curious to hear your insight.
Replies
My reckoning is that closed communities will be the way (+ as there are many synthetic answers from AI and bots), people want, at a certain point, authenticity, imperfection of humankind – but this is more likely for strong communities.
@busmark_w_nika Do you see this as like a FB group / Skool / Circle or more along the lines of a membership community where you can have access to a whole bunch of gated content?
@dzaitzow more like a membership community but more interactive with people, recently have become a part of some Discord communities or Substack communities and enjoy it more. :)
Scade.pro
I’m exploring the same question right now, but more from the perspective of personal brand vs. product content. For myself, I lean toward platforms where sharing knowledge can be directly supported, through small donations, paid guides, or subscriptions. And at the same time, I still want to share some insights openly on PH or LinkedIn because visibility and trust are just as important.
With products, though, my strategy is different. I work with several IT and AI startups, mostly b2b, and we publish in the open. What works for us is writing long-form guides or research and then using them as lead magnets. A portion of the guide is shared publicly, with a link to the full version. That way the content attracts warmer leads, people already curious and open to real communication.
do you see your wife’s blog more as a personal brand project or as a product in itself?
@nastassia_k Really interesting - never thought of small donations / paid guides (not entirely applicable) but theres got to be a variation of that that might be.
I don't really see it as a personal brand project or a product itself. It is in fact more of a "personal brand" project but the majority of rev comes directly through Google searches for .. "Kale Almond Salad" or whatever key words she has targeted (similar strategy for any blog that relies upon ad traffic I'd assume) - she gets good engagement from her mailing list / Pintrest has fallen off a cliff in recent years - and then a few other sources (IG etc) - so I do wonder continually - what leveraging the engaged mailing list would be into a more niche community.
On the product front thats are a really interesting LM strategy - long form content that is partially gated - do you have it gated by pay walls / or simply leads (emails) to get the full guides / articles etc?
Curious if you'd be able to share more about how you've implemented that / the outcomes? ex how you're creating that compelling content and does it feel "worth it" to allocate so much time towards something that may not yield the results you'd want.
Thanks for the reply! Super interesting.
The pivot content creators may have to make is likely towards a multi-platform model. I obviously haven't read your wife's food blog but her experience making food is her product, not the blog itself. If she can transfer that experience to YouTube or Twitch (and bring some of her audience with her), she'll have second source of income.
And please tell your wife not to put all of her content behind a paywall: she'll always have a need to attract new readers/viewers to replace those who churn.
Yeah I feel that, ads feel shakier by the day, and with LLMs scraping everything it’s only getting tougher. I’m building a trading & investing education app and we’re already steering toward community + direct value (still experimenting though), since relying on traffic feels like a dead end.
Feels like the pivot is moving from “content for clicks” to “content people will actually pay to belong to”, emphasis on belong to.