I have been blogging (Habby) since 2008, from 2011 to 2018 there was “mein-auto-blog.de”, since 2016 there has been AUTOHUB.de and since April 2018 mein-auto-blog.de and AUTOHUB.de are now a joint one Page. There are currently over 8.700 articles on autohub.de, and new articles are added every day. On Facebook I was asked why 90% of the articles “copy & paste” were articles from auto, motor und sport. I would like to answer that. Since the answer is actually easy, but not brief, now this blog article on our own behalf.
mein-auto-blog.de - Because cars are simply fun.
When I started blogging it was a hobby. At some point it was a full-time job. As such, funding for the blog had to be raised. And there was only one yardstick for that, the range. It used to be easy for google: more articles, more reach. But even as a self-employed person, the day only has 24 hours, there are 7 days a week, so you can't change anything. In order to increase the number of articles, despite increasing deadlines, an article is usually created on the basis of a test, i.e. a driving event or a test car - co-authors were added. In order to increase the rate even more, there were articles from an agency 4 years ago. In the German press landscape, that's pretty simple. There are many authors, freelance journalists, a few agencies and very few large editorial offices. In the automotive world, two agencies for auto journalism have established themselves in DE; SP-X (Spotpress) and MID (engine information service). The editorial team can buy content from both agencies. Anyone who reads carefully in daily newspapers will find the abbreviations sp-x or mid very often in the columns of the automobile sections of the respective paper. That has simple advantages for everyone. One editor, one appointment, but 10 editorial offices have content and, even more important, the editorial offices have content without having been on site for the appointment. Anyone who wants to learn more about it is also there this article to the heart placed.
At the beginning it was clear to me: MY CONTENT, my WEBSITE - mein-auto-blog.de - until the reach stagnated at some point because too little content was added. Google is merciless. So we were already buying content from SP-X at that time. These were always clearly marked. “Third-party content” has never been published as “own”. And we grew. mein-auto.blog.de has been the largest automotive blog in DE for years. But what does that mean?
autohub.de - Because nobody reads anymore.
Already in mid-2016 it was noticed that the number of visitors was no longer increasing. And, for me as an author, as a person who went to his articles with love and passion - I was never a real journalist, I had to work properly for my articles - it was even more sobering to see that 90% of the readers make no difference whether it was an article from me or a news item from an agency. Of course, I only felt the criticism for possible errors in the texts. But it was clear to me by then at the latest; If I want to continue indulging in my passion, then I have to produce VIDEOS. I deliberately do not say that I would do YouTube - I'm far too old to be a YouTuber - no, I wanted what I did on “mein-auto-blog.de” to live out passion, get a clear opinion, complex things explain, also do in the moving picture.
But there was again the problem with the 24 hours per day and only 7 days per week.
With the start of the YouTube channel in March 2017, I was also able to win over the “motor presse”, the publishing house of “auto, motor und sport”, to provide our site with news. Only with news. Because for me it was also clear; The topics that I experience myself, the cars that I drive, continue to come from me. Therefore, the “ams NEWS” have become part of the offer on autohub.de via the import function. I am aware that there is more news every day than driving reports, videos or tests - but I think it is just an additional offer for the reader.
Nobody has to read the news - and of course you can also read the news directly on “auto, motor und sport”, but then without Habby tests and rarely with Habby videos.
An alternative would be to let AUTOHUB.de slowly die despite the more than 4000 articles I have written. No content, no google results. No google results, no clicks. No more clicks, no more advertising money. I think with the news from “auto-motor-und-sport.de” we have the better solution. Or?