I have found so many bloggers asking whether entertainment blogs are profitable or not, most of them are university students or jobless graduates who are aiming to become bloggers. My answer has always been yes but with some explanation. However, I give them alternatives when they aren’t for entertainment blogs.
I am the owner of Venas News, one of the most popular sites in Kenya. I started the blog in 2014 and the main content at that time was entertainment. The blog became so popular that even overtook Tuko, Mpasho, Ghafla and other viral websites in Kenya, but I wasn’t satisfied on one thing, income. I received up to 10 million page views per month yet my income from AdSense was always below Ksh600,000. Slowly, I shifted to Career and Business news content, traffic reduced to about 6 million per month but I gained more sponsored posts, direct adverts and income from AdSense. The CPC for the keywords for business and career adverts were higher than those of entertainment.
The experience I got after three years taught me how to go about the issues related to blogging and niche sites. I discovered that though entertainment sites attract the most amount of traffic, the income is low. As a blogger, you may be excited to see millions of people visiting your site but at the end of the day, what should matter is the income.
One disadvantage entertainment blogs have is that they are prone to AdSense banning. The most popular entertainment sites in Kenya have been banned by AdSense, they are: Ghafla, Daily Post and Mpasho.AdSense is almost everything for entertainment sites, when the account is disabled, the blogs are forced to close down or look for other sources of income. But the worrying part is that not many companies in Kenya would be willing to advertise on entertainment sites because they don’t bring value for money.
If you are planning to start an entertainment site, here is the income you’d expect from AdSense against traffic:
20,000 page views per month—Ksh 2,000
50,000 page views per month—Ksh 4,0000
100,000 page views per month—Ksh 7,000
200,000 page views per month—Ksh 13,000
300,000 page views per month—Ksh25,000
500,000 page views per month—Ksh45,000
1 million page views per month—Ksh 80,000
The blog may not attract direct adverts and sponsored content, but if you position yourself well like Tuko and Ghafla, you’ll get adverts from agencies like Scanad Kenya.
Summarily, instead of starting an entertainment site, go for niches like business, career, agriculture, mortgage and sports. The traffic may not be much but the money you will make is more than what you can get from an entertainment site.
