Blogging in 2026 & Beyond with Alison Ver Halen

Episode Transcript
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Janice Hostager (00:04):
I'm Janice Hostager.
After three decades in themarketing business and many
years of being an entrepreneur,I've learned a thing or two
about marketing.
Join me as we talk aboutmarketing, small business, and
life in between.
Welcome to My Weekly Marketing.
These days, there are a lot oftypes of content out there.

(00:31):
You can spend time making shortor long-form videos or making a
podcast like this one.
So the question you might askis this Is blogging still
relevant as we go into 2026?
I know for many of us, itseemed so 1990, right?
Well, you're in the right placeif you're wondering about this,

(00:52):
because today we're talkingabout the future of blogging
with content writer AlisonVer Halen.
We're breaking down what'sworking in 2026, how to stand
out in a world full of AIcontent, spoiler by not letting
AI write it for you, and how toturn your blog into a visibility
engine that works even whenyou're off living your life.
So grab your coffee and let'smake blogging feel doable.

(01:14):
And dare I say, kind of funagain.
Here's my conversation withAlison.
Hey Alison, welcome to MyWeekly Marketing.

Alison Ver Halen (01:22):
Thank you so much for having me.

So let's start with the big question that I
have.
Is blogging still worth itgoing into 2026?
Or has AI kind of taken over?

Yeah, well, uh AI is scraping information from
blog.
So yes, it is important fortraditional SEO, it is important
for the chat bot.
It is also important for thereal live humans to find their
way to your website.
Now it's all about getting thechat bot mention your brand

(01:56):
before they really startlooking.
And the only way to do that isto have that informational
content for the earlier stagesof the buyer journey, that
capitalist one-old information.
So that when people aresearching, what is this
industry?
Or do I need to worry aboutXYZ?
The A, they'll get thatinformation from the chat bots

(02:17):
and the chat bots will hopefullyactually mention your brand and
say, yes, we got it from thiswebsite.
Um it's also good for the reallife people who find who
actually find their way to yourwebsite.
I think the biggest way that ithas impacted my business, not
only from the SEO perspective,but also if someone makes a
referral for me and thatfinancial client wants to know

(02:38):
more about me before we hop on acall, they're gonna go to my
website and they're gonna readsome of my blogs and they're
gonna make sure I actually knowwhat I'm talking about before we
ever even have a conversation.
So yeah.

Yeah, yeah.
Certainly must be changed alittle bit, right?
Because I know I've had expertson here that talk about, is it
AEO or-

All of that.

Yes.
And of cours there'straditional SEO too, but the
implementation of any kind ofAI, it's gonna be reading all
the same things, right?
So how do you stand out amongstall of that?

Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So first of all, the reasonthat drives me nuts, the new
terminology, is because SEO juststands for search engine
optimization.
And just because the searchengine is changing does not mean
it's not still search engineoptimization.
It's just that now it's alittle bit of a different search
engine.
First of all, Google does stillown more than 80% of online

(03:39):
search.
So there's this idea thatGoogle is dead or Google is
dying.
It's just not true.
Whether or not Google willstill be around in a few years
is you I'm not gonna make anypredictions either way.
But at the end of the day, itis still SEO with and without
Google.
I do the one new one I like isAEO, which stands for Answer
Engine Optimization, which thatmakes more sense to me because

(04:02):
the way that AI is changing howpeople look for information,
it's also changing the fact thatpeople, you know, they're not
looking for a website anymore.
They're not looking for a link,they're looking for an answer.
Um, and now they can not onlyget that answer without clicking
through to a website, butthey're interacting with that,
that answer.
Sometimes they're gonna get ananswer from ChatGPT or Claude or

(04:24):
whatever, and they're gonnadive a little bit deeper and ask
it more questions.
Say, well, what about such andsuch?
And what about this?
And that is how they are divingdeeper into the content.
So if anything, I think havingthat long, in-depth content that
really dives deep into a topicis more important than ever
because that's how people areinteracting.

(04:45):
And again, if a chatbot can getall that information from your
website, then it's gonna proveto them that you're a really
valuable resource that they canuse to provide those answers to
their clients.
So yeah, it is changing.
There is also a certain amountof, yeah, what's old is new
again.
There's still a lot of yougot to create the high quality
content, you got to answerquestions people are asking.

(05:06):
You have to know your idealaudience and the language that
they're using.
Because AI adapts to that.
The more you use a chatbot, themore it's gonna talk like you
talk to it.
Um, so if you are using thatlanguage in your content, the
chatbot will figure that out andand start using you as a
reference.

Right.
Right.
And that's pretty exciting,actually, when you're not only
seen as somebody who has awebsite, but you're also now
seen as an industry expert whenyou your content starts being
used by AI.
And of course, measuring thatis a whole different
conversation.
Yes.
Um, and and people are juststarting to get into that a
little more.
So do you feel like now a lotof times people will blog and

(05:52):
then they'll do social media.
Do you feel like blogging haschanged in priority?
I mean, social media is gettingharder and harder with changes
to the algorithm.
Do you feel like blogging hasbecome more important or not, or
feel like it's still the idealvisibility channel in 20 or
going into 2026?

Yeah, so where I come from at this is because
I saw years and years ago thefirst time Facebook really
changed their algorithm and madeit a lot harder for people to
get in front of the audiencethey've been building for years,
and suddenly they couldn't getin front of them without paying.
People literally lost theirbusinesses overnight.

(06:32):
So I, that has always verystrongly stuck with me.
So I am always very muchfocused on blogging, focus on
your website, build thatfoundation first because that is
the only content on theinternet that you own that no
one else can mess with.
No one else can just flip aswitch and yank that away.
So that is why I always focuson creating content for your

(06:54):
website first and foremost.
And again, from an SEOperspective, everything should
lead back to your website.
But not to say you should notbuild an audience on social
media.
There is absolutely value inbuilding that audience,
increasing your visibility, andalso engaging with the people
who are already familiar withyou and have gotten to know you.
Make sure that you continueengaging with them and building

(07:14):
that relationship and stayingtop of mind.

100%.
100%.
So what I see clients startingto do is go to AI and start
generating content for theirblogs, which I cringe at a
little bit, but they're gonna doit.
I know they're gonna do itbecause it's easier.
And sometimes people say, I'mjust not a good writer.
It writes really well.

(07:38):
But of course, it's generatingit from existing content, right?
So how do you write somethingthat's really gonna stand out
and really number one, make youa thought leader, assuming
that's what you want to be?
And number two, how do you makesure that it doesn't sound like
it does set you apart, sospeak, from anything that's

(08:01):
written by AI?

Yeah.
So first of all, yeah, I hatethe term AI generated because AI
doesn't generate anything.
It repurposes content thathumans have created and it just
regurgitates for you and says,here, is this what you want?
And yeah, the problem with thatis it sounds really vanilla.
It sounds like the everyoneelse has already said,
absolutely do not use ChatGPT orany of the other box as a as

(08:25):
like a keyword tool, which I'vealso heard of people doing.
It's like, oh, I'll ask it, youknow, what I should write
about.
No, it's gonna tell you whateveryone else is already
writing, and then you're justmore white noise.
So the way to get around that,if you are using it for your own
to create content, um, A have areally good idea of your brand
voice.
So I played around with thiswith Claude, that's my favorite

(08:48):
AI tool, where I recorded myselftalking about a topic and used
AI to transcribe it, dump thetranscription into Claude and
said turn this into a blog postfor me.
And it still didn't sound likeme.
It still sounded super generic.
And I was like, really?
So to get around that, first ofall, I love that tactic of

(09:08):
taking the content that you thatcomes straight out of your
brain, right?
Don't rely on it for ideas.
It can help a little bit withidea generation, but I love
using it as a brain dunk.
Just I know I want to talkabout this, but I don't quite
know how to say it.
But make sure you have yourunique perspectives and your
personal experience included inthere because that's how you're

(09:32):
gonna stand out.
And that's how you're gonna setyourself up as a thought
leader.
So make sure that's alwaysincluded.
And then make sure you have areally clear idea of what your
brand voice is.
Um, my problem that I ran intowith Claude is probably that I
had not trained Claude properlyon my voice.
Um, and there are ways to dothat.
You can dump brand voiceguidelines in there if you have

(09:54):
them.
If you don't have them, yeah,dump a bunch of content in there
that you wrote and say, This ismy voice from now on when I
want you to create contentcreated in this voice.
Um, you can also just even whendumping that audio file in
there, say you write me a bluntpost, make sure it's consistent
with this voice in this song.

Right.
Yeah, that's what I did.
Uploaded a whole bunch of stuffthat I had written over several
years, actually.
And it did it, you're butyou're right.
It doesn't not quite right.
It's still up to it.
Yeah.
It always requires editing.
So right.
And then you always want toinclude personal stories, right?
That really helps people get toknow you as an individual as

(10:34):
well as just you as a workerbee, right?

Yeah, and that's always good content.
I mean, for social media, forvideo, for blog, you always want
that story element in therebecause people relate to
stories, we engage with stories,and we remember stories more
than we remember the facts andfigures and statistics.

Yeah, there's a saying in marketing, facts
tell, stories sell.
And I just I always bring thatback to clients.
Yeah, because a lot of timesclients are focused on the
facts, which are important too.
There are different types ofbuyers too that will just look
at they want to hear the see thefacts, or other people that
just want to hear the story.
You gotta include both forsure.
So, how often should we beblogging?

(11:16):
Like for a long time it waslike try and write a blog every
week, or some people wrote ablog every day for a while.
Is it adequate to write onejust once a month, or is it
often as you can make it happen?
Or what do you what are yourviews on that?

Oh, I I would really say twice a month is a
minimum.
I think you can get away withonce a month if you're
intentional about it.
And again, you are using thatyou're at social media and your
newsletter and everything.
Um, but I really recommendtwice a month.
That is what we see.
Twice a month if you'reinvesting in that really long,
in-depth content that Googleloves, that gets really great

(11:51):
results.
And then re-purpose it, make itinto a video, make it into a
podcast, break it up and thendisseminate it on social media,
share it in your newsletter.
A lot of people get reallyoverwhelmed just I have to blog
a number of times.
How am I gonna do that?
And create all this othercontent.
You don't have to reinvent thewheel.
You can say this is our topicfor the next two weeks, and then

(12:11):
break it up and disseminate it.
So yeah, every other week, ifyou're you're really intentional
about it and you're creatingthat long index content, you can
still get really good resultsfrom it.

Now, what if they are producing other
content?
Let's say they're doing a videoevery week or podcast every
week, like I am.
Is it still necessary to createa blog on top of that?

I've been thinking about this with my own
because I was thinking to bestarting a podcast, and I'm
like, I don't know how much ofthis is realistic.
Um I do think certain value inswitching off between a podcast
and the blog, because you canturn that podcast episode into a
blog.
I have the people transcribeit, and like I said, you can
dump it in the AI.
Or you can just publish thetranscription, especially if

(12:54):
it's like this, where you'reinterviewing someone.
We um maybe clean up thetranscription a little bit, but
people will read it and againthe bot loves it.
It gives some content, it'sgreat.

Even a PDF?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.
That's and that's what I haveon mine as well.
I and I find myself if I see aninteresting blog topic or I
start listening to one, I don'tI'm sorry, podcast topic.
I start listening to one anddon't have time to finish it, I
will run for the transcript tosee, just kind of skim it and
get the parts I really want tohear out of it.
So Exactly.

Yeah, I and I know I'm a reader, so I'm
biased.
But yeah, I know I can readmuch more quickly, and that like
you said, you can skim it andget to the juicy parts and get
on with your day.

Yeah.
So what metrics are you reallylooking at?
You're looking at, I wouldimagine, page views, right?
Or blogs.
Yep.
And do you include I used toput in a lot of content
upgrades, like little extrasthat if they are interested in
the article and interest in thetopic, then they'd get a free
lead magnet or something likethat.
That although I will say that Iwould say things like that are

(14:00):
less in demand now that peoplehave access to AI because you
don't need a checklist when youdon't want it to fingertip kind
of thing.

Yeah, well, we just have to rethink what our
lead magnet is.
How can we how can we continueto provide value in a way that's
unique?
And yeah, I've been goingthrough that myself because my
lead magnet is also a checklistand that needs to be rethought.
Yeah, so absolutely a page viewfor sure, traffic.
Where the traffic is comingfrom, because we are seeing more

(14:30):
people getting traffic fromChatGPT, which is interesting.
Um and also how long are theystaying on the page?
If your bounce rate is reallyhigh, that's a problem.
So if they're staying stickingaround and really engaging with
the content, that we love.
And then yeah, have a way tocapture it, have a way to get
their email, or to follow you onsocial media or sign up for
your webinar or whatever makessense as that next step in the

(14:54):
buyer journey.
That's all of the stuff that Ilook at.
It's also, I mean, the thingabout content marketing is it
can be such a long game.
I know for myself, I've hadclients where they run into me
at an event or they hear mespeak or they attend one of my
webinars, and then they justhang out on my newsletter for
six months and then call me outof the blue and they're ready to
hire me because they've gottenall that content for me from me

(15:18):
week after week for month.
And that not only helped mestay top of mind, but it
nurtured them as the lead and iteducated them.
So by the time we got on thatcall, we didn't we didn't have I
didn't have to go through allof the here's why I'm worth what
I'm worth.
I didn't have to try andconvince them.
My content had already done allof that.
So that is a success story.

(15:40):
And that's kind of hard tomeasure because that's the kind
of thing you find on a failedcall.
That is the I think the bestindication of the value of what
I do.

Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's powerful, right?
When people already know andtrust you, right?
Yeah.
Um so how did you get intoblogging?
Just I didn't really hear yourstory.
I guess I didn't ask you at thebeginning of the interview.
So, like, how did you get intoall this?

Yeah, I completely fell into it.
So I did in college major inEnglish and psychology, which
turned out to be the perfectdegree for what I'm doing.
Little did I know.
Uh, had no idea what contentmarketing was.
I thought I wanted to work inpublishing.
And the misfortune or thefortune, depending on how you
look at it, to graduate in 09,right after the job market
crash.
So there were no jobs to be hadin publishing or really

(16:28):
anywhere else.
So I answered phone for a fewyears, found myself between jobs
at one point and my roommate atthe time, her dad, who was an
attorney, was awesome andoffered to get me stuff to do
around his office until I gotback on my sheet.
And one of the things he neededwas someone trying blog for his
walk firm.
And he knew I had a strongwriting background.
So he offered me the gig and Iwas like, What?
I can get paid to write?
Seriously?

(16:48):
Yeah, let's do that.
So I jumped at that chance andstarted writing for him, and
then for an associate of his andthen for some friends of mine,
and they just kept growing fromthere.
I did eventually get an overdayjob, but again, it was just it
turns on.
So I for as much success.
That was my first successstory.
Client came back to me aftersix months and told me I had
brought in $75,000 worth ofbusiness to his law firm.

(17:11):
Just through the blog post Iwas writing, and that was my
first life moment of oh, this isnot just busy work he's giving
me.
This as a favor to like, giveme something to do.
This is that real developer'sbusiness.
So that was really cool.
Absolutely.

Absolutely.
Yeah, and I talk about that.
So I don't necessarily use amarketing funnel in uh with my
clients or with my students.
I talk about a trail becausepeople will often like it it
goes from awareness to consider,to compare, to evaluate, and so
on.
But part of what we put on ourwebsite, such as blog posts,

(17:45):
really ties into that considerand compare stage where we're
being compared to others in ourindustry.
If before somebody doesbusiness, oftentimes they'll
look at look around and see whatother people are doing.
But also in that considerationstage, and they may sit there
for a very long time and theymay leave.

(18:09):
I'm talking about earlier. And that's a thing about a funnel. A funnel is the idea of like, you just kind of put people in the top, they shoot out the bottom as customers. Andit doesn't at all work that
way.
And I know personally I havefollowed people and had to like
unfollow them because it's like,okay, I can't deal with this
right now in my business.
It's just not time yet, youknow.
But kept them in the back of mymind thinking when I get ready,
I'm gonna go back and buy fromthem.
And I have.
So I agree a hundred percentwhat you're saying is that we

(18:30):
putting that information outthere makes it so much easier
for people and it puts ourexpertise up to be shown.

Yeah, it positions you as a thought
leader rather than a commodity.
And people are willing to payhigher prices for that.

Yeah.
Do you recommend that people goout a little further on blogs
and not like how do you getfresh information that's not
something that everybody knows?
You know, how uh what I'mtrying to say is that there's a
lot, especially in marketing,it's like there there are there
are best practices that I canregurgitate in blogs.
But that's not what people arereally looking for, I don't

(19:05):
think anymore.
Would you agree?
They're looking for somethingwith an edge.

Yeah, I think people are always looking for
best practices.
I mean, like always many peoplewho don't know what you and I
have, like you said, embedded inour brains and can recite in
our sleep.
Um so yeah, in that, in thatrespect, it always it always
works.
But on the other hand,especially these days, marketing
is constantly changing.
So write about the updates,write about how it's changing,

(19:30):
write.
I think all of the questionsthat you are asking me here are
are good blog post topics.
Um For me, I always go back towhenever people are asking me
something I'll write about.
If someone has a question at anetworking event or on a sales
call, it's like, oh yeah, thatis a good question.
I bet that could be a blogpost.
Let's go ahead and race that.
Um, because if people areasking me about it in real life,

(19:52):
they're probably asking Googleor one of the chatbots or
whatever.
Um and for me, it's always umgoing back to keyword research
and answer the public is one ofmy favorite tools.
So anyone listening notfamiliar with it, that's
answerthepublic.com.
Really great.

Just gonna recommend that.

Yeah.

Just gonna recommend that one.
Yeah.

You pump in a word or a phrase, I tend to put
in one of my services or acategory of services, and it
will give you all of thequestions across the internet
that people are asking usingthat word or phrase.
Um so I will pull out some goodideas from there, but then I
always go back to my keywordresearch tool and make sure that
it's actually a good tool.
And if anyone is curious, thatis Serpstat, S-E-R-P-S-T-A-T.com

(20:36):
is my favorite keyword researchtool.

Um, it's uh sorry, say it again, SERP
SERPstat.com.
Oh, okay.
I'm not familiar with that one.
So that sounds awesome.
Maybe put the link to that inthe show notes too.
But if you were gonna place abet, would you say that people
would continue to blog beyond2026?
Okay.
That the writtenword is not gonna go away.

No.

And replaced by video and replaced by audio and
all the things.

No, I think it makes a great companion to
video and audio.
Um and like you and I said,there are always gonna be people
who are like, just let me scanit, just let me get to the kids
to meet.

So where can my listeners find out more about
you?

Yeah, my website is A Z, as in my
initials, Alison Ver Halen.
That is avwritingservices.com.
You can find me on LinkedIn.
I think I'm the only AlisonVer Halen on there.
And YouTube, Alison Ver HalenContent Marketer.

Well, thanks so much for joining me today.
I appreciate it.

Thanks so much for having me.
This is always fun.

So how do you think you will include blog
posts as part of your contentplan in 2026?
Or maybe you won't at all.
I'd love to know one way oranother.
So shoot me a DM on Instagramat Janice Hostager Marketing.
For information about Allisonor anything we talked about
today, visitmyweeklymarketing.com forward
slash one thirty six.

(22:00):
Thanks so much for joining metoday.
I'll see you next time.
Bye for now.

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