I started blogging around 2020, when COVID-19 became a menace for our country, Kenya, and the world. One thing I have noted with my few years of experience is that the blogging scene is always evolving, and it’s not the same as it was five years ago when I was just getting started.
With the various large language models (LLMs) from ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and many others, content creation nowadays doesn’t require planning. With the help of these tools, you can have your final article within minutes. By the way, when I was getting started with blogging, I was two years into college, which was the same time or at least when Online writing in Kenya used to be a thing, and people were earning big from this particular niche. Starting a blog website for me at the time was just a way of trying to avoid the over-saturated idea of competing with Kenyans on the freelance platform as I was bidding for Jobs with passion.
The journey to blogging has been fair enough for me with its ups and downs, but it has also helped me connect with many like-minded people in the industry. I have also met aspiring bloggers who want to get started, but often, they are faced with the obstacle of whether blogging is truly profitable or not.
As a matter of fact, if you have time and take a look at Google search trends in Kenya for the term “Blogging in Kenya” ( See the image attached below), the statistics can be a bit heart-wrenching as blogging was at its pick level from around 2016 to 2022, but then it is still promising even in 2025
But hey, enough with the numbers? Is it the right time to start blogging in Kenya in 2025? Yes …why? You see, the digital landscape is evolving daily, making it easier for everyone to get started with content creation than ever. Also, now that everyone in Kenya can own smartphones and Internet penetration is at its peak, the odds are in your favor that your blogs will likely be consumed so long as you have the right audience.
Is Blogging Still Profitable in Kenya?
In any business, when it comes to the question of profitability is at the top of the mind for many entrepreneurs by the way, the only way to thrive in the blogging space is if you stop treating it as a side hustle but as your own self-employed business.
Whether a blog is profitable or not really depends on your input to be able to see results. Most bloggers in Kenya earn through the Google Adsense program, whereby a blogger’s revenue is mostly influenced by RPM (revenue per thousand impressions)- revue an ad publisher generates for 1000 ad impressions and CPM (cost per thousand impressions)- the cost an advertiser pays for every 1,000 ad impressions.
To earn well from AdSense, you also need to build high traffic, but if you are smart enough in the years I have been writing, I’ll tell you that higher traffic does not necessarily equate to high earnings. Even with smaller traffic, you can still capitalize on it to earn more by exploring other sources of revenue, such as affiliate marketing, brand deals, sponsorship, and more.
The best part is that, according to a recent report by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), they project a 5.5% growth rate for Kenya’s GDP in 2025. This can mean one thing for everyone working remotely, and most depend on Ads. A stronger economy for the country translates to increased advertising spending, which can boost AdSense revenue for creators.
So, to conclude, whether blogging is truly profitable in Kenya, yes, it is, so long as you are in for the right reasons. For the few years I have been in this Space, I have seen many blogs come and go simply because one wants an overnight success. I’ll tell you, it took me 2 years to earn good revenue from my first blog website, and for me, it took that long simply because, at the time, I was so naive, and I had no one to guide me. Blogging in Kenya is very profitable for those who wait and work on their passion instead of viewing it as a get-quick-rich scheme.
Challenges You Will Likely Face
While turning a blank page into ideas daily can offer so many exciting opportunities, I don’t mean to dishearten you. The bitter truth is that you must be prepared to face challenges on the way, especially if you are a newbie.
One of the first challenges you will likely face is competition from other bloggers and content saturation in general. When you search right now, blogs in Kenya right, the ranking article is from the Feed Spot website, which lists over 70 best blogs, but this is just the tip of the iceberg as the Bloggers Association of Kenya ( BAKE) estimates over 1000 blogs to be in Kena as of the right. So long as there is competition, you will always strive to better every and thus take it as a positive thing and work on creating your brand to be unique from the rest.
In addition, covering topics such as education ie “TSC” etc, finance ie “loan apps, M-Pesa charges,” and more plus topics in how-to articles such as “paying KPLC tokens via M-Pesa” and have now become a thing that many blogs, websites have in common making it harder for new websites to rank for such keywords. Today, search engines like Google like websites that publish unique content that doesn’t exist on the web or add value. If you are getting started, you may want to avoid such topics and focus on what is unique to your audience.
There is also an issue with monetization. In the past, Google made it easy for bloggers to get approved by AdSense, but this is not the case today. People are now using ChatGPT to generate content. In most cases, most websites are abusing AI tools to generate low-quality chunks of content, which has forced Adsense to focus on approving content that helps people, not crawling robots.
Finally, even with the Bloggers Association of Kenya in place, it’s sad for me to mention this, but in Kenya, to be honest, we don’t have a true blogging community that focuses on helping other bloggers in the industry. New blogs take time to rank on page one of Google as Google trusts platforms with enough Authority or backlinks. Personally, I have been a victim. Most bloggers try to compete with you directly or even copy and publish your content.
How to make sure your blogging becomes profitable
Being a small and indecent publisher in Kenya is not a bed of roses, especially with the occasional Google algorithmic changes, which now favor large publishers and the fierce competition from large websites that want to cover the topics you are doing so. For this reason, to succeed in blogging in Kenya, sure bet you will Strategies that put you one step ahead. Here are three things that you must consider:
Select your Niche Wisely
Don’t make the mistake of just blogging to hit the publishing button on a daily basis. Before you launch a website, after choosing your domain name, you have to focus, and it is important to select the right niche or specific area of focus where you believe that you are an expert.
When you launch your brand-new website, your domain Authority will likely be zero or even below 10 in your first months of blogging, so when you get started by going for broad topics in finance, education, Politics, etc, it will be hard to outrank already, established websites like Tuko.co.ke, nation Africa, and Business Daily with Authority scores above 70.
If I were launching a new blog today, I would instead focus on hyper-specific areas like Tech Innovations in Kenyan Agriculture, Kenyan Literature and Book Reviews, urban gardening in Nairobi, etc.
SEO and Content Optimization
Unless you are blogging for passion, you may want to ignore these steps, but if you are blogging to see revenue growth from your digital work, understanding Search engine optimization (SEO) is important. There are many types of SEO you need to understand, from on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO, and local SEO, which will make your articles easy to rank. When your website performs well, your revenue also grows.
You may also want to know about Keyword Research and SEO Analysis Tools such as Keyword Tool IO or Ubersuggest, which can help you find long-tail keywords to rank for and Digital marketing by providing you with the necessary data to grow your website from zero to profitable easily.
My best SEO tool is Ubersuggest because it is an affordable All-in-One SEO Tool that allows you to conduct Keyword Research, Backlink analysis, Site Audits, and content ideas.
Monetization Diversification
Don’t become old Richard, and use AdSense as your only revenue-generating means. It is risky and will lead to frustration, which you can avoid by exploring other revenue streams.
To earn well from AdSense in Kenya, you need a high number of visitors, but even with low traffic, if you focus on growing your email list and try selling it, you can earn more than what AdSense pays.
Other revenue sources that have worked for me, and you should try them, are Sponsorship posts and Brand deals, but these two work well if you are already a trustworthy brand in the industry.
The Future of Blogging in Kenya
I am sorry to say this, but if you start a blog in 2025 with the goal of making money within your first six months, then you should quit it and focus on other things. The truth is that blogging has developed over time and is mainly driven by the technological shifts that are happening right now, not only in the country but on the global stage. To put yourself one step ahead in the game, here are two things that you should watch out for.
AI and Automation
Personally, it takes me about 4 to 5 hours to write a long blog post and an hour to write a short one, but with the emergence of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc., it has now become easier to generate an article in less than 5 minutes. I don’t advocate using these tools when it comes to writing, but since they are here to stay with us, the better you adapt to using them for content creation, you will be one step ahead.
The only problem with using generative tools is that they often produce low-quality content that doesn’t add value to your audience and search. Such content is unworthy in the eyes of Google, which now favors content that demonstrates E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness).
I tend to use AI models best for research only and to generate outlines, but when it comes to writing, I tend to rely on my own knowledge or what I have gathered from the Research process.
Platform Diversification
At the end of the day, as a writer, it is not just about creating content using various CMS, such as WordPress or Blogger, but also about trying to adapt as quickly as possible. When you hit the publishing button, it is safe to utilize other platforms today, such as X ( formerly Twitter), TikTok, and YouTube, to promote your blog.
Also, when it comes to acquiring Traffic in the long run, you can choose to build your audience either through running paid Ads from platforms such as Meta or Google ads, and at the same, you can also choose to utilize free publishing pßlatfroms such as Medium and Substack to grow your Blog
The End
If you want to be a doubting Thomas and believe that blogging is truly dead, then I really pray that you continue doing so. This will give the rest of us a chance to thrive fiercely without much competition. But again, I don’t wish such a thing on anyone, as the blogging space is too large to accommodate us all. If you want blogging to be profitable, don’t do it for openings. Do it to build an audience, and they will help you convert better. If you need help with anything, please let us interact in the comment section.
