Why I’m Still Blogging – A Few Months On

This is a follow up to a previous post back in June 2025. When I wrote my original post, Why I’m Still Blogging – Even If Google’s New AI Might Bury My Posts, I was full of stubborn optimism. I believed that even if Google’s new AI Overview stole clicks, genuine human writing would still find an audience.

A few months later… I still believe that.
But it hasn’t been easy.

Laptop on a wooden desk with a notebook, pen, and coffee cup beside it — representing persistence and focus in blogging despite AI Overview challenges.

The AI Overview Hangover

Let’s be honest, AI Overview has hit small independent blogs like mine very hard. Even my main website David Condon Woodcraft is suffering a drop in traffic and that site is over 8 years old with significant google clout.

Affiliate earnings that once trickled in every month from my blog posts have almost completely dried up. My posts still get views, but far fewer than before, and conversions are practically non-existent. Many of these daily views seem to be from Bot traffic too, this post which asks Is My Blog Content Being Stolen by Bots may interest you.

I’ve expanded and improved my posts wherever I can, adding more insight, clearer formatting, affiliate disclaimers, better internal linking, and more engaging images. The effort shows in one area at least: Google now crawls my blog regularly without me having to request indexing manually. That’s real progress compared to where I started.

The trouble is, I could spend entire working weeks refining and improving without any form of reward. Where do I draw the line? And just when I thought visibility was my biggest obstacle, another problem crept in.

The New Cookie CMP Dilema

Another problem that’s quietly appeared over the last few months is cookie consent. Since Google introduced stricter CMP (Consent Management Platform) requirements, analytics data has become practically useless. Most visitors now click “reject all” or simply ignore the banner, which means I no longer see how many genuine people visit or which pages they read.

I have a related post, Why Do People Opt Out of Cookies?, if you’ve ever been curious about cookies and why they exist.

What used to be a clear view of web traffic has turned into a guessing game. Between AI hiding posts and privacy laws hiding data, it feels like small website owners like me are working blind, trying to improve a site we can’t fully measure anymore. I’m completely in favour of privacy, but it’s ironic that the ones who play by the rules end up with the least insight into their own audience.

Finding an Audience That Hasn’t Found Me Yet

The toughest part of blogging right now is discovering who my audience actually is.
I know they’re out there, people who appreciate honest reviews, practical advice, and small-business perspective but reaching them feels like shouting into the wind some days. ( I could mention another activity going into the wind but let's keep it clean). I have a nice variation of topics so I must be getting traction somewhere.

I share my posts across social media when I can, trying not to overdo it and annoy anyone. It’s a fine balance between promotion and spam. I use my Woodcraft Facebook page to share, I don't actually like doing that but it has quite a lot of followers. Most people scroll by, I get a few likes from the same people; bloody Facebook algorithm. Grrr....

Unlike social media, my blog posts have no likes, comments, or follows (yet) to show me if I’m on the right track or not. Most visitors are just passing through — ghostly silhouettes out in the ether, many of them possibly bots stealing my work. I covered that in more detail in Is My Blog Content Being Stolen by Bots? if you’re curious what’s really happening behind the scenes. Is there any value at all to all my hard work?

A Fresh Start on Pinterest

One big change I’ve made recently is how I use my old Pinterest account. It used to sit in my social media layout folder gaining no pins or interest seemingly. I decided a fresh start with support for my two fledgling blogs at its core was a good idea.

Instead of endlessly pinning generic content from others, I hid all my old boards and started again from scratch. Every new pin now links directly to one of my blog posts or website product pages, with proper titles, alt text, and descriptions. It’s much slower work, but it feels more professional and more mine.

It may be one of the last social media platforms that can still send genuine traffic to websites, hopefully mine. Pinterest hasn’t sent much my way yet, only three or four link clicks so far, but my pins are still very new. I’m hopeful that once the algorithm figures me out, things will improve. It’s a long-term play, but I still feel it’s worth continuing. Maybe I’ll do a post on it later if it starts to show real results, but for now, I’m content to keep pinning and see where it goes.

Building a Trio of Sites

I’ve also branched out into a second blog — Phoenix DVD Blog — to give my film and Blu-ray collecting posts their own space. This was an old blog from 2012 and I was just about to delete it when I had a few ideas for movie topic posts that would be better suited in their own space.

That, along with my main craft website David Condon Woodcraft, now forms a trio of connected sites under my name. They are linked below if you'd like to visit.

Together they help strengthen my online presence:

David Condon Woodcraft for my handmade products and tuition.
David Condon Finds for everyday insights, tech, and small-business topics.
Phoenix DVD Blog for movie and collector content.

It’s a lot to manage, but each serves a purpose and they all link back to the same story of what I do and why I do it.

More Confidence, Even Without the Clicks

Despite the ongoing challenges, I’ve gained a lot more confidence in my writing.
When I started, every post felt like an experiment. Now I can draft, format, and optimise posts naturally, knowing what works for SEO, readability, and flow. I’ve stopped worrying so much about what Google wants and started writing what I want and what I think readers will/may genuinely enjoy.

That shift alone has made blogging far more satisfying, even if the numbers don’t reflect it yet.

What’s Next

Going forward, I plan to keep refining my approach, testing new content ideas, improving internal links, and continuing to grow my Pinterest presence. I’ll also keep exploring how my three sites can complement each other without feeling repetitive.

AI may have changed the game, but I’m not bowing out.
I’m just learning how to play differently.

Thanks for Reading,

David

About the Author

I’m David Condon, a small business owner and blog writer based in Tralee, Co. Kerry. Running my own woodcraft business means I’ve seen first-hand how much confusion there can be around shipping times, delivery dates, and what “business days” actually mean. That’s why I wrote this post — to share a bit of what I’ve learned and hopefully save you some frustration.

Every so often I step outside the workshop to write about wider business topics like this one. If you’d like to know more, you can follow the link in the Note from the Author section below.

Every so often I step outside the workshop to write about wider business topics like this one. If you’d like to know more, you can follow the link in the Note from the Author section below or visit my About Me page to learn more.

💬 Note from the Author
This post was written specially for David Condon Finds. If you enjoyed it, you might also like my other projects:

Phoenix DVD Blog – where I write about DVDs, Blu-rays, and life as a collector
David Condon Woodcraft – my main site focused on woodturning and handmade Irish pieces

If you’d like to support my writing, you can do so through the Buy Me a Coffee button below. It helps keep these side projects going — thank you!

Like what you're reading? You can buy me a coffee — sure it’s cheaper than a pint!

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