Month 8 reality check: Is the 'just keep publishing' advice actually working for anyone in 2026?

Genuine question for the community.

I'm 8 months into a content site. Published 85+ articles. Following all the "best practices":

- Keyword research

- Quality content (2000+ words, images, proper formatting)

- Internal linking

- Some backlink outreach

Results: ~200 organic visitors/month. Barely covering hosting costs.

I see two camps in this community:

**Camp A: "Trust the process"**

- SEO takes 12-18 months to really kick in

- Keep publishing, the hockey stick is coming

- Domain authority builds over time

- Success stories exist, just takes patience

**Camp B: "The game has changed"**

- AI content has flooded every niche

- Google updates are unpredictable and brutal

- The old playbook doesn't work like it used to

- Building alternative traffic sources is essential now

I'm genuinely torn. Part of me wants to keep pushing. Part of me wonders if I should diversify into social, email, YouTube, or something else entirely.

For those who started sites in 2024-2025:

- How long before you saw meaningful traffic?

- Did you stick purely to SEO or diversify early?

- Would you do anything differently knowing what you know now?

Not looking for motivation - looking for honest data points from people actually in the trenches.