Trends in the Blogosphere

Well well, I finally had time to finish this post. It's been a while ago since the 'State of the Blogosphere 2009' (SofB) has been published. I'd like to share the things I learned from this great yearly report.

  1. I'll start with something I missed in the report: the number of blogs related to the number of active blog (bloggers posting at least once a week). It is mentioned that the levels of active bloggers has remained similar to 2008.
  2. This report underlines that the Blogosphere is still strong. Although there has been some discussion if blogging is dead or old-skool, the SofB says the blogging world is changing, but very alive and kicking. The report revolves around 4 types of bloggers: hobbyists, part-timers, self-employeds and Pros. The Hobbyists are the largest group, but the Pros is more influential every year. Another trend is the blog is taken ever more seriously by mainstream media.
  3. Interestingly the large part of the bloggers is highly educated and affluent. And two-thirds are male.
  4. The bloggers they interviewed have an average of 3-4 blogs.
  5. The SofB is published in 5 days. Concluding from the number of retweets, the last day is hardly read. Bloggers love short stories...
  6. The bloggers interviewed do not believe traditional media will die soon. 31% believe that newspapers will not be able to survive in the next 10 years.
  7. When asked which media bloggers take in, watching TV is done most (about 8.5 hours). Then reading blogs (about 8 hours). Commenting on blogs is done for about 3 hours a week. Reading newspapers takes about 3 hours.
  8. Updating blogs from mobile devices is still hardly done (20%). But it growing quickly compared to last year.
  9. "Self-expression and sharing expertise continue to be the primary motivations for bloggers, and 70% of all respondents say that personal satisfaction is a way they measure the success of their blog. Among Pros, however, the leading metric of success is the number of unique visitors." Bloggers have experienced positive career impacts.
  10. Most bloggers that have been interviewed post about the same amount of posts as when they started. The reason some blog less is work and family commitments.
  11. Most spend about 1-3 hours a week on blogging.
  12. A question I don't understand, but found interesting is: Do you support partial content or full content for your RSS feeds? 75% does full. Is the reason not to to get reader to click-through to your blog?
  13. Do blogs generate revenue? Yes. Most of the blog-related revenue is realized in the form of speaking fees and payments for contributing to print media or participating in broadcasts. So, blogging provides a platform for revenue.
  14. Brands are heavily blogged about.
  15. Lots of bloggers also use Twitter. They use it much more than the general population. Reasons to use Twitter: to promote their blogs, bring interesting links to light and to understand what people are buzzing about. Interestingly 25% of the interviewed blogger don't use Twitter. Why? They don't feel the need to broadcast their life and they don't get the point of tweeting, among others.
  16. Final quote from the report: "... blogging is the next step in a process of advancing communication from radio to TV to internet messaging. The breadth and depth of the blogosphere allows sophicated information - and special expertise - enhanced range. Comments and follow-up posts allow for original ideas to refined and perfected even as they are spreading around the world. This gives blogs a power that TV and radio simply don't have. A blogger can call for a protest and, within minutes, hundreds of people can RSVP. (...) The next generation of blogs will be more action oriented, not just commenting on real-time events, but driving" them.
  17. Interesting quote by Penelope Trunk: "Use your blog to figure our who you are and what you are good at and who the best people are for you to connect with."
  18. Interesting quote by Seth Godin: "I don't try to make money from blogging, the same way that I won't say the question 'How do you make money form the telephone' is a silly one for most people."
  19. Interesting quote by Duncan Riley: "The sad truth is the more content you produce the more page views you get."

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