Facts about the Blogosphere

Everything You Ought to Know About the Blogosphere

Blogging began in the early 90’s in the form of online journal sharing. People would post about their thoughts, interests and hobbies.

Popular Blog Platforms

The ways blogs are setup have changed greatly in last thirty years. Typically,  a blog would just be a stand alone HTML site built from scratch. But now, blog platforms are the preferred way that millions of people use to create their own individual or company blog.

WordPress is the biggest platform with 43% of platform built blogs using it as their foundation. A massive 402 million people view more than 3.5 billion pages per month on just WordPress alone.

Blogger is another platform with a respectable market share of 35%. Tumblr, Typepad and Posterous operate 16% of the user base. The remaining 6% are split amongst other groups. 

I, myself, love to post my honey on beBee. Then share it to other platforms.

The Voice of the Internet

Around 60% of bloggers are male, with the remaining 40% being female. Here is a breakdown of the blogging population according to age group:

20 and under – 20.2 %
21-35 year olds – 53.3 %
36-50 year olds – 19.4 %
51 and up – 7.1 %

The biggest group are young adults who account for just over half of people who blogger. The next biggest group by a slight lead are the 20 and under bloggers.

There are over 31 million bloggers in the USA alone. The US bloggers make up for around 29% of the worldwide blogging population. That is actually four times as much as the UK, which is the second largest with 6.75 % of bloggers located there.  This should help with some of your content or who your are trying to target.

The Money

For most people blogging is just a fun hobby that they do in their spare time and doesn’t make enough money to live on. 81% of bloggers never make any more than $100 from blogging. However, 8% of bloggers do earn enough to support a family, and 9% can sustain their lifestyle on blogging for around 4 to 6 hours a day. A very small percentage (about 2%) can spend just 1 or 2 hours a day blogging and make 150K a year.  

Blog Trustworthiness

Many people are becoming less trusting of traditional media, compared to several years ago. In stark contrast, blogs are increasingly taken more seriously, and some people believe that blogs are written better than the traditional media sources.

For example, many people are now beginning to cancel Main Stream Media, and get their news from Social Media. The world today seems to trust their peers more than the press, unlike 50 years ago.

Business Blogging

More than 60% of businesses and companies have their own blog. Though, good blogging practice is still not followed by many. 65% haven’t updated a blog in over a year. Only 35% of businesses write a blog post at least once per month.

Blogs and Social Media

Most bloggers use Facebook to promote their blog. Around half also link their blog to their Twitter. Over the last few years, the effectiveness of referral from Facebook and Twitter has increased, making these social platforms an effective way of driving traffic to your blog.

Google Analytics have shown this true for me.  I have never once had a referral from MySpace.  I personally think that it is now a dump site for links and just to listen to music.  I, myself, prefer such sites as Facebook, Bebee, and LinkedIn.  You now have other great one like Pinterest and of course YouTube.  

The secret is to master one or two platforms. Otherwise, two much of your time will go into your promotion of your blog and not into your content. People would rather see content of value than your same sales link over and over.  This is how you get returning viewers. You make them want to see you the next day by bringing them something of value. Over time, this gains trust, which in returns creates sales. 

Employee minded people can not handle this because they want result instantly, like a job. The goal is to help as many people as possible with your information. You will reap what you sow.