According to the 2016 Blogger Research Study from Orbit Media Studios, reported by Andy Crestodina, 1054 bloggers speak to the effort and approach to blogging through questions about the time, place and process. Some of the answers are surprising, others less so, says the report.
In summary, the typical blogger publishes several posts per week of around 800 words each. They write both in the office and at home after work. They spend a few hours on a typical post, and they are largely independent, publishing without the help of an editor. Bloggers are fast, flexible, prolific, and independent.
The report presents a series of detailed lifestyles of bloggers, edited from the Orbit Media Study and Andy Crestodina’s presentation:
54% of bloggers spend 2 hours or less on a blog post while 5% of bloggers spend a lot more time on each post. The typical blog post takes about 2.5 hours to create. The time invested by bloggers can be represented on a bell curve, peaking in the 1 to 2 hour range, and then trailing off to the small percentage of bloggers investing an increasing amount of time, says the report.
How Long It Takes To Write A Typical Blog Post | |
Time to Write | % of Respondents |
Less than 1 hour | 17.4% |
1-2 hours | 36.7 |
2-3 | 19.7 |
3-4 | 13.2 |
4-6 | 7.4 |
More than 6 hours | 5.5 |
Source: orbitmedia, November 2016 |
81.4% of bloggers create content from home, though bloggers create content everywhere. Beyond the general lack of time boundaries, there is also a lack of space boundaries. The mobile megatrend is not just about where content is consumed.
Where Bloggers Blog | |
Blog Write Location | % of Respondents |
In the office | 32.4% |
At home/home office | 81.4 |
Coffee shops | 19.1 |
Co-working space | 4.3 |
Other (train, plane, library) | 7.2 |
Source: orbitmedia, November 2016 |
73% of bloggers act as their own editors. Only 15% of bloggers use a formal editorial process. 90.6% of survey respondents either edit their own work or use an informal process. Most blog posts have never been seen by anyone but the author before they go live.
Bloggers Use Of Editors | |
Use Of Editor | % of Respondents |
Edit own work | 72.9% |
“Show it to a person or two” | 29.8 |
Formal editor | 11.8 |
More than one editor | 2.8 |
Source: orbitmedia, November 2016 |
53% of the respondents are service providers, blogging for others at least some of the time. Only 14% produce most of their content for other businesses. Knowing that so many bloggers are writing for more than one business, we can better understand the job of blogging and the skills required, says the report.
Percentage Of Bloggers’ Posts Written For Clients | |
Written for client | % of respondents |
None | 46.7% |
Less than 5% | 17.5 |
5-25% | 13.1 |
25-50 | 8.5 |
50-75 | 5.6 |
75-100 | 8.7 |
Source: orbitmedia, November 2016 |
Social media is by far the most common promotion tactic, typically used by 94% of bloggers. Sharing content through social media is fast and easy and therefore used by almost all bloggers. Best practices for SEO are so well known that most bloggers now produce search optimized content. Only 1 in 20 bloggers are paying to drive traffic to their posts.
How Bloggers Are Driving Traffic To Their Posts | |
Traffic Acquisition | % of Respondents |
Social media marketing | 94% |
Search engine optimization | 50.8 |
Email marketing | 34.5 |
Influencer outreach | 15.1 |
Paid services | 4.5 |
Source: orbitmedia, November 2016 |
80% of bloggers create content that is 1000 words or less on average. 5% of bloggers write 1500+ words per post on average. 61% of bloggers are writing posts of 500 – 1000 words, making 800 words seem like an unstated, but agreed-upon standard length for blog posts, confirming that the average length among surveyed bloggers was around 800 words.
Length Of A Typical Blog Post | |
Length of Post | % of Respondents |
Less than 500 words | 20.8 |
500-1,000 words | 61.3 |
1,000-1,500 | 13 |
1,500-2,000 | 3.5 |
2,000+ words | 1.4 |
Source: orbitmedia, November 2016 |
For additional information and the complete findings from Orbitmedia.com, please visit here.