• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 26, 2008

According to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008 report, the majority of bloggers surveyed currently have advertising on their blogs. Among those with advertising, the mean annual investment in their blog is $1,800. The mean annual revenue is $6,000 with $75K+ in revenue for those with 100,000 or more unique visitors per month.

There have been a number of studies aimed at understanding the size of the Blogosphere, says the report, yielding disparate estimates, but all studies agree that blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream. Reports in 2008 include these estimates:

comScore MediaMetrix reports: (August 2008)

• Blogs... 77.7 million unique visitors in the US
• Facebook... 41.0 million
• MySpace... 75.1 million
• Total internet audience... 188.9 million

eMarketer says: (May 2008)

• 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users)
• 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12% of Internet users)

Universal McCann finds: (March 2008)

• 184 million world wide have started a blog
• 346 million world wide read blogs
• 77% of active Internet users read blogs

Wikipedia defines the Blogosphere as the collective community of all blogs. interconnected and socially networked. While discussions in the Blogosphere have been used by the media as a gauge of public opinion, Technorati isolates the Active Blogosphere as the ecosystem of interconnected communities of bloggers and readers at the convergence of journalism and conversation.

But, says the study, as the Blogosphere grows in size and influence, the lines between what is a blog and what is a mainstream media site become less clear. Larger blogs are taking on more characteristics of mainstream sites and mainstream sites are incorporating styles and formats from the Blogosphere. In fact, 95% of the top 100 US newspapers have reporter blogs.

Technorati tracked blogs in 81 languages in June 2008, and bloggers from 66 countries across six continents, finding that Bloggers have been at it an average of three years and are collectively creating close to one million posts every day. Blogs have representation in top-10 web site lists across all key categories, and have become integral to the media ecosystem.

The key findings included such things as:

• Personal, professional, and corporate bloggers all have differing goals and cover an average of five topics within each blog
• They use five different techniques to drive traffic to their blog.
• They're using an average of seven publishing tools on their blog and four distinct metrics for measuring success
• Bloggers ae receiving speaking or publishing opportunities, career advancement, and personal satisfaction
• Bloggers are using self serve tools for search, display, and affiliate advertising, and are increasingly turning to ad and blog networks.
• Four in five bloggers post brand or product reviews, with 37% posting them frequently
• 90% of bloggers say they post about the brands, music, movies and books that they love (or hate)
• Company information or gossip and everyday retail experiences are fodder for the majority of bloggers
• One-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates

Global Snapshot of Bloggers
	U.S. Bloggers	European Bloggers	Asian Bloggers
Male	57%	73%	73%
Age
18-34 years old	42%	48%	73%
35+	58%	52%	27%
Single	26%	31%	57%
Employed full-time	56%	53%	45%
Household income >$75,000	51%	34%	9%
College graduate	74%	67%	69%
Average blogging tenure (months)	35	33	30
Median Annual Investment	$80	$15	$30
Median Annual Revenue	$200	$200	$120
% Blogs with advertising	52%	50%	60%
Average Monthly Unique Visitors	18,000	24,000	26,000
Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008

 

Segment Snapshot of Bloggers
	Personal	Corporate	Professional	With Advertising	No Advertising
Male	64%	70%	72%	66%	66%
Age
18-34 years old	52%	45%	48%	53%	45%
35+	48%	55%	52%	47%	55%
Single	36%	24%	31%	34%	34%
Employed full-time	52%	51%	55%	49%	56%
Household income>$75k	37%	49%	42%	40%	37%
College graduate	70%	74%	74%	69%	72%
Average blogging tenure (months)	35	35	38	35	33
Median Annual Investment	$100	$200	$150	$100	0
Median Annual Revenue	$120	$250	$300	$200	0
% Blogs with Advertising	53%	64%	59%	100%	0%
Average Monthly Unique Visitors	12,000	39,000	44,000	46,000	4,000
Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008

 

Global Bloggers by Gender
	Female	Male
Personal Blog	83%	76%
Professional Blog	38%	50%
Age
18-24 years old	9%	15%
25+	91%	85%
Single	29%	36%
Employed full-time	44%	56%
Median Annual Investment	$30	$60
Median Annual Revenue	$100	$200
% Blogs with advertising	53%	54%
Sell Through a Blog ad Network*	16%	7%
Have Affiliate ads*	41%	32%
Have Contextual ads*	61%	73%
Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008  (*Among those with advertising on their blogs)

In 2004 when Technorati started, says the report, the typical reaction to the word ‘blog' was ‘huh?' Today... the blog has forever changed the way publishing works... anyone can be a publisher. The issue is no longer distribution, it's relevance.

For additional information, please visit Technorati here.