Being Measured — The State of the Blogosphere

The blogosphere is, once again, being measured by blog search engine, Technorati.  At one time, a regular on Dave Sifry’s (Technorati’s CEO) blog, the quarterly report has gone the way of the number of sites indexed by Google, a statistic that disappeared sometime in 2005.  But The State of The Blogosphere is back again, and it is telling some interesting stories.

Key findings in the introduction are that:

• Blogs are not created equally.  They can be measured.
  Blogging is global. Technorati tracks blogs in 81 languages.

Blogs have representation in top-10 web site lists across all key categories, and have become integral to the media ecosystem. ((“The State of the Blogosphere 2008.” Technorati. 22 Sep 2008. Technorati, Inc. 23 Sep 2008 <http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/>. ))

• Bloggers write from different perspectives and to accomplish different goals.  They are personal, professional, and corporate.
• Blogging is profitable.  The average annual revenue from blogs that include advertizing is $6,000.  At least $75,000 annually for blogs that receive at least 100,000 unique visits a month.

This report is coming in installments, the first day’s answering the question, “Who are the Bloggers?”  The answers here are pretty standard and predictable, with a few surprises.

• 2/3 of bloggers are male.
• half are 18 to 34 years of age.
• 70% have college degrees, 40% earn at least $75,000 a year, and 25% earn at least $100,000.

This one struck me, though.  44% of bloggers are parents. Perhaps you might ask, during you next PTA meeting, how many in the audience have a blog.  The answer might be important…

The most interesting finding, to me, was the apparent maturing of the blogosphere.  More than half of today’s bloggers have been doing it for two or more years, and more than have are on their second (or 8th) blog. ((“Who Are the Bloggers?.” Technorati. 22 Sep 2008. Technorati, Inc. 23 Sep 2008 <http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/who-are-the-bloggers/>. ))  (See the graph to the right.)

What continues to impress me is that we are measuring “us” here.  For the first time in history, we, as individuals, are observing our experiences, reflecting on those experiences, reporting them through a global publishing system, and engaging in conversations about what we are reporting.  Sifry says that blogs are, “..the exhaust of our attention streams – they are a tangible reflection on what we are spending our time and attention on.” ((Sifry, David. “Oct 2004 State of the blogosphere: Big Media vs. Blogs.” [Weblog Sifry’s Alerts] 14 Oct 2004. Technorati, Inc. 23 Sep 2008 <http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000247.html>. ))  For good and bad, what we care about is bing laid down, and the numbers that give our stories permanence can be measured.

..and this takes me to my next post.  The one just above this one.  If there is not a post above this one, there soon will be.