Blogging remains more of a hobby than a business or profession, nearly a decade after the digital publishing platform known as blogging went mainstream. Blogging also is increasingly social as the lines continue blurring between blogs and other social media.
Those appear to be two key takeaways in the annual "State of the Blogosphere" report issued by blog search engine Technorati in November 2011.
Why do People Blog? For Passion & Personal Satisfaction
Technorati has been surveying thousands of bloggers worldwide each year since 2004 in an attempt to figure out why people blog and what most people blog about. Technorati's annual report draws a portrait of bloggers as a group; it also documents the growth and evolution of the blogging publishing phenomenon, including the relatively slow rise of the professional blogger who blogs for money.
The 2011 report showed that blogging continues to be mostly an unpaid activity, like social networks and other forms of social media. Increasingly, blogging is a social activity, reflecting motives other than money.
61 Percent of Bloggers are Hobbyists
In the early days of blogging, many people thought blogs might evolve into a professional writing activity as blogging platforms and culture matured, with more bloggers getting paid and turning their blogging activity into a full-time job.
But Technorati's survey, conduced in October 2011, shows the majority of people who blog--some 61 percent-- still do so as a hobby and draw no income from it. That number was down from 64 percent the year before, but still represented the overwhelming majority of bloggers.
Only 5 percent of the more than 4,000 bloggers surveyed in 2011 reported that they were professional, full-time independent bloggers. And only 37 percent of those said they get their primary source of income from blogging. Surprisingly, fewer bloggers said they were making a living from blogging than in 2010.
Yet 13 percent of those surveyed said they were part-time professional bloggers, who drew at least part of their salary or make money from writing a blog.
Some eight percent were corporate bloggers, writing blogs on behalf of their companies. Another 13 percent were entrepreneurs, who basically were blogging for their own companies.
And interestingly, the average number of blogs that bloggers maintain seems to be on the rise. It was two blogs in 2010, but rose to three blogs in 2011, Technorati reported.
Why People Blog as a Hobby
The biggest category of bloggers, hobbyists, told Technorati they blog chiefly "for fun" and their measure of success is the "personal satisfaction" they derive from doing it.Why People Bog for Corporations
Corporate bloggers have more varied reasons for blogging. Most blog about their company's business and say they do it to share their professional expertise or gain recognition in their profession. A majority of corporate bloggers say they boost their visibility in their field by writing a blog.
What People Blog About: Who Influences Their Topic Choices?
Another interesting factoid involved what is influencing their choice of what to blog about. The top influence in 2011 was the other blogs they read, which was up sharply from 2010. Their friends continue to be influential in topic choice, too, but it was not the top driver as it was the year before. Other social media accounts are also having more influence on what people blog about.
Blogging Gender Gap Persists, But Closing
One part of the survey that drew a lot of media attention has been a slow but steady gender shift in blogging; More women are finally joining men to become bloggers.
But men still dominate the ranks of blogger, at 59 percent, even though that is down from 64 percent a year earlier, Technorati found.
Blogging More and Going Social
Technorati reported that its 2011 survey showed bloggers doing more frequent updates to their blog and devoting more time to maintaining their blogs, but still, the time spent blogging doesn't seem to be as much as you might expect.
Overall, some 60 percent of those surveyed said they spend three hours a week or less writing their blogs. Only 13 percent of all bloggers reported spending more than 10 hours weekly on their blogs.
Although more bloggers seem to be increasing the amount of time they spend on their blogs, some actually are blogging less than when they first started their blogs, and their reasons given are interesting.
The need to spend more time on their jobs and with their family was the chief reason people cited for decreasing their blogging time. Butanother reason people cited was that they are spending more time updating other social media, such as Facebook and Twitter.
This finding highlights a trend from the 2010 State of the Blogosphere report, which was that the lines increasingly are blurring between blogging and other forms of social media.
Basically, it suggests blogs are going social just like most other forms of media. But perhaps because blogging is so young, it raises the question of whether blogs will truly remain a distinct type of digital publishing, or whether they may morph more into other types of social media and lose their distinct identity as a publishing format.
Lines Blur Between Blogs and Other Social Media
In 2010 the report suggested the lines between blogging and other forms of social media were blurring as blogs used all kinds of social media services to publicize their blog writing.
That trend of blogs going social continued again in 2011, as more people are linking their blogs to other forms of social media and otherwise being influenced by social media, Technorati said.
