Herself’s Webtools

Technorati a few months back claimed to track 66 million blogs. Wow. That’s a lot even by internet standards. So who are the bloggers and what are they blogging about?

8% of internet users, about 12 million Americans, have a blog or blogs. 39% of internet users read blogs, but it ranks number 13 in the list of commonly done things online ( behind such things as email, im etc )

54% of blog authors are only published online, but 44% have published work elsewhere.

Popular blog topics: me, myself and I 37%; politics 11%; entertainment 7%; sports 6%; news and current events 5%; religion 4%; hobbies or health topics 2%.

Bloggers are about equally male and female, about 54% are under 30, 33% urban, 50% suburban and 12% rural.

Only 46% use their own name.

59% of bloggers spend less than 2 hours a week blogging, only 10% spend more than 10 hours a week blogging.

The average duration of a blog is 18 weeks. 60% of blogs are abandoned, they have not been updated in two months or more.

57% of bloggers earn less than $99, 82% earn less than $1,000, 92% earn less than $10,000 and only 8% earn more than $10,000.

More information:

Pew Reports: Online Activities & Pursuits
Blog Epitaphs? Get Me Rewrite!
Blogs to Riches
Dating Tips for Bloggers and Advertisers
Caslon Analytics blogging