briansolis - Latest Comments in Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

briansolis — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:35:02 -0000

Hello Conxa, thank you for the detailed thoughts. You are right, Technorati didn't provide details on Technorati. But, it is because of the importance of comments that I use service such as BackType.com to locate conversations within the blogosphere that are important to me and those I work with.

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Conxa Rodà — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:30:35 -0000

Good and very detailed points! Thank you.
Had thought a few ideas to share but haven’t had the time until 2day!

I don’t think blogs are dead at all.
It’s true that there are zillion blogs too me-centered or marketing-oriented instead of common-interest-centered. But there are indeed many extremely valuable blogs in almost every domain.

I think I haven’t found in your analytics a reference to comments (both in quantitative and qualitative terms) which are an important part of blogosphere.
It’s also true that many blog comments are irrelevant (such as “great post”, “thank you for sharing” and the sort) but quite often comments are as rich and interesting as the original post.
In our museum’s blog, (http://www.blogmuseupicassobcn.org/en) we still receive few comments, but the comments we get, we treasure.
Conxa
@innova2

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Robin Schoettler Fox — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:23:26 -0000

The stats certainly prove that blogging is not dead.

I think some of this continued blogging energy is fueled by Twitter and other social media platforms that most of us are using to help sift through internet noise and bring interested readers to specific blog posts - our own and others. Nothing encourages attention to content quality and consistency better than knowing that people are going to read your work, comment on it, perhaps debate about it. Waiting for people to find a blog is a little like hoping Google organic searches will send people to your website. Increasingly unlikely.

As for corporate blogging, I expect to see it increasing on the rise. Do you? Companies need to provide a spot on their websites for community conversation. We increasingly expect it. They know it. And it may be the ultimate antidote to potential Google Side Wiki clutter on their website.

Thanks again for the great post.

- Robin

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Jon Buscall — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:55:40 -0000

Thank you for putting such detailed data together in such an accessible way.

I'm intrigued to see so many more men still blogging compared to women. Over here in Sweden I've started to feel it had switched around with women being really active blogging and tweeting, overtaking men.

Perhaps the Nordic region is a precursor to what will happen elsewhere.

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Wessel van Rensburg — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:22:54 -0000

Hi Brian, thanks for linking to us in this post.

Re: Blogger relations and so-called Magic-Middle bloggers. The fashion brand we represent - WHERE - have seen real value from just one link from a 'Magic-Middle' Blogger. Online sales have more than doubled (admittedly form a low base) but they have also been approached by two retailers who ordered a couple of hundred shoes - just off the back of one positive blog post.

We first tried to approach some A-list fashion bloggers in the UK. We listened and tailored our emails to them specifically and had no response. It was then that we downloaded your ebook and your thoughts on then 'Magic Middle'. And that certainly worked for us. So a big thank you from RAAK.

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Hannah — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:33:17 -0000

I found this post about blogging very interesting. I was surprised to read that more men blog than women because women are more active in every other area of social media. 75 percent of bloggers have college degrees and this made sense to me because it also said the main reason people blog is to share their expertise about something. I feel that for someone to share expertise about a topic they most likely need to have a college degree to post accurate information on their blog. The majority of bloggers, 83 percent, do not make the majority of their income from blogging. This statistic was interesting to me because blogging takes time and I would think most people would not have the time to do this in their spare time, outside of their jobs. Most blogs are updated 2 to 3 times per week, which did not surprise me, because I think if bloggers are mainly people who do this on the side then they would not have the ability to blog more than that. Overall the statistics and information in this post were interesting and showed great insight about bloggers.

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Rich Becker — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:42:20 -0000

Great capture of Technorati's data. It's really appreciated.

While I know there are some questions about the source (interesting to see the blogger bubble right in the middle of Technorati's heyday and a drop off as new bloggers don't consider it as important as it used to be), your original point is valid: The death of blogs is greatly exaggerated. If anything, blogging will continue to see an upswell not in the numbers of bloggers but in the importance of content shared.

Hope all is well with you Brian.

Best,
Rich

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

lizwainger — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:41:18 -0000

Fascinating post. Really valuable information well presented. Thought it was interesting that Washington with all its hot air and folks who really like to share their opinions was not better represented.

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Elisa Camahort — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:13:19 -0000

Mark, I think you nailed it...the methodology used does expose the survey to extreme self-selection skewing. Just look at the Twitter adoption rate. Way, way extreme vs. any other study of both bloggers or non-bloggers I've seen, even quite recently. I took the survey myself, and I have commented elsewhere that I'd like to see if they recorded and can share any stats on abandonment rates, particularly demographic info on abandoners. The survey was very geared towards those who blog for money and fame...and it was so long, and so rigid (not allowing you to skip non-applicable questions) that I suspect those of us who aren't in it for that had no incentive to slog through it.

My two cents reviewing the data. As Karen mentions above, BlogHer's study findings are quite different. :)

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

stevecunningham — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:48:51 -0000

Brian - I think we are only getting started with blogging, and that we are going to see a lot more video coming down the pipe. It simply works too well to be dead.

I also think this qualifies for the longest and most detailed blog post of all time. Thanks for the insight!

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Jeremy Campbell — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:23:39 -0000

Wow there are so many graphs and charts there that I'm dizzy but I like the information so thanks for spending what was likely hours to put this post together. I'm now convinced that blogs are not dying.

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Mark Pack — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:53:04 -0000

Does the Technorati survey really reveal "the true shape and promise of this important medium"? On their figures, bloggers are overwhelmingly male but Technorati's data is based on people opting in to complete surveys, whilst more solid polling type research from the UK has the majority of bloggers being female. There's a huge difference between the two figures.

Is the UK really that different from the overall picture? Or is the Technorati data too self-selecting to give an accurate picture?

Certainly, at the very least I think a fair degree of scepticism about whether or not the Technorati data should be taken as gospel is in order.

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

RaceTalk — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:12:40 -0000

Some good charts in @briansolis ' post on the state of the blogosphere, I want my title / thought back though http://alturl.com/xs8j

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Louis Pagan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:45:27 -0000

Personally, I think blogs are in for a huge resurgence.

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Karen Gutierrez — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:07:25 -0000

Re Brian Solis' "Rumors of the Death of Blogs..." (http://bit.ly/3W8qzy) interesting to compare w/ BlogHer findings on women bloggers. http://bit.ly/11Dv6l

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Bernie Ritchie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:53:34 -0000

Great news from @briansolis blog post - Blogworld Expo confirms blogs still in game and as vital as ever to media ecosystem! #socialmedia

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Donagh Mc Sweeney — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:06:04 -0000

That was exactly my thought! So much info!

Thumbs up

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Shevonne — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:00:18 -0000

Wow, I am impressed! Very, very detailed.

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Redlincook — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:24:10 -0000

Some really enthralling stats here!

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Peter du Toit — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:44:47 -0000

Have to agree with Macala awesome post. Fascinated by the mobile stats. I think this will just keep growing. I am doing MUCH more on my mobile now than a year ago. Thanks again Brian for putting this together.

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

briansolis — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:36:41 -0000

Thank you!!!

Re: Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated

Macala Wright — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:20:59 -0000

Best post of the month, and it's only the 6th! Thank you for insights Brian. I am amazed that California trumped New York in terms of bloggers! Blogging totally PWNS tweeting :P