Rick E. Bruner has pointed to a fascinating report into Blog Reader Behaviour (pdf) that has some very promising findings for those of us exploring blogging in the commercial sphere. The key findings of this study by ComScore are:
- 50 million U.S. Internet users visited blog sites in the first quarter of 2005. That is roughly 30% of all U.S. Internet users and 1 in 6 of the total U.S. population
- Five hosting services for blogs each had more than 5 million unique visitors in that period, and four individual blogs had more than 1 million visitors each
- Of 400 of the biggest blogs observed, segmented by seven (nonexclusive) categories, political blogs were the most popular, followed by “hipster” lifestyle blogs, tech blogs and blogs authored by women
- Compared to the average Internet user, blog readers are significantly more likely to live in wealthier households, be younger and connect to the Web on high-speed connections
- Blog readers also visit nearly twice as many web pages as the Internet average, and they are much more likely to shop online
Related article: Gawker’s boss Nick Denton talks about the results as someone who was part of commissioning the report.
I especially like the “much more likely to shop online,” since that’s a good sign for ad revenue and for affiliate programs.
Hey I’ve got to agree with Steve, now what can I sell on my blog? :-)
Certainly makes for interesting reading. It’s worth checking out Nick Dentons comments too.
These stats are low. The reality is much higher. I wish they explained their metrics.
This definitely bodes well for making money off blogs. I especially thought it was interesting that the fourth most popular category was blogs authored by women. What’s with all the talk about women bloggers then?!
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Interesting tidbit about the women. We just love to talk and gossip. Imagine the marketing potential in that demographic. Add to that, we love to shop.
Hey, I think I’m going to go work on my blogs now:-)
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