Surge in blog statistics as medium goes exponential

The progression of blogging past the tipping point and into the mainstream was described recently in a post by Gareth Knight.

The omnipresence of blogs is further evident from figures recently released by comScore, and reported by eMarketer, which say that US blog traffic has grown by 56% over the past year to 58.7 million visitors.

This represents 34% of the total US internet audience but the true figure is higher because comScore is only tracking the main blogging networks. 

According to the research by comScore and iMedia Connection, the top-rated US blog network was Blogger.com, with 20.8 million visitors in May 2006. MySpace Blogs was second with 14.4 million visitors, and MSN Spaces came in at third with 9.6 million visitors.

iMedia Connection said that “blogs are now as ubiquitous to the web as reality shows are to television".

And so are blog statistics it seems. Data and figures about blogging were few and far between before this year but, following the surge of interest around blogging and its potential as an online marketing tool, that’s no longer the case.

I should know because I have the dubious privilege of keeping our Internet Statistics Compendium up-to-date.

This sometimes feels like a Herculean task because as soon as you chop off one head, two more appear in its place in the form of new statistics which come hot of the press with alarming regularity.

The upside of this task is that it keeps me up-to-date with the latest data trends.

Be in no doubt that blogging is a hot topic!

In the last few months there has been a veritable influx of blogging-related statistics worthy of inclusion in our compendium.

If you haven't got a plan to harness the world of blogging or to monitor what's being said about your brand, then you need to develop one quickly.

Here is a snippet of the latest data to be included in the blog section of our indispensable stats compendium.  

• While 55% of new bloggers are still posting 3 months later, 45% are not. [Source: Greg Jarboe, SEO-PR/Technorati, Search Engine Strategies Presentation, June 2006]
  
• 35% of large companies plan to start corporate blogs by the end of 2006, in addition to the 34% of large companies who are already doing it. [Source: JupiterResearch report, Corporate Weblogs: Deployment, Promotion, and Measurement, June 2006].
  
• According to a US report, combined spending on Blog, Podcasting and RSS advertising channels rose by 198% in 2005 to a total of $20.4 million. Spending is expected to grow by another 145% in 2006 to reach nearly $50 million. [Source: PQ Media, April 2006]

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