Welcome

Dennis Jones is a Jamaican-born international economist, who has lived most of the time in the UK and USA, and latterly in Guinea, west Africa. He moved back to the Caribbean in 2007. This blog contains his observations on life on this small eastern Caribbean island, as well as views on life and issues on a broader landscape, especially the Caribbean and Africa.

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Sunday, December 14, 2008

Chips Off The Blog.

I dislike housework intensely, but sometimes I have to do it. This morning, I was intrigued by the statistics for readership of this blog. I can see each day from where people tap into the rich vein of my writing. In broad terms, most of the readers are from North America (the USA supplies over 30%, mainly from the east and central USA), and Barbados makes up 20%. But I have readership stretching around the globe, in Europe (especially the UK), into Africa, through the Middle East, Asia and into Australia. If I look at precise locations, I can see Qatar and Israel, which are intriguing, and Mumbai, Karlskrona (Sweden).

I'm shocked that the site manages to get about 3200 visitors a month, not unique necessarily, and they include me, but I am not boosting my own stats.

But I am very small pototoes and curiosity killed the cat. I had to dig deeper.

Technocrati reports regularly on 'the state of the blogsphere', and note that around 16 million blogs exist (it could now be closer to 20 million) [see latest report for 2008
]. Taking a few of the statistics and comparisons they highlight:

Most bloggers are male and age under 35 (oops, I'm out of my age bracket big time, but I am young at heart). Most blogs are personal (I fit). Most bloggers are fully employed (not just blogging) and highly educated (well, of course). Most bloggers, by a large margin, are NOT single (do relationships drive people to blog?). Anyway, over your coffee or wine or late afternoon aperatif, you can look at the snapshot a bit more.

comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008)

  • Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US
  • Facebook: 41.0 million | MySpace 75.1 million
  • Total internet audience 188.9 million
eMarketer (May 2008)
  • 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users)
  • 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12%)
Universal McCann (March 2008)
  • 184 million have started a blog | 26.4 US
  • 346 million read blogs | 60.3 US
  • 77% of active Internet users read blogs
All Blogs Are Not Created Equal
  • Take a quick journey into the size of the Blogosphere

    Technorati Authority

Global Snapshot of Bloggers

Demographics U.S. Bloggers
(N=550)
European Bloggers
(N=350)
Asian Bloggers
(N=173)
Male 57% 73% 73%
Age


18-34 years old 42% 48% 73%
35+ 58% 52% 27%
Single 26% 31% 57%
Employed full-time 56% 53% 45%
Household income >$75,000 51% 34% 9%
College graduate 74% 67% 69%
Average blogging tenure (months) 35 33 30
Median Annual Investment $80 $15 $30
Median Annual Revenue $200 $200 $120
% Blogs with advertising 52% 50% 60%
Average Monthly Unique Visitors 18,000 24,000 26,000

Segment Snapshot of Bloggers

Demographics Personal
(N=1015)
Corporate
(N=156)
Professional
(N=590)
With Advertising
(N=695)
No Advertising
(N=595)
Male 64% 70% 72% 66% 66%
Age




18-34 years old 52% 45% 48% 53% 45%
35+ 48% 55% 52% 47% 55%
Single 36% 24% 31% 34% 34%
Employed full-time 52% 51% 55% 49% 56%
Household income>$75k 37% 49% 42% 40% 37%
College graduate 70% 74% 74% 69% 72%
Average blogging tenure (months) 35 35 38 35 33
Median Annual Investment $100 $200 $150 $100 0
Median Annual Revenue $120 $250 $300 $200 0
% Blogs with Advertising 53% 64% 59% 100% 0%
Average Monthly Unique Visitors 12,000 39,000 44,000 46,000 4,000

Global Bloggers by Gender

Demographics Female
(N=438)
Male
(N=852)
Personal Blog 83% 76%
Professional Blog 38% 50%
Age

18-24 years old 9% 15%
25+ 91% 85%
Single 29% 36%
Employed full-time 44% 56%
Median Annual Investment $30 $60
Median Annual Revenue $100 $200
% Blogs with advertising 53% 54%
Sell Through a Blog ad Network* 16% 7%
Have Affiliate ads* 41% 32%
Have Contextual ads* 61% 73%
* Among those with advertising on their blogs

The numbers vary but agree that blogs are here to stay, but they are being challenged by the opportunities to post stories in social networking sites (such as 'Notes' in Facebook), which I have regarded as backdoor blogging and if we were unionized would be the reason for a work-to-rule or wild cat strike. Our mantra could be, "Don't let Facebook hog the blog." Try it.

So, sorry to have started you off with a little brain exercise this morning, but after a great night's partying and a buzz still in my body, why should you get off free?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Today's Sunday Sun reports Barbados coach, Thomas Jordan, as saying that age is not a hindrance and the door open to all local footballers to be invited for national training. So I suggest you stop joking and get those boots out of the closet and let the man see your stuff. But you may have to become a Bajan. I know...not a pleasant option. Sorry, mate.

Anonymous said...

Hey Dennis,thanks very much for the statistical data regarding blogging.I find the data very informative and instructive.Nuff respect!!