BellaOnline Forums Computers Blogs & Social Networking shocking blogging stats

Found some shocking blogging stats today that made me so glad I'm not a blogger.

"a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, found that only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream � or at least an ambition � unfulfilled." reports the New York Times

"64% of bloggers are hobbyists who blog for fun and measure their success by their level of personal satisfaction vs. blogging income. The 13% of bloggers who do consider it a part time income reported a mean annual non-salary income of $6,333. The 1% of corporate bloggers who blog for large companies reported a mean annual non-salary income of $17,101 in addition to the salaries they receive from their employers." reports the 2010 State of The Blogosphere.

If you're blogging for your own enjoyment then good for you. If you're doing it to make money you're better off starting a website.

That is fascinating information, Monica! Thank you for sharing.

The more shocking stuff was that some people who are successful end up abandoning too due to stress, stalking, lack of time, and other random reasons or they turn their blogs into sites which in my experience is the way to go in the first place. I also read an article about how the web is dead because of apps but I'm not so sure about this.

LIke all new things, there is going to be a life cycle with blogs and apps and social media. A rush/expansion of new things to take advantage of a new niche, followed by a decline/crash to see who adapts and survives.

Eventually a homeostatis sets in.

I think it is best to have a website with a blog connected to it.

I agree. That's always been the best way to do it. If you're just a hobby blogger then it doesn't really matter. But if you're trying to blog as a second income it just makes no sense. I think it's funny that some of the top bloggers are now turning their blogs into sites or making their blogs look more like sites.

I have 2 blogs on self-hosted wordpress sites so they do look more like websites. I also have a website where most of my income comes from. I think blogs tend to be in a subject the blogger personally likes, like a hobby and many hobbies just aren't money earners, unfortunately.

I do my knitting blog because I like it but only make maybe $25/mo from it-lol.

I think TopPicks is right, the best way to go is to have a website with a blog attached. However, even with a website, you need to constantly add new pages or you get bumped in the search engines by newer content.

That blog could probably make you $500 a month if it was a site/blog.

Also what you said about adding new pages to a website is not true. I have not updated my free workouts site in over a year and my ranking actually went up and it earns a steady part time residual income. Blogs are totally labor intensive and just do not deliver the steady residual income income like a site does.