Confirmed: The blogosphere is mainstream

With nearly 1,000,000 posts a day, the blogosphere is overflowing with content and now fully established as a mainstream rather than fringe phenomenon. Traditional media have adopted blogs as a complementary form of content to the traditional news and feature stories. According to Techhnorati's latest report on the state of the blogosphere, many bloggers are making money. Technorati surveyed a sample of about 1,000 bloggers and found that the mean annual revenue for advertising is $6,000, but sites with 100,000 or more unique visitors are generating more than $75,000 in revenue.

(Credit: Technorati)

None of these results is surprising. Blogs started as a means of personal expression, and now offer more than a billion people the tools to self-publish. Traditional publishers and an armada of new, innovative publishers, as well as millions of readers, have embraced the blog format and ethos. Marketers, readers, publishers, politicians, and most people on the planet with access to the Internet understand the diversity of voices, as well as the cacophony, that blogs allow. The more savvy bloggers are getting sophisticated about search engine optimization, developing a niche, and making money. Technorati will dribble out more results from its survey this week, illuminating the what, why, and how of blogging.

[groink_hi]

I believe the main reason why mainstream media is switching to blogging is that the "middle man" - the editor or other executive - is taken out of the equation. Now, writers can post directly to the web instead of going through the traditional process of having articles read by others before posting. This allows for writers to post much more timely.

What I do not like about blogging in the mainstream media is that much of the blogging is written in the 1st person. I've been taught that if you write in the 1st person, then no none will take the article seriously. It makes articles all sound like editorials instead of a more traditional article written in the 3rd person. And last, it allows for the media sites to use blogging as an excuse anytime a writer is wrong about something, as in it isn't a news article but rather it is a blog, therefore it doesn't have to be precise.

In short, blogging is going to force us readers to concentrate even more on the validity of the information we read. If the media is going to switch to blogging, then make it obvious that what we're reading IS a blog and not a news article, such as what CNN is doing with iReport.

[bruceslog]

The best blogs include links to the facts.
And the best thing about blogs is that it isn't a 'press release' written by a White House staffer, etc., with the blind mainstream press just reiterating what slant on a story the press releases authors wishes the public to read.

[MatthewRhodes]

The Technorati report is interesting and shows how blogs, and social media more widely, really has entered the mainstream. There's another informative report out this week from MarketTools which also supports this - showing that the US pictures is even more developed than elsewhere.

Based on this data you can estimate that as many as 25m US consumers base their purchase decisions on things they read or see in social media. Impressive stuff.

I wrote a bit more about this and how to get to this number if anybody is interested:

http://blog.freshnetworks.com/2008/09/social-media-is-now-mainstream-25m-us-consumers-base-product-decisions-on-it/

Matt
FreshNetworks