When freelance journalist Justin Hall published the world’s first ever blog in 1994, he probably couldn’t have imagined that 24 years on, the US alone would host 30 million blogs, with half of fortune 500 companies having a corporate blog. Among the world’s existing 115 blogging platforms, WordPress is the most popular with 18.7 million (96 % market share) followed by Blogger with 751,000 blogs (3.8 % market share). Here are insights about the blogging sector from the State of the Blogging Industry 2018 Infographic.
Blogging Demographics
Half of the world’s bloggers are between the ages of 21-35, followed by people below 21 years and the least blogging age group is people above 50 years old who only make up 7 % of the world’s bloggers. An interesting fact is that the blogging community has achieved gender balance with women slightly outpacing their male counterparts with 50.9 % of the world’s bloggers being female. Majority of bloggers are from the United States (29.22%) and UK (6 %), trailed by Japan, Brazil (the only developing country in the top five) then Canada.
Popularity of Blogging
More than three-quarters of internet users read blogs, reading around 10 blog posts a day, however, attention spans are extremely short. A majority of readers spend less than 15 seconds on posts and prefer fast loading pages. This is a wake-up call to bloggers to create more compelling and engaging content, including using multimedia such as images (posts with images get 94% more views) and videos that retain more users.
The popularity of blogging has affected businesses and how they deal with consumers. Consumers are spending more time researching online before committing to a purchase; reading reviews, social media comments from other users, videos etc. This has made bloggers highly influential, with more than half of blog readers found to be online shoppers. As a result, product promotion through product/service reviews, sponsored content and affiliate links has become a major revenue source for bloggers.
Additionally, Business to Business (B2B) companies are embracing blogging as part of their content strategy. Worldwide, companies are spending up to $790 million to enhance their marketing through blogs and it is proving to be worth it. For instance, small businesses that blog, have been found to grow their business leads by a whopping 126 % compared to competitors who don’t blog. That means if a similar business gets 10 new leads, the business that blogs also gets 10 leads, plus an additional 12 leads.
Length Of Blog Posts and Timing
Longer blog posts rank better in search engines as the majority of the blogs appearing within the top ten search results of Google are between 2,000 and 2,400 words. This is attributable to these posts having more long-tail keywords, which capture more specific searches by people. For example, searches like ‘how to start a fashion blog in Nairobi on a shoestring budget’ are more common on Google than shorter searches like ‘blog starting tips’. Additionally, blog posts exceeding 1500 words get more tweets (68 %) and more Facebook likes.
In regards to content development, the more time spent on creating blog posts the better the results -a third of bloggers who spend more than six hours on their articles report improved results. Blogging is an art where you can improvise as you grow, however, attracting the correct audience is a science that takes patience, commitment and the ability to learn continuously. Over the years The Blogging Scene Has Changed, 4 Ways To Stay Ahead Of The Curve. Want to know how bloggers make money in Kenya? Check out The Business Of Blogging: The Rise OF The Online Influencer
If you want to find out what’s happening in the Kenyan blog space check out the highlights from the iFreedoms Kenya state of the internet report 2017. Check out the infographic below on the state of the blogging industry 2018.
