eMarketer Digital Intelligence reported yesterday that, according to BlogHer and iVillage, the generation of Millennials (18-25 yrs) are the most active in the blogosphere. Active defined as both writing and reading blogs with a total of 40.4% of the bloggers belonging to the age group and 30.3% of the readers belonging in the same group. As can be expected the number of bloggers and blog readers go down as the age bracket goes up. It is good to know though that even the seniors (62-76 yrs) have jumped in on the bandwagon with more participating as readers (17.2%) instead of as bloggers (12.8%).
The study also showed that even though the blogosphere seems like it is getting saturated with money-making machines the primary reasons why most people blog is still largely for personal reasons like self-expression (81.6%), for the sheer fun of it (80.6%), and connect with other people (75.4%). Those that blog to earn money are a distant 31.6% while those blogging to persuade others (this would include online marketers) is only 20.2%. This does show though that with blogs the community built around it is still very important and that the social aspect just cannot be ignored.
Since self-expression and the social aspect runs really high it is no wonder that more and more people are taking to micro-blogging because they can do that without having to write long posts. For those looking into blogging to make money this means that the best people to target would still be those belonging in the Generation X/Y and Millennials and that a fun community (think lively comment section) where people can express themselves is a must to draw readers in.
Originally posted on April 27, 2010 @ 9:08 am
