State of the Blogosphere 2009 Introduction

Welcome to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2009 report, which will be released in five consecutive daily segments.

Since 2004, our annual study has followed the growth and trends in the blogosphere. For the second time, we surveyed bloggers directly. They were generous with their thoughts and insights. Thanks to all of the bloggers who took the time to respond to our survey.

(For more information into the SOTB methodology, consult the end of this article.)

In a world that’s constantly changing — shocked by financial catastrophe and political upheaval, yet still moving faster every day — not much is constant. But as the 2009 State of the Blogosphere survey demonstrates, the growth of the blogosphere's influence on subjects ranging from business to politics to the way information travels through communities continues to flourish. In a year when revolutions and elections were organized by blogs, bloggers are blogging more than ever, and the State of the Blogosphere is strong.

Indeed, it’s so strong that the attitudes held by bloggers don’t differ very much by age or gender, or even across geographies — which is why we’ve decided to display the results of the survey according to four different types of bloggers:

Hobbyists. Representing 72% of the respondents to this survey, hobbyists say that they blog for fun. They don’t make any money from their blogging - and only some would like to do so. More than any other group, though, Hobbyists say they blog to express their “personal musings” (53%). 71% update at least weekly, while 22% update daily. Because 76% blog to speak their minds, their main success metric is personal satisfaction (76%).

When we refer to professionals as a whole, we’re talking about the next three subgroups. All three are making at least some money blogging, and are looking to their blogs at least in part to further their business objectives.

Continued on the next page

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