The NEED to Blog and WHY you’ll do it…
Now I hate to constantly belabour the same point, but this is so important that it requires mentioning again and again until it sticks firmly into your mind:
A May 2008 report from the website eMarketer.com shows that between 2007 and 2012, blog readership will climb from 94 million to an astounding 145 million. That is an increase of 67%! Read that number again. Now, I could spend all day talking to you about the many different things you can do to ensure that your business becomes a big hit. But when you have something as easy as this, words just don’t seem to cut it.
You’d have quite a challenge on your hands trying to find any other area of the business world which could guarantee you a 67% increase. What else do you need to hear? You NEED to start a blog right now!
Think for a minute about the industry giants Google and Yahoo! What made them so successful? They got into the market at just the right time – a time when the market was predicted to be in the beginning stages of explosive growth. Again, that number was 67%…
If that number doesn’t get you fired up to start your own blog, I really don’t know what would. But you know me always pushing the limit. I’m going to tell you even more reasons why you need to start blogging – right now!
If you scour through the internet (as I’ve done for you) looking for the right material, correct and true facts, you’ll eventually land upon an excellent report researched and written by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in 2006. The subject was simple, yet very complex.
The study covered who was blogging, how they went about it and what they had accomplished with their blogging. The findings of this study were very interesting; I’ve pulled the most important facts from it for your elucidation here.
So here are the top 5 blogging/blog points I’ve distilled from this report, which should be reason enough (if the first and essential one isn’t) to start your own blog today:
Point #1: Increasing your readership
Around 8% of U.S. internet users (12 million) have a blog.
39% of U.S. internet users (about 40 million) read blogs.
That’s a 5:1 ratio…and that ratio, as the report from eMarketer suggests, will likely increase.
Point #2: For the money?
52% of bloggers cited personal expression and having a creative outlet as their reason for starting a blog.
Only 7% of bloggers are in it for the money. What does this tell you? With such a small number of bloggers in it to make money, there is next to no competition – the field is wide open. Better yet, there’s a lot of already successful blogs which you can take your cue from for your own for-profit venture. The point here is that creativity sells – but few of the creative types are interested in selling it. You know better. Learn from this – there are profits to be made.
Point #3: Easy on time
Only around one in ten bloggers spend ten or more hours per week on their blog. Now that’s an interesting point. There are a large number of successful blogs, and those who run these, aren’t necessarily working through the night. So, running your own blog and making money might not be that difficult or time-consuming after all. In fact, this separate “hobby” could turn out to be the easiest money you’ve ever made.
Point #4: Subject matter
The survey asked bloggers what they tend to write about. These were their answers:
37% focus on their own lives
11% write about issues of public interest
7% focus on entertainment and other niche topics (e.g. sports, business, technology, hobbies, religion, etc.)
The point here to learn is that if you want a lot of viewers on an ever-increasing basis, then you’ll need to allow bloggers a lot of PERSONAL space to express themselves. Today it’s all about personality, about the FACE. Remember this point well.
Point #5: Demographics
Knowing your readership is something you need to do before you begin blogging. You want to try to capture the largest demographic possible if you intend to make your blog a for-profit one.
54% of bloggers are 30 or less years of age.
Bloggers are evenly divided between male and female.
More bloggers live in suburban areas than live in cities.
60% of bloggers are white, 11% black, 19% English-speaking Hispanic, and 10% other.
The demographics here don’t mean that you shouldn’t also include minority groups in your target audience, but if you want to make money doing this you need to go for the biggest potential readership. The best blogs of all are those which appeal to everyone regardless of demographics. That’s the ideal. Having the broadest possible appeal is crucial to financial success through blogging.
There has been a lot of useful information and many good reasons given here for you to start up a blog right away. Don’t wait a second more – start blogging! Setting up a blog is fast and easy and usually free to boot! It also isn’t going to eat up all of your time. So what are you waiting for? What else do I need to tell you?
Filed under: Blogging