A recent Synovate/Marketing Daily survey says 80 percent of Americans now know what a blog is and about 50 percent have visited them.
Of those Americans knowing what a blog is, 90 percent are from the ages of 25 to 34, while 65 percent are age 65 or older.
Once people find a blog they like, the good news for bloggers is they remain somewhat loyal to the blog, with 46 percent saying they visit the same blogs on a consistent basis. The other 54 percent still surf around looking for new blogs to discover.
While I wasn't able to find the demographic breakdown for those loyal versus those surfing, I would think the more loyal would trend older, and those surfing to find new ones all the time would trend younger. Most studies in other areas have that as a standard behavioral pattern.
As far as advertising on blogs goes, 43 percent of those visiting blogs say they notice advertising on them, while growing to 61 percent in the 18-24 demo. About 33 percent fo those noticing ads have clicked on them while reading the blog.
The major type of content found on blogs, was 65 percent found opinions, 39 percent discovered news and 38 percent found entertainment. Almost 33 percent read the gossip blogs.
What do people look to read on blogs? About 50 percent liked the entertainment value, around 26 percent looked for niche content like hobbies, and about 15 percent searched for news.
The blog viewing habits of Americans shows that 39 percent view them less than once a month, 28 percent visit a blog on a monthly basis, 15 percent visit them daily, and 5 percent visit them several times a day.
That says that 20 percent of Americans make up the vast majority of blog traffic in the country.
All this added together seems to speak to blogs still relatively being in their infancy in America, with a huge opportunity for growth. In contrast to online video and social networking sites, they seem to be taking hold on a more gradual, consistent pace of growth, rather than a huge surge.
That could be good for the industry, as it's not being interacted with in a way that could leave people going to the next new thing, like so many other areas. It seems blogs are more being discovered and found on more of an individual basis, and is starting to gain a foothold over time in the mindshare of those interacting with them.
I think all of this is a healthy experience for the space. When you look at the above figure talking of 46 percent are committing to specific blogs, it shows they can develop loyalty, while at the same time, the 54 percent of those searching around for blogs says there's a lot of room for growth and commitment in the future.
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