Interesting Facts about Blogs

Along side that Time Magazine article Blogs Have Their Day. was another article titled 10 Things We Learned About Blogs. Most of the 10 things were common knowledge in the blogosphere so I'll just mention the 3 things that I felt were interesting.

"Bloggers Make Money." The article reported that the author of Talking Points Memo blog is making $5K/mo from banner ads. This is the blog that received fame for its role in pushing for Trent Lott's resignation as Senate majority leader.

"Most Bloggers Are Women. ... According to a survey of more than 4 million blogs by Perseus Development, 56% were created by women."

"Bloggers Can Be Fakers". The article mentioned the Layne Johnson blog which went on for 3.5 years and was suppose to have belonged to a Minnesota lesbian. It turned out to be a hoax by a 35 year-old male entrepreneur.

Also it mentions the popular fake Bill Clinton blog. This Clinton blog is kind of interesting. The author puts a lot of thought into the posts to make them seem real. Also, it looks like this blogger might be making money. It has an Amazon link to Clinton's book "My Life". I wonder if Amazon approved this guy as an affiliate. This blog doesn't have huge amounts of traffic, but it does have a decent number of about 180 visits/day. Looking at its Site Meter Stats, the blog had a surge of traffic in June of around 40K visits when it first started. Then it quickly fell and has been averaging around 5K visits/mo since August. I guess this is when people realized it wasn't real.

Fake blogs might get traffic, but it seems like there's a good chance of getting into legal problems if you're pretending to be someone else.

Things to Learn from the Power Line Blog

Here's more info on that Time Magazine article Blogs Have Their Day.

Some of the history behind Power Line is interesting and can be useful for wannabe bloggers. The blog now has three writers. It started as a lark by a 50-something lawyer named John Hinderaker. The next week Hinderaker called a friend named Johnson and asked him if he wanted in. Johnson agreed but said "I think the idea that we could ever have any readers for this thing is a pathetic fantasy."

Well, Power Line has many readers. I just checked their stats and they're averaging 52K visitors per day. And they are now making money through ads. They're using blogads.com. I see 8 blogads on their blog. From blogads, I see they're asking $300/mo for an ad. So that's $2400/mo. Not too bad for a hobby. However, it should be mentioned that there are 3 writers. So that comes out to $800 per writer per month (excluding their hosting costs).

The Time Magazine article gave some info about the Power Line blog that can help other wannabe bloggers. First, the Power Line bloggers post often. It said about 10 times a day. This seems to be a common thread to popular blogs.

Second, their posts are not too long. The article says "It takes 20 sec. to read a typical post, and when you're finished you've got the basic facts up to the minute plus a dab of analysis and a dash of spin."

Third, they've built a strong online community. The article mentioned: "When you read Power Line, you feel if you're part of a community, a like-minded righteous few."

So if you think it's a pathetic fantasy that your blog will have readers, don't be so sure. It's not easy, but it's definitely possible to have a successful blog. Just be persistent and creative. You might have a chance.

The Advantage of Blogs Over Conventional Media

Time Magazine's December 27th issue had an interesting article on blogging called Blogs Have Their Day.

The article mostly discusses the blog Power Line. This is the blog that was most responsible for proving those 60 Minutes National Guard memos were not real. After this information came out, CBS launched a formal investigation and Dan Rather announced he would be stepping down. The Power Line blog post that started all of this was called, the now famous, "The 61st Minute" post.

The article mentions an important feature of blogs that helped Power Line disprove CBS. That feature is a blog's interactivity in which readers can help the blog authors to enhance understanding and knowledge. This interactivity is unique to the web and can't be done to the same degree in other kinds of media.

The article mentioned that "the key information in "The 61st Minute" came from Power Line's readers, not its writers."

The article further mentioned "Conventional media may have more readers than blogs do, but conventional media can't leverage those readers the way blogs can."