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How Big is the Blogosphere, Really?

Posted by drjay1966 • 7/22/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: bloggers, blogging, blogosphere, statistics

From the latest issue of Harper's:

"Estimated percentage of all existing blogs that have not been updated in four months: 94."

This would seem to back up something I've long suspected: that, for all the mentions of however many tens of millions of bloggers there are, the number of active bloggers--in the sense of blogging at least once a week, or even a few times a month, or, for that matter, at all after the initial novelty wears off, or who've told more than close friends and family, or anyone at all, that their blogs exist--is far, far smaller, probably in the thousands rather than millions.

So how big do you think the blogosphere is, really?

User Comments

7/22/09

drjay1966

Another question: how come the message board at Blog Catalog isn't updating tonight?

[reply]
1. 7/22/09
  
  Friday13
  
  I've noticed that happening the past few nights.
  
  The coder(s) must be tinkering with the board system when this half of the world is asleep.
7/22/09

marketborn

Very small place. Say around a thousand server racks big.

[reply]
7/22/09

freshtunesfinland

Though there may be a large number of blogs, I still think that blogging has yet to be exploited in the same ways as other medias are. Outside the US, at least in Europe, blogging is no where near as popular or as appreciated. It's interesting to see the development of blogs, and traditional medias as well.

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7/22/09

ThriftShopRomantic

This is really where I see the advantage for the bloggers who DO hang in there and post regularly.

The amount of bloggers I know who have disappeared since I've started blogging is pretty high.

But keep consistent and reliable, and your numbers really do grow. You end up one of the few... the proud... the still actually writing stuff.

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7/22/09

Bullgrit

About this >|-----------------|< big. Give or take a hyphen.

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7/22/09

melindaville

Even in the year I have been blogging, I have seen so many blogs come and go. It's because it is so easy (and free) to start a blog. One can do it on a whim--and without any technical expertise. It's like starting a diary--but you are doing it online. Most people who start journals or diaries never keep it up (I always did) but the difference with this is that there is this evidence that litters it up.

What they should do is to put build a feature into blogging platforms that causexs the blogs to explode into cyberspace if they are neglected for a period of longer than 6 months. So, if they don't bother checking in or updating their blog? Ker-FLOOEY! Pffffttttt! Gone. Poof!

Problem solved!

Or people can elect me as queen a the blogosphere and I can go in to each blog with my Uzi and take out the ones that I feel aren't fit to be part of the blogosphere.

[reply]
1. 7/22/09
  
  dcarroll
  
  I am terrified of the "Uzi Blog Queen."
2. 7/22/09
  
  melindaville
  
  LOL. Thankfully, I was joking.
7/22/09

nothingprofound

Whenever someone necroposts an old thread four or five months old I'm always amazed at all the interesting commentators who seem to have vanished into thin air. I keep wondering: Will this be my fate four months from now? Who knows?

[reply]
1. 7/22/09
  
  drjay1966
  
  Then, a lot of them just get scared away by the fighting on the discussion boards...
7/22/09

Rivy

I am one of those whose interests come and go. I will get into one avenue of interest - drawing on paper, painting (maybe), writing, posting, page building, updating journals, organizing past works - and for some period stay relatively active. Then something will divert and I will find myself exploring a new avenue for a while - and then wane. And return to a previous path to see what remains unexplored.

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7/22/09

timethief
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