Perseus Development, a survey software maker, estimated in late 2003 that there are some 4 million blogs worldwide published using the hosted solutions of Blog-City, BlogSpot, Diaryland, LiveJournal, Pitas, TypePad, Weblogger and Xanga. Notably, this estimate would exclude all the blogs that are run on their own domains via services such as Blogger and the most popular blog publishing platform, Movable Type.

The white paper goes on to project that there would be some 10 million worldwide by 2004.

The NY Times points out that the study finds a 66% churn rate for all blogs started. Clay Shirky, an adjunct assistant professor in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, puts this in persepective: “The truth is, a churn rate of less than 80 percent on a technology growing this fast is very, very good.”

Perseus Development: The Blogging Iceberg

This February 2004 study from Pew Research Center finds that, as of a summer 2003 survey, some 2% of the online U.S. population blogs. The study also notes that early data from 2004 indicates that figure may have gone up to as much as 7% of the population. According to my analysis, as laid out in greater detail in an article I wrote for iMedia, that 2% and 7% works out respectively to 2.5 million to 8.8 million people, based on Pew’s Deceber 2003 estimate of 126 million U.S. adults online.

The report looks at a range of people’s online activities, but if you prefer, you can skip right to the section on weblogs.

This is a December 2003 survey of 610 bloggers, the results of which include the following:

• 53% of respondents blog at least once a day (which surprises me)
• 48% blog both at home and at work
• 44% have more than one blog
• 13% feature advertising
• Only 9% have every been approached by a company to include a mention of them on their blog

There’s a fair bit more to this survey, so take a look.

BlogSearchEngine.com: Survey of Bloggers

I’m delighted to see MarketingSherpa is reselling this report. I am its co-author and primary analyst, written originally for MarketingWonk, which did not do the greatest job of promoting the report. Leave it to MarketingSherpa, though, to market it right, as they are experts at report sales.

MarketingSherpa’s sales copy includes this:

Business Blogs sidesteps gee whiz hype to focus on practical realities. You’ll learn:

• How 45 companies in a wide array of industries (including both B-to-B and B-to-C) are using Blogs today for marketing, customer relationship building, PR, and corporate communications.
• Specific tactics to get readers for your Blog (with more than one million blogs out there, getting attention is your biggest challenge.) Includes 17-best online resources, and quick tips on syndication.
• How and where to advertise on third party Blogs if you want to take advantage of the Blog phenomenon without building your own. (Note: Response rates are currently more than double the average online ad click rate.)
• Basics on creating a Blog – including writing-style, best updating frequency, recommended technology, and legal advice. (Who owns copyright on comments visitors post to your Blog? Find out.)

The report costs $99 and is worth every penny, if I do say so myself!

MarketingSherpa: Business Blogs: How Successful Companies Get Real Results With Weblogs

My first column today on research topics at iMedia Connection. Not surprisingly, I kick things off with a blog theme. Includes original research about the characteristics of blog readers from Quris.

iMedia: Blogging Is Booming