Among the 10 million blogs tracked by BlogPulse, Intelliseek reports that 31% are active within the last 30 days …
… 44% are active within the last 60 days and slightly more than half (51%) are active within the last 90 days. “Active” means a new post has been added.
My belief is that the abandoned blogosphere consists mostly of free weblogs powered by Blogger or LiveJournal. This is why – at least in my mind – I trust TypePad and Userland blogs I turn up through routine Google searches the most. They charge for their services. People who are paying $100+ a year to blog probably have a serious passion. This doesn’t make them more truthful or credible. Still, I take these bloggers more seriously because they are putting their money where there mouth is.
I am not turning my nose up at the free services. Many of the best blogs I read are powered by Blogger. However, when I turn up old content on freebie blogs via Google, I definitely hold them to a slightly higher standard than I do others powered by the paid services.
Link: A BlogPulse Milestone: 10 Million Blogs!
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.