It’s kind of astonishing how swiftly society can shift these days. In 2005, when I started covering this industry, the guys at the local pub would look over the tops of their sports sections with blank or puzzled faces if you uttered the word “blog.”
Now it’s in stupid Twix commercials that don’t make any sense, and the Republican presidential candidate seems somewhat vaguely aware of it—granted, at the prompting of his aides who remind him of his daughter’s blog. Meghan McCain’s presence in the blogosphere, though, bucks the general trend: The blogosphere is still very much an old boys’ club.
Technorati’s annual State of the Blogosphere report peg the majority of bloggers as well-educated, English-speaking, small-town males over 35 with kids and making $75K per year. Makes you think you’d likely see them at the RNC, pulling iPhones Blackberries from their sharp suspenedered suits.
They’re certainly not noobs, though, suggesting this portrait of the “average blogger” has staying power. Nearly 60 percent of the 1,079 bloggers surveyed have been blogging for two years or more, their posts contributing to the 7.5 million active blogs still being updated every quarter. That means only about 5.6 percent of the 133 million blogs Technorati has indexed since 2002 are still in commission. 
Those that remain in 2008 write mostly about personal interests—79 percent reported this—but over half also write about business. Forty-six percent consider themselves professional bloggers, meaning their personal and business interests mix as they write about their industries. Only 12 percent are official company spokesbloggers.
Contrary to a lot of reports, they are making money via advertising. With an average annual investment of $1,800, bloggers are pulling in a mean revenue of $6,000. Make it to 100,000 page views, says Technorati, and a blogger pulls in $75,000 annually.
But perhaps this is the biggest change over the past few years: An industry that once scoffed at and discounted blogs has noticeably changed its tune at the direction of lost subscribers. Ninety-five percent of US newspapers have reporter blogs.
The revolution’s fun, huh?
Some other results from Technorati’s blogger poll:
Globally, two-thirds of bloggers are male, half are 18-34, and 70 percent have college degrees. Forty percent have an annual household income of $75K or more and 25 percent make over $100K. Forty-four percent are parents.
In the US, one-third are ages 25-34, compared to 19 percent of Internet users, and one in five are self-employed, compared to just eight percent of Internet users. Seventy-five percent of US bloggers have college degrees and 42 percent have attended graduate school. Over half make $75K.
Though in higher concentrations around places like San Francisco and New York, most respondent bloggers lived outside major metropolitan areas. Good luck finding one in Montana or Wyoming, though.
Forty-eight percent were American bloggers, and 27 percent European. Asian bloggers made up 13 percent of the whole, with South America and Australia accounting for seven and three percent respectively. Seventy-two percent of them posted in English.
