The potential of blogging
Have you ever considered the enormous potential of the internet and of blogging in particular? This relatively new form of publishing and communication is still very much in its infancy – it hasn’t even begun to realise its vast potential.
The Global Figures:
Here are the hard facts:
- Estimated world population: just below 6.6 billion (as of March 10th 2007)
- Estimated internet usage: 1.1 billion (or 16.9% penetration)
- Estimated number of blogs: 60 million (+/- depending on who you read)
The Global Picture of Blogging:
Now consider the number of blog sites. Of those 60 million or so the vast majority are simply “dead”. By that I mean, the person started off with enthusiasm and posted a few entries and then lost interest for whatever reason. Then consider the number of serious bloggers who have multiple sites; for example, I have three sites (plus one on Blogger I no longer contribute to – it’s dead). This must mean that there are far fewer active blogs than the 60 million often quoted and even fewer serious bloggers.
Let’s be conservative and say there are 10 million serious bloggers – those whose blogs are active, meaning they post at least once every month. (I suspect the figure is far less but humour me).
If there are ten million serious bloggers, only 0.15% of the world’s population fall into this category.
Now if you are blogging and you post more frequently, say once a week you are very much in the minority. In reality, very few are seriously into this new publishing trend, especially those who blog daily. The potential for growth is staggering.
The Global Potential:
Now consider the potential readership. The global penetration of the internet is only 1.1 billion or 16.9% of the current world population. Now, there will never be universal access to the internet, not in our lifetimes anyway. But even if the penetration is only 50% of the world’s population, the huge potential for growth in the next decade is exciting. The big growth areas are in Asia and Africa.
If the world penetration of the internet triples over the next decade that would give over 3 billion users world wide. What a staggering growth potential for those who have already established blogs and web sites.
Reference:
- Internet World Stats – World Internet Usage Statistics News and population stats.
The words writers choose
Words are powerful.
Words can persuade, encourage, horrify, incense, inflame, enrage, amuse, entertain, pacify, sadden, inform, offend or hurt. Hey – that’s quite a list – and to think that I didn’t use a thesaurus. Actually, there are probably several hundred more words I could have used, but you get the picture.
As writers we need to choose our words carefully. The wrongly chosen words can nullify – even destroy – the message we are trying to convey to the reader. Never hesitate to change the words you first thought of during the editing stage. Your writing will be more understandable, powerful and enduring for this attention to precision.
Confusing Words
Some words can be confusing. Some words can be misleading, or misunderstood. Some words have no meaning to some people. Three words that cause a great deal of confusion, puzzlement and downright blank stares from the general population are blog, blogger and blogging. Even my computer spell check does not like them!
When you say you write a blog, or are a blogger, or you spend your day blogging, most people think you are either demented or speaking another language – or both. The fact is, most people still have not heard of blogging.
A new approach
After reading an article by Chris Cree on his site Success Creeations I am going to change tack. Instead of trying to explain what a blog is, and getting blank looks, I am going to tell people that I write articles and stories for the internet. I will tell them that I’ve had over a thousand articles and stories published on my three web sites in the last twelve months, and I have had over forty thousand visitors so far this year. And I am getting a pay increase every month!
It is worth reading all of the article written by Chris – it’s called The Words We Choose to Use Make a Difference. Don’t forget to read the comments too as these add value to the article.
Time taken to blog
How much time does it take to blog?
That is a difficult question to answer. It depends. It depends on a lot of factors.
- Length of the article: some articles take only a few minutes to write; long, in-depth and complicated articles may take several hours.
- Topic: some topics take much time to plan, research and think about.
- Mood: sometimes the words just flow easily; at other times I struggle to get the words down.
- Distractions: too many distractions can disrupt the flow of words.
Minimum
I try to maintain a post per day minimum on my three blogs. That is demanding. That means I need to write at least three articles each day just to keep up the supply. On a good day when I’m feeling good and the words are flowing nicely and the ideas come easily I can turn out five to seven articles.
Maximum
In twelve months of consistent, concentrated blogging I’ve had about a dozen days where I’ve produced double figures; my best day was twenty articles. Keep in mind that almost ALL of my content is original. I may have small quotes from others but probably 98% of my posts are original in content. That takes time and effort.
How much time does it take to blog?
Ben answers this question on Instigator Blog. He says that to be a successful blogger you need to develop a new mindset. He takes his readers through five elements in developing such a mindset. Read them here.
Happy First Birthday!
This blog is officially one year old today.
Happy First Birthday to my writing blog.
It has been an interesting journey of discovery, frustration, elation and a very steep learning curve. This blog commenced while I was staying with my son and daughter-in-law in Sydney last year. We were having a short holiday there and Simon did all the technical stuff setting up my three blogs. He still does all the maintenance on our blogs.
Thanks Sim’.
What have I learned?
- Connecting: The writer’s life can be lonely at times – but on the positive side, I’ve made many contacts with people all over the world through their comments and links to this blog and my other sites. Thanks to all of you.
- Selecting: The blogging world is an interesting place to live in; there are many wonderful writers who are forward looking in their thinking and express that in their writing. There’s just not enough time in each day to read it all, so one has to be very selective.
- Focussing: The writer’s and blogger’s life needs to be very focussed on the task at hand. The internet can be a huge distraction and hours just fly off into the unknown leaving little time for the real work of actually writing.
- Absorbing: There are so many things one needs to learn how to do to make the writer’s life and one’s blogging ventures successful. At times I felt like a giant sponge soaking up all the information about this new venture. Putting it all into practice was a challenge. Sometimes, like the sponge, I felt so bloated; at other times all wrung out and dry.
- Rewarding: Being able to write over 900 blog posts for the last year has been very rewarding, giving me a great sense of achievement. Having a readership in the many thousands every month has its own rewards, especially when people connect via comments, some returning frequently. Receiving my first payment from my blogging was another reward and, though modest at this stage, it is a start.
So there you have it.
Happy First Birthday.
Reader’s Questions:
- How long have you been blogging?
- What have you learned from writing and blogging?
How I keep track of my blogging schedule
I am trying to keep alive the juggling act of writing three blogs simultaneously. I try to post a new article on each blog every day. I don’t always succeed but I’m getting better. Regular posting like this hopefully keeps the readers returning regularly and this repeat traffic is important.
Forward Planning:
Most of the time I plan my topics and posts well in advance. Many articles are also written days or even weeks ahead of when they are published on the web. This helps to even out the workload and allows for emergencies. Knowing that I have a new article coming on every day for the next three days, for example, eases the mind if something unexpected occurs.
Record Chart:
Keeping track of these posts and plans is the key to forward planning. I’ve devised a simple way that works for me. I have a chart drawn up in MSWord. This chart has four columns. The first column is for the date. The other three columns are for the three blogs I publish, one column for each blog. As I write each article, I type its title in a bold font next to the date it will be published. At a glance then I can see upcoming posts and when they will appear. I can also see dates with no upcoming posts and I can then work on writing articles for them.
Other ideas:
For ideas for posts I use two parts of the chart. Where there are spaces I type in ideas ahead of time. These are not in a bold font and act as prompts for future writing. For example, I might plan to write a series of writing hints and publish them every Monday over the next four weeks. So on the chart I type “writing hint” every Monday for four weeks.
Virtual scribbling Pad:
I also have a space under the chart that I use as a virtual scribbling pad. It used to be on a pad alongside my computer, but other things kept on being put on top. On this scribbling pad I jot down ideas for future posts. Some I use, some just sit there for another day, or week or month; some may never be used but they are there so I don’t forget my ideas. You never know when you might be scratching for an idea.