This is the first post in a series about the nature of the Blogosphere, based on data from our recent survey of Qumana users. Our survey is based upon the data and opinions of 103 bloggers who have tried or have downloaded Qumana . This survey gave us a lot of insight into bloggers and the Blogosphere, as well as great feedback to help us improve Qumana. The first part of the survey series will look at the blog experience of our users.
Activity of bloggers - how long they've been blogging, for how many blogs, and for how much time per week.
(n=103)
Roughly 50% of bloggers using Qumana have been blogging for at least a year. Given that I'm not even at that mark myself, it's an impressive figure. The data suggests two things: that Qumana is being used by "experienced" bloggers, and that offline editors are tools sought out after a year of blogging. Possibilities for this shift could stem from frustration with posting via browsers or from the need to manage multiple blogs (see below).
Given the acceleration of the blogosphere, I would expect the numbers of new bloggers seeking easier blog management tools to increase, and that we'll see a lot of fluctuation in the percentages for many years to come, as new bloggers become experienced bloggers at a faster rate.
I believe that the tools to help newbie bloggers are becoming more sophisticated, decreasing the learning curve required to use them. That being said, once bloggers reach a certain stage of knowledge, they will begin to want tools to help them increase productivity and to bypass the restriction of blog platform interfaces.
(n=102)
I was mildly surprised to find that most of our bloggers had more than one blog. It makes sense, given that blogging tools such as Qumana make cross-publishing simple, and take away the pain of managing and posting to multiple blogs.
Given our data, 38% of bloggers had 3 to 5 blogs. There was a jump from one blog, 32% to 3-5, with fewer bloggers at 2 blogs (21%). My guess is, if bloggers follow my own pattern, jumping to two is just a stepping stone to more.
Of those bloggers who have 3 to 5 blogs, 70% have been blogging for one year or more. This shows, quite clearly, that the longer you blog, the more likely you are to have more than one blog.
Oddly enough, we have a single lone blogger out there blogging 3 to 5 blogs with less than 2 months experience - I'd say watch out for that one!
(n=103)
38% of bloggers surveyed spend more than 6 hours per week plugging away at their blogs. We have a few bloggers playing around at less than 2 hours per week, which is not really very much time at all. Of those bloggers who have 3 to 5 blogs, 24% spend 3 to 5 hours a week blogging.
One thing to think about here - do we really realize how much time we actually spend blogging each day? I doubt we'd even like to admit that to ourselves.
More data to come: Keep your eye out for future information on time spent reading blogs, blogger demographics, opinions on advertising, and the great feedback we've received about Qumana.
Survey reliability: The survey seems to fairly represent new bloggers, experienced bloggers, and a good cross section of careers, blog topics, and more. However, despite this diversity, the data may not represent the true blogosphere due to the nature of the survey and its restriction to only those bloggers using Qumana.
Technorati Tags: qumana, survey, blogging, blogosphere, bloggers, blogging survey
