Blogging - Know Your Audience

We’re taught early in life that whenever giving a presentation of any kind you need to know your audience. When I started blogging I started wondering who was reading my blog. MyBlogLog certainly helped out with answering that question, but StatCounter and Google Analytics still showed a lot of traffic coming from many other places, so the question was still largely unanswered in my mind.

Check out these 60 interesting statistics you probably didn’t know about your audience.

1. 54% of bloggers are men.
2. 54% of bloggers are age 18 - 29.
3. 30% are age 30 - 49.
4. 60% of bloggers are white.
5. 20% of bloggers are English speaking Hispanics.
6. 51% live in the suburbs.
7. 36% live in urban areas.
8. 80% of bloggers are using broadband internet.
9. 84% of bloggers go online in a typical day.
10. 40% of bloggers go online several times at work.
11. 95% of bloggers get their news online.
12. 50% uses blogs as their source of news.
13. 85% of bloggers read the newspaper.
14. 75% of bloggers listen to radio news.
15. 80% sent/receive instant messages.
16. 55% of bloggers send/receive text messages via cell phones.
17. 77% have shared artwork, pictures, stories, or videos online.
18. 89% of bloggers have used a cell phone in last month.
19. 78% have used a digital camera in past month.
20. 56% have used a laptop with wireless internet in past month.
21. 47% of bloggers have an iPod or MP3 player.
22. 28% of bloggers have used a PDA in past month.
23. 40% blog as a hobby.
24. 13% felt their blog was important to them.
25. 44% said “It’s something I do, but not something I spend a lot of time on.
26. 13% post new material everyday.
27. 62% did not have a personal website before blogging.
28. 77% blog to creatively express themselves
29. 76% blog to document their personal experiences.
30. 64% blog to share personal knowledge.
31. 61% blog to motivate people to take action.
32. 67% of men blog to entertain.
33. 60% blog to keep in touch with family and friends.
34. 50% blog to meet new people.
35. 50% blog to influence the way people think.
36. 48% use their blog as a storage device.
37. 15% blog to make money.
38. 64% blog on random topics.
39. 53% of bloggers only have 1 blog.
40. 17% of bloggers have 2 blogs.
41. 26% author 3 or more blogs.
42. 55% blog under a pseudonym.
43. 33% think blogging is a form of journalism.
44. 70% of bloggers post when inspiration strikes.
45. 60% spend 1-2 hours on their blog.
46. 25% spend 3-9 hours on their blog.
47. 83% blog from home.
48. 13% of high income (>$75k) blog from work.
49. 82% will be blogging a year from now.
50. 47% don’t know their blogging statistics.
51. 22% have less than 10 hits per day.
52. 13% have more than 10 hits per day.
53. 33% blog to engage their audience.
54. 52% blog from themselves.
55. 49% feel their readership is from people they personally know.
56. 90% of bloggers read other people’s blogs.
57. 19% read other blogs several times per day.
58. 87% allow comments to be posted on their blog.
59. 82% post comments on other blogs.
60. 41% keep a blogroll of 50 blogs or less.

Learn anything from these stats? I particularly found #48 quite interesting since I spend the majority of my time blogging from work. Granted it’s because I just started a new job. I would love to hear your comments on what you learned or found interesting!