Technorati: Blogs are mainstream

Last week it felt like 2006 all over again, as Technorati issued a massive State of the Blogosphere update. While this is the first update on the state of the blogosphere from TRati in what seems like a couple of years, it had a ton of interesting stats and conclusions.

One of the first assertions TRati makes is that blogs are now mainstream. And I can't argue with them.

TRati cites several sources on blogging and blog readership, including a recent eMarketer study that claims that monthly blog readership among the US internet population reached 50% last year. I referenced this same study in my Blogging for Business session at last week's SBMU, and eMarketer went on to predict that monthly blog readership would hit 67% of the US internet pop by 2012. If eMarketer is correct, right NOW over half the people in the United States that are on the internet, are reading blogs on a regularly basis, and by 2012, two out of every three people will be.

As far as demographics, TRati's findings seem to be more or less in line with what I've seen from other sources. The majority of bloggers are male, are affluent, and a much higher percentage of Millenials and Gen Xers are reading and writing blogs, than other age groups.

Other key findings:

• 51% of blogs receive at least 1,000 unique monthly visitors. 18% receive at least 10K unique monthly visitors
• 54% of bloggers have some form of advertising on their blogs
• Avg annual revenue from blog advertising for US bloggers was $5,060
• 82% of bloggers post product/brand reviews
• 51% of respondents believe that more people will get their news and information from blogs versus traditional media, in the next 5 years

But for companies, I think the case for investigating a move into the blogosphere becomes increasingly compelling. Blog readership and growth are BOTH slated to grow by 33% over the next 5 years, and as the above findings show, the vast majority of bloggers are already using blogs as a channel to discuss companies and brands.

Customers are increasingly moving to blogs to create and participate in conversations about companies and brands. Why wouldn't these companies and brands want to become an active participant in these conversations?