Top 10 Blogosphere Trends A data-driven study of blogger and blogger audience trends

Hi, I’m Greg and I’m a blogger.I’m Lijit’s product weenieI’m a bloggerI’m a periodic authorI’m a daddyI’m a husbandI’m a bike racer@mudandcowbellsTell me about you!Lijit Networks, Inc.

I’m Lijit’s product weenie

I’m a blogger

I’m a periodic author

I’m a daddy

I’m a husband

I’m a bike racer

@mudandcowbells

Tell me about you!

Data: The Lijit Secret SauceLet’s talk data and how it attributed to our report….11,000 installed publishers (100+ per day)2,700,000 blog-rolled publishers crawled30,000,000 uniques (monthly)350,000,000 page views (monthly)~6 on-line content sources per publisher20082009 y/y analysisWhat did we find out?How can it help you be a better blogger?Lijit Networks, Inc.

11,000 installed publishers (100+ per day)

2,700,000 blog-rolled publishers crawled

30,000,000 uniques (monthly)

350,000,000 page views (monthly)

~6 on-line content sources per publisher

20082009 y/y analysis

What did we find out?

How can it help you be a better blogger?

Lijit Networks, Inc.68%Percent INCREASE of blogs that have installed ad tags between y.t.d.2008-2009.1Bloggers are getting wise & the long tail is speaking loudly. Brands are seeking community voice. What is your ad (and ad tag) strategy?Is contextually relevant creative displayed?

Lijit Networks, Inc.47%DECREASE from 68% in 2008 of publishers using Google Ad Sense to monetize their sites. 2Increase in ad network options for bloggers is evident. Bloggers are experimenting beyond Google Ads.Ad networks aggregating readers to entice large brands and agencies.Display more attractive than text to bloggers.

Lijit Networks, Inc.6The number of social media tools used by bloggers in addition to their blog. 3What social media tools are you using? Why?Are external tools used for driving blog traffic?Is visual media a priority? ‘Visual Parsing’ easier for searchers to impulse and click on your link.

Lijit Networks, Inc.3.14%Percentage of page views referred to by Twitter for blogs with >100 page views a day.4How are you leveraging the tool? (and it is a tool IMHO)How are you building followers?Are micro-blogs favorable? Trend is to move away from what’s ‘hard’ to micro-blogs (Posterous, FaceBook).

Lijit Networks, Inc.47Average number of members within a blog roll.5This is about INFLUENCE. Blogroll adoption is a measure of this.Exposure is key to driving traffic (no duh).What are you doing to reach out to other bloggers? Their SEO is your SEO and vice versa.

Lijit Networks, Inc.72%Percent INCREASE in blogs installing tools designed to reduce bounce rate.6How are youmeasuring time on site?How are you measuring its importance?What are you doing to ‘cause pause’?Search, stay-on-site tools increasing in popularity.Apture, Wibiya to be looked at.

Lijit Networks, Inc.27%Percentage of page views attributed to global search engine referrals (Google, Yahoo, Bing/MSN and Ask)7The major % are ‘direct’ hits indicating people in your sphere of influence having you bookmarked. How are you getting beyond that network?Influence, blogroll inclusion and social networking (e.g. commenting) are key.

The major % are ‘direct’ hits indicating people in your sphere of influence having you bookmarked.

How are you getting beyond that network?

Influence, blogroll inclusion and social networking (e.g. commenting) are key.

Lijit Networks, Inc.50%The percentage of Google, Yahoo and Bing/MSN search queries which contain 3 or more terms..8As query strings get longer, more referrals pass to smaller publications.Why is this relevant? Specificity! Super positive trend for mid/long tail blogger exposure. Be an expert!

Lijit Networks, Inc.25%Total percentage of blogs WITHOUT search functionality!!9#FAIL (we can use this as Lijit powers www.failblog.org)Readers are at a disservice if they can’t get to your old content (old to you/new to them!). Search result ad shots on goal are non-existent!Content mining allows increased page views!

Lijit Networks, Inc.3-5%The average increase in page views due to searches performed on a site. 10Increased page views means increased shots on goal for advertisers. How are you categorizing/tagging your posts?How are you exposing (meta) key words so advertisers can take advantage?