ARE BLOGS DEAD?
Drizzlin Media, a Branding 2.0 consultancy had released their latest report on the state of the Indian Blogosphere. We interviewed 30 bloggers across the country covering genres as diverse as technology, fashion and food to get a pulse of the latest affairs in the Indian user generated content space.
“We were observing a transition in how people create content, with new platforms coming in and lot more content being shared, we were keen to understand how blogging is being redefined”, said Deepak Goel, CEO, Drizzlin Media.
Are blogs "walled gardens" in the age of social networks? Is there any innovation in online content format? Are bloggers being pressured by the fickle twitter/facebook audience with lower attention span? Find answers to some of these questions in the report.
3. Blogs were pitted as ‘the’
medium for honest,
opinionated and user
generated content…..
4. Blogs were pitted as ‘the’
medium for honest,
opinionated and user
generated content…..
BUT HAVE THEY BEEN ABLE
TO SATIATE THAT NEED?
5. The number of blogs over the
last decade have grown
manifold, the number of
genres quadrupled, the
internet population base in
India ever growing…..
6. The number of blogs over the
last decade has grown
manifold, the number of
genres quadrupled, the
BUT DO WE REALLY
internet population base in
FOLLOW THEM TODAY?
India ever growing…..
OR HAVE THEY ASSUMED A
STATE OF REDUNDANCY?
13. Research Methodology
• Type: Qualita&ve
• Sample size : 32 (snow‐ball sampling)
• Blogger Iden'fica'on Process:
A conscious effort was made to ensure that the 32 bloggers approached were
representa&ve of the popular genres within the blogosphere. In addi&on, the focus was
also to interact with bloggers who had been blogging for varied &me‐periods, to obtain
a sense of how this space has evolved over &me.
Distribu&on of the various genres along with the year of blogging ini&a&on have been
provided below:
Genre No of Bloggers Percentage
Blog Ini'a'on Year
Tech 7 21.88%
Food 4 12.50% 0 2 4 6 8
Personal 4 12.50%
2001 2 6.25%
Culture 3 9.38% 2002 2 6.25%
Humour 3 9.38% 2004 5 15.63%
2005 3 9.38%
Travel 2 6.25%
4
year
Adver&sing, 2006 12.50%
1 3.13% 2007 7 21.88%
Copyrights
2008 5 15.63%
Automobiles 1 3.13%
2009 2 6.25%
Bollywood 1 3.13% 2010 1 3.13%
Book reviews 1 3.13% 2011 1 3.13%
Design 1 3.13% 0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00%
Finance/investment 1 3.13%
Gaming 1 3.13% % of total respondents
HR/Consultancy 1 3.13%
Self development 1 3.13%
14. Research Methodology
• Framework
– Through the course of the interviews we gathered insights and perspec&ves
pertaining to the following aspects‐
Key Focus Areas
Key mo&va&ng factors behind blog ini&a&on
Prime challenges faced/or being faced pivotal to overcome for the blog’s success
Content Quality Benchmarks
• Quality benchmarks for Indian vs Foreign Blogs
• Self ra&ng for content quality and scope for improvement
Effec&veness of blogger communi&es
Perspec&ve on Brand Outreaches
SWOT analysis for the blogosphere
– Individual insights on the above aspects were collated to derive trends.
– To measure content quality, a 10 point ra&ng model was u&lized. As rankings tend
to be fairly subjec&ve, the bloggers were also asked to enumerate the reasons
provided for a par&cular ranking so as to ensure consistency in comparison across
various genres.
19. Key Mo'va'ng Factors
Q: What were the mo'va'ng factors behind your blog ini'a'on?
Mo'va'on behind the ini'a've
0 5 10 15 20 25
Passion for genre 20 40%
Networking 9 18%
Love for wri&ng 9 18%
factor
Archive building 7 14%
Money 3 6%
Recogni&on 2 4%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
% of total responses
Ini&ally most of the blogs served as personal logs u&lized primarily for the purpose of
networking and archive building.
As blogs increased both in number & readership, a shii was observed with more
individuals choosing the medium to explore & publish their interests in specific genres. A
major catalyst for this was the rise of social networks as well which allowed for
movement of content on mul&ple plajorms.
20. Blog USP
Further, majority of the bloggers believed that their offering was differen&ated with
opinionated and original content. Most stated their focus area lies within a niche.
Humor, objec&vity and honesty were addi&onal aspects that enhanced the USP of the
blog.
Dis'nguishing feature of content
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Opinionated 8 17%
Originality 7 15%
Niche 6 13%
Humour 6 13%
feature
Honesty 5 10%
Appeals to a mass audience 4 8%
Objec&ve 4 8%
Informa&on/Research 4 8%
Interac&ve 3 6%
Visual Appeal 1 2%
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18%
% count of total responses
21. Self Ra'ngs
The obvious ques&on to ask then is…
Q: How would you rate yourself on content quality?
Self Ranking for Quality
Average 15 47%
No comments 7 22%
rankings
Good 7 22%
Bad 3 9%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
% of responses
Interes&ngly, a majority of 56% of the bloggers rated the quality of their blog’s content
as bad or average. Only 22% rated the quality of content as good.
24. Peer Ra'ngs
Q. If you were to rate quality of content by Indian and Foreign* <genre> bloggers, what
would it be?
Quality Rankings
0 5 10 15 20 25
Bad
5 16%
5 16%
Average
8 25%
rankings
Foreign Bloggers
7 22% Indian Bloggers
No comments
9 28%
20 63%
Good
10 31%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
% of responses
In comparison, it seems bloggers have more faith in the ability of their peers, with 31%
of the responses sugges&ng quality of content to be good for Indian bloggers and a
corresponding figure of 63% for foreign bloggers
* Most of the Bloggers drew comparisons with their counterparts in mature markets like the USA and the U.K., the analysis purely reflects that.
25. Peer Ra'ngs
Q. What do you think is fairly remarkable or lacking about Indian and Foreign <genre>
blogs? Ra'ng Reasons behind the ra'ng Count
Data insufficiency and lack of in‐depth analysis 1
Lack of diversity 3
Indian Blogs Average
Lack of opinion 1
Focus on Mone&za&on 1
Cluper 1
Lack of original content 2
Bad
Lack of quality content 1
Quality content 6
Good
Opinionated Content 1
Grand Total 17
Ra'ng Reasons behind the ra'ng Count
Average Beper brand rela&onships 2
Maintenance, Presenta&on, Consistency, Correct tagging. 1
Quality content 9
Variety 2 Interna'onal
Strongly opinionated 2 Blogs
Greater exposure 1
Good Powerful visual appeal to content 1
Professional approach, Backed by organiza&onal support. 1
Different perspec&ve 1
Grand Total 26
26. Peer Ra'ngs
Q. What do you think is fairly remarkable or lacking about Indian and Foreign <genre>
blogs? Ra'ng Reasons behind the ra'ng Count
Data insufficiency and lack of in‐depth analysis 1
Lack of diversity 3
Indian Blogs Average
Lack of opinion 1
Focus on Mone&za&on 1
Cluper 1
Lack of original content 2
Majority of the bloggers rated the content quality
Bad
Lack of quality content 1
between bad to average for Indian Blogs.
Quality content 6
Good
Opinionated Content 1
Grand Total 17
Ra'ng Reasons behind the ra'ng Count
Average Beper brand rela&onships 2
Maintenance, Presenta&on, Consistency, Correct tagging. 1
Quality content 9
Variety 2 Foreign Blogs
Strongly opinionated 2
Greater exposure 1
Good Powerful visual appeal to content 1
Professional approach, Backed by organiza&onal support. 1
Different perspec&ve 1
Grand Total 26
27. Inferences drawn
Interes&ngly, rankings varied greatly with genres.
• Technology as a genre received the lowest rankings.
Lower rankings were apributed to the excessive use of mirrored content. In
addi&on, excessive use of SEO tac&cs like click‐baits was also cited as a
nuisance. The presence of mirrored content was further apributed to the lack
of brand support. Ra&ng Genre count % count
Culture 2 6.25%
Tech 1 3.13%
• In comparison, personal and Personal 1 3.13%
Travel 1 3.13%
niche blogs such as travel and Good Automobiles 1 3.13%
food are credited with Bollywood
Food
1
1
3.13%
3.13%
providing alterna&ve voices HR/Consultancy 1 3.13%
and quality content which Self development 1 3.13%
No comments 9 28.13%
may not be readily available Tech 1 3.13%
in the tradi'onal mediums. Personal 1 3.13%
Culture 1 3.13%
Book reviews 1 3.13%
Average Design 1 3.13%
Finance/investment 1 3.13%
Gaming 1 3.13%
Humour 1 3.13%
Tech 3 9.38%
Bad Personal 1 3.13%
Travel 1 3.13%
Grand Total 32 100.00%
28. Q: What are the factors that
impact the sustainability of
the Blogosphere?
29. Understanding the key challenges….
Lack of opinion, diversity, and in‐depth analysis were all cited as reasons for lower
quality benchmarks.
But why do they exist?
To answer this, we decided to look closely at the factors impac&ng the process of
content crea&on‐ the key challenges faced, the opportuni&es and threats they entail.
31. Understanding the key challenges….
On evalua&ng the same, the viability of blogging can be ques'oned on the following
parameters‐
• Lower audience thresholds
Limited internet penetra&on. The online space is also increasingly being dominated
by the presence of genre specific celebri&es, dilu&ng the poten&al audience reach
for bloggers.
• Lack of support infrastructure impac'ng Scalability
Outdated legal and technical support framework, less evolved brand rela&onships
and the failure of blogger communi&es to address these via community based
ac&on. All these combined have a bearing on the sustenance of blogs, impac&ng
scalability.
• Lack of a professional approach
Limited means to mone&ze in addi&on to the aspects highlighted above entail that
blogging will rarely be a professional pursuit for many. Most of them supplement
income needs via day jobs or by associa&ng themselves with larger en&&es ‐ which
leads to inconsistency.
This further impacts the quality of content.
32. Understanding the key challenges….
In comparison, Foreign blogs were given a higher quality ranking because of the following
factors‐
• Strong Structural Support
More evolved legal framework, strong backing from media publica&on houses and
beper brand rela&onships.
Bloggers have a recognized/dignified posi&on amongst brand marketers and are known
to have a significant impact on the audience.
• A more professional approach
High levels of professionalism and quality is showcased, fine balance of visual and
textual content. Over &me, content formats have been able to evolve to enhance the
user experience.
• Wider reach and Scalability
A wider audience base due to higher internet penetra&on rates makes the blogging
proposi&on a lot more viable. Scalability leads to a more professional approach to
content and marke&ng.
33. Understanding the key challenges….
In comparison, Foreign blogs were given a higher quality ranking because of the following
factors‐
• Strong Structural Support
More evolved legal framework, strong backing from publica&on houses and beper
brand rela&onships.
In contrast, it’s almost a ‘one man show’ for the
Bloggers have a recognized/dignified posi&on amongst brand marketers and are known
to have a significant impact on the audience.
Indian blogger…suffering at all fronts, losing out
• A more professional approach
in comparison.
High levels of professionalism and quality is showcased, fine balance of visual and
textual content. Over &me, content formats have been able to evolve to enhance the
user experience.
• Wider reach and Scalability
A wider audience base due to higher internet penetra&on rates makes the blogging
proposi&on a lot more viable. Scalability leads to a more professional approach to
content and marke&ng.
35. Blogger Communi'es
Q: Are you an ac've member of any blogger community?
Ac've member of a blogger community?
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Used to be 14 44%
No 11 34%
Yes 7 22%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
When we talk about bloggers as a community – we’re talking about those who started
blogging to feel the sense of belongingness and some who wanted to take their online
rela&onship off‐line and meet fellow bloggers to network with people of similar
interests.
From our analysis, we realized that 46% of the bloggers felt that, these meets held
some value at an ini&al stage but over a period of &me have lost value.
36. Blogger Communi'es
Q: Are you an ac've member of any blogger community?
Ac've member of a blogger community?
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Used to be 14 44%
Why are Blogger Communi&es losing value?
No 11 34%
Yes 7 22%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
When we talk about bloggers as a community – we’re talking about those who started
blogging to feel the sense of belongingness and some who wanted to take their online
rela&onship off‐line and meet fellow bloggers, network with people of similar interests.
From what we understand, 47% bloggers said,these meets held some value at an ini&al
stage but over a period of &me, they’ve lost value.
37. Blogger Communi'es
Q: What were your reasons for joining Q: What were your reasons for not joining/
leaving?
Reasons for joining Reasons for not joining/Leaving
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 2 4 6 8 10
Lacks an agenda 9 29%
Networking 21 81% Not applicable 8 26%
Session lacks interac&vity 4 13%
reason
reason
Experience sharing 4 15% Not genre specific 4 13%
Logis&cs 3 10%
Lacks community appeal 2 6%
Agenda specific 1 4%
Never felt the need 1 3%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
% of responses % of responses
Main mo&ves for joining was to engage on a broader basis with their peers to network
and share perspec&ves on related aspects.
Though the communi&es do facilitate networking, the appeal has not been sustainable.
Common inferences derived indicate this is due to the lack of a common agenda,
interac&vity and community appeal.
38. Brand Rela'onships
Q: Have you ever been approached by a brand?
Approached by a brand?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Yes 26 81%
Response
No 6 19%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
% of responses
Q: What was your experience like interac'ng with the brand?
Brand Experience
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Neutral 28 64%
ra'ng
Posi&ve 9 20%
Nega&ve 7 16%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
% of responses
64% of the bloggers rated the outreach experiences as average or neutral which
provided nothing excep&onal for them to write about.
39. Brand Rela'onships
Q: Have you ever been approached by a brand?
Approached by a brand?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Yes 26 81%
Response
No 6 19%
0% 10%
Fact is: 20% 30% 40%
% of responses
50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
A large percentage of brands acknowledge and
Q: What was your experience like interac'ng with the brand?
want to connect with bloggers, but are unable
0
Brand Experience
5 10 15 20 25 30
to maintain rela&onships.
Neutral 28 64%
ra'ng
Posi&ve 9 20%
Nega&ve 7 16%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
% of responses
62% of the bloggers rated the outreach experiences as average or neutral which
provided nothing excep&onal for them to write about.
40. Brand Rela'onships
Q: Have you ever been approached by a brand?
Approached by a brand?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Yes 26 81%
Response
No 6 19%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
% of responses
Q: What was your experience like interac'ng with the brand?
Why?
Brand Experience
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Neutral 28 64%
ra'ng
Posi&ve 9 20%
Nega&ve 7 16%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
% of responses
62% of the bloggers rated the outreach experiences as average or neutral which
provided nothing excep&onal for them to write about.
41. Brand Rela'onships
Addressing the mismatch of expecta'ons
Lack of responsiveness
Treatment rendered at venue/loca&on
Expecta&on to provide services free (collabora&on for content) or pay and seed content favorable to the brand
Lack of agenda on branded blogger meets
Perpetual comparison with tradi&onal press‐ brands fail to recognise the dis&nct offerings/plus points the online medium provides and how via a blog they
can engage with a rela&vely smaller yet more ac&ve audience base.
Within the 16% nega&ve experiences, the following aspects were believed to be major
contribu&ng factors‐
Agencies keep changing with different modus
1 14.29%
operandi
Non‐responsiveness 2 28.57%
Mismanagement 4 57.14%
Grand Total 7 100.00%
Within the 20% posi&ve experiences, the following aspects were believed to be
major contribu&ng factors‐
Product Experience 4 36.36%
Special treatment 5 45.45%
Freedom of expression 2 18.18%
Grand Total 11 100.00%
44. Strengths
Strengths
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Alterna&ve Content 13 48%
Quality Content 5 19%
Honesty/Transparency 2 7%
Variety 1 4%
factor
Use of right marke&ng technique 1 4%
Quick source of informa&on 1 4%
No comments 1 4%
Internet penetra&on 1 4%
Evolving brand rela&onships 1 4%
Closer connect with your audience and bloggers 1 4%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
% of responses
The strength of the medium lies in its ability to provide for user generated content
which provides for more variety. Parameters which were stated under the purview of
‘Quality Content’ includes opinions and perspec&ves which are relatable.
In addi&on, the degree of interac&vity on the plajorms allows for a deeper engagement
with the audience base on a regular front.
45. Weaknesses
Weaknesses
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Casual approach 14 40%
Lack of quality content 8 23%
Lack of legal aid and support infrastructure 4 11%
Minimal brand involement 3 9%
factor
Bloggers underrated 1 3%
Less scope for op&miza&on 1 3%
Unable to mone&ze 1 3%
Too many blogs 1 3%
Less engaged audience 1 3%
Focus on mone&sa&on 1 3%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
% of responses
Weaknesses iden&fied are inter‐related and impact the poten&al the bloggers are able to
realize. For e.g. Lack of quality content was observed to be of high incidence in the
Technology space which can further be apributed to minimal brand involvement.
46. Opportuni'es
Opportuni'es
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Wider access via social networks 7 21%
Internet penetra&on 6 18%
Increase in quality content 5 15%
Developing niche 5 15%
Unexplored poten&al in few genres 2 6%
factor
Beper brand rela&onships 2 6%
Rise in the number of regional language blogs. 1 3%
Personal blogging growth 1 3%
Paid content 1 3%
Organiza&onal support 1 3%
Expand influence with intermingling of mainstream and online media 1 3%
Career op&on 1 3%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
% of responses
Perspec&ves towards blogging is changing over &me, thus opening many opportuni&es
for bloggers.
Opportunity for this space to grow primarily depends on external factors such as
Internet penetra&on, beper brand rela&onships and a growing network of influence via
social networks (more and more people adop&ng them‐ poten&ally wider audience)
47. Threats
Threats
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Social Networking 5 15%
Plagrism 5 15%
Lack of support infrastructure 3 9%
Clupered space 3 9%
Textual content dying 3 9%
IT Act 3 9%
Employer restric&ons 2 6%
factor
Celebrity domina&on 2 6%
Decrease in ac&ve blogs 1 3%
Decreasing readership 1 3%
Writers being drained out by media houses. 1 3%
Focus on mone&za&on 1 3%
Domina&on of tradi&onal media 1 3%
Domina&on of interna&onal bloggers 1 3%
Dishonest content 1 3%
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16%
% of responses
48. Threats
Bloggers who take on to social networks are the ones we call ‘casual bloggers’.
They are capitalising on the fact that fewer people are reading long copy, tradi&onal
blogging will/already has taken a back seat; hence some old school bloggers are looking
at micro‐blogging as a threat.
The advent of social networking in the year 2007 has had a direct impact on the way
classic blogs have been created and consumed &ll now.
Social Networking has made it impera&ve for the blogger to adapt to the dynamic
audience.
– This actually works at two levels
• More consumers connect virtually across social networks providing a higher
poten&al reach
• More producers crea&ng content in mul&ple formats across varied plajorms like
Twiper, Facebook, Tumblr. Micro‐blogs like Twiper have boosted the trend of casual
blogging.
49. Threats
Threats
Interes&ngly, the advent of social networking sites has had a dual effect. While some
perceive it as an opportunity since they’re now able to reach out to a larger
audience via cross linking, some others feel it just gives way to casual bloggers and
has had a strong impact on the popularity of full text blogs.Though in the long‐run
shii in the form of blogging makes it a constantly evolving form of expression and
could pose a threat to’ Blogging’ as we defined it 10 years ago.
A major downfall associated with so many bloggers/content creators emerging, is
that it becomes difficult to
• Maintain the quality standards of content of old school blogs
• Avoid plagiarism/rehash of exis&ng content
50. Threats
Threats
Interes&ngly, the advent of social networking sites has had a dual effect. While some
perceive it as an opportunity since they’re now able to reach out to a larger
audience via cross linking, some others feel it just gives way to casual bloggers and
has had a strong impact on the popularity of full text blogs.Though in the long‐run
shii in the form of blogging makes it a constantly evolving form of expression and
could pose a threat to blogging as we define it 10 years ago.
Social networking may lead to the
cannibaliza&on of blogs, but infact fuel hyper
Another downfall associated is that with so many bloggers/content creators
emerging, it becomes difficult to
sharing in a new format
• Maintain the quality standards of content of old school blogs
• Avoid plagiarism/rehash of exis&ng content
52. So what are we saying here?
• What emerges clearly is that what is being considered as the ‘death of a blog’ is infact
only a process of evolu&on within the online domain. It’s a ques&on of how we’re
crea&ng and consuming content differently today.
– Blogging will con&nue to adapt to newer formats and plajorms, widening reach and allowing for more
people to par&cipate and create content.
– Despite the fact that social networks are widely being adopted by bloggers across, the likelihood of
complete abandonment of the plajorm is very unlikely given the high degree of customiza&on and
op&miza&on available via them. Social networks at present do not subs&tute that.
• The debate over the ‘qualita&ve aspects’, however would s&ll be per&nent,
irrespec&ve of the plajorms in ques&on.
The space needs to evolve to the next level, allowing for greater poten&al to scale by
ensuring wider spread of the content maper, beper legal and support structures.