Lest we think too much of ourselves…
A new Gallup Poll study shows that 60 percent of Americans never look at blogs.
In an very unscientific survey of my parents, many don’t even know what a blog is:
Example
Dad: What have you been up to lately?
Me: Well, I’ve started a blog about public relations
Dad: Really? What is a blog? I mean I’ve heard about them a little when some talk show hosts have someone on who writes a blog, but I don’t really know what they are.
OR my Mom after visiting my blog for the first time yesterday
Mom: Pretty sexy looking picture there (tone of mild disapproval)
Me: It was headshot I had done when I went to sing at the Olympics
Mom: Well, it shows a lot of skin
Findings of Gallup Poll
An article yesterday by Editor and Publisher magazine summarizes the findings of the poll that examined Americans' online habits. Of the 13 choices offered, blogs came in dead last.
Still, the poll showed that one in five Americans (20 percent) say they consult blogs “frequently” or at least “occasionally.” If you take today’s population estimate from the Census and multiply by 20 percent, you get a figure of about 59.6 million blog readers.
That doesn’t sound too bad, but consider the scope.
If you take Dave Sifry’s State of the Blogosphere estimate of 27.2 million blogs it equals out to an average or two readers per blog, or take the slightly better 13.7 active blogs, and we each get an average of 4.5 readers.
These are bogus stats since most people probably read more than one blog and some get much more traffic than others, but it gives you an idea.
[Update: Steve Rubel has some thoughts about if there will be any standardization of blog metrics]
