10 Interesting Facts About Blogging

Blogging which started in mid nineties as a personal hobby to share one’s thoughts has indeed come a long way. Initially, it was nothing more than an extension of diary writing but in no time, it turned into a powerful medium. Soon, people started using it as a source of secondary income and some were even lucky enough to be full time, professional bloggers. Today, it is used widely by businesses as part of their marketing strategy.

Did you know how the term, ‘blog’ was coined? It is a contraction of two words – web and log. The term was first used and made popular by Jorn Barger, an American blogger. Here are some more interesting facts about blogging:

1. Justin Hall, a US freelance journalist is said to be the first blogger. In 1994, while still in college, he managed to publish his first blog.
2. WordPress and Blogspot are two most popular blogging platforms. WordPress, a relatively late entrant in blogging, has surpassed its elder brother, Blogspot in terms of popularity. More than 40 percent of bloggers use WordPress.
3. In 1999, there were just 23 blogs. Today, there are over 1.5 billion blogs on the internet. WordPress.com alone has over 60 millions of them. Every half a second, a new blog is created. There are about 31 million bloggers in the US.
4. More than 60% of blogs are in English. Other prominent languages include Spanish, Portuguese, and Indonesian.
5. Over half of the blogging community has more than one blog. Professional bloggers have 4 blogs, on an average. Only about 27 percent of bloggers are full time into it.
6. 1 in every 5 bloggers updates his/her blog daily. Most of the blogs are read in the morning between 7 AM to 10 AM.
7. Bloggers use social media to promote their blogs. A blogger on an average uses 5 social media sites.
8. A blog post is powerful enough to influence a purchase. Businesses that blog get more visitors to their website. Almost half of the companies in the US use blogs for the purpose of marketing their product/services.
9. Earning from a blog is not something that happens overnight. It takes a sound strategy along with a high dose of perseverance. About one-fifth of bloggers have been into it for more than 6 long years.
10. Less than 10 percent of bloggers earn enough to support their family. More than 80 percent never ever make it to even $100.