The Truth About Blogging: 5 - Possibly -Surprising Statistics
Posted by Amanda Ellison
The first ever blog was written in 1994 and the word first used in 1999.It seems that the world and his wife is blogging nowadays; the internet is saturated with blogs - and the pandemic only fuelled the popularity of this medium. In fact, blogging has grown by 12% since 2015.
The great thing thing about blogging is that your niche can be absolutely anything. It doesn't matter whether you're a hobbyist or running a business, the blog is the perfect forum for saying what you need to say. For writers, the blog is a great way to showcase your writing skills and promote your work. But what do we really know about the blogging trend? There are as many statistics as there are leaves on trees - and of course they only ever hold true for a limited period of time. That's the thing with trends: they change.
Nevertheless, here are five current statistics that you may find a little surprising. Or perhaps not ...
1. 75% prefer to read blogs of under 1000 words.
So why is this surprising? Simply because evidence suggests that bloggers who publish posts of over 2000 words are more likely to have positive results - 17% more likely, to be exact, with 55% of bloggers producing long-form blogs reporting strong results. Why? People want to know the nitty-gritty of a topic. And long blog posts get more backlinks than short blog posts.
In 2020, 31% of bloggers reported spending more than six hours on a post, perhaps a reflection of the level of detail that is now in demand - readers want authoritative information. The average blog takes 3.5 hours to write.
2. 36% of readers prefer list-based headlines.
Maybe not surprising, but worth bearing in mind when crafting headlines. The 'how-to' headline is the third most popular type of headline, at 17%. Interestingly, headlines with a '?' get 23% more shares, and headlines with a hyphen or colon increase click-through by 9%. Long headlines perform better than short headlines.
It is often said that content should be written first, then the headline. It makes sense that time is spent on crafting the headline as this is the first thing that your readers will encounter. Try using a free online headline analyser (see an example in this post) until you land on a headline you're happy with. Statistically, 67% of bloggers say they get better results when they write in excess of twenty headlines for a post, from which they choose the best.
3. It takes at least 24 blog posts before generating traffic.
Patience is a virtue - and you'll need it. In such a competitive field, you'll need to keep creating content. This will mean you have more pages being indexed by search engines.
Don't give up.
4. Between 53-73% of internet users think that content supported with statistical data is more persuasive.
Forget the notion of 'lies, damn lies, and statistics'. It's a blow to your ego, but your opinion alone carries little weight in this savvy world we live in. Content may be king but numbers are the queen. And beware: up to 96% of Boomers and Generation Xers are extremely cynical about bloggers and influencers - throwing in some reliable statistics can only help your cause!
5. A whopping 93% of bloggers use image to complement their written content
Most people are visual, so it makes sense that visual content will support your written content. Research consistently indicates that use of image in your posts makes a massive difference. Worried about accessing good quality images? There are hundreds of free images high quality on Unsplash and Pexels - and most Wilkipedia images are copyright-free (do check, though!).