The vast majority of people who plan to blog for money probably should keep their day jobs.
Just 8% of bloggers in a recent survey reported any income from blogging—the practice of keeping an online journal, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. However, just 15% of Americans who blog say they do so for money, according to the study. For most, bogging is simply a hobby.
“Even as a subset of bloggers gains prominence in the media and as traffic to blogs grows, blogging is not the most lucrative of hobbies, let alone professions,” said the study, which was released Wednesday.
Seven out of 10 bloggers who earn money do so by selling things either on their sites or through affiliates, making direct sales the most popular way bloggers get revenue, the study said.
Advertising is the second most popular way bloggers earn money, according to the Pew Internet Project. About half of Internet bloggers who make money do so through ads and about a third of money-earning bloggers do so through “tip jars” where readers can leave donations, the study said.
One in five money-earning bloggers do so through premium content that people must pay to see or read, according to the Pew Internet Project.
Also, bloggers who make money are mostly older than 50, the study said.
Of the 147 million people in the U.S. who use the Internet, about 12 million maintain blogs and 57 million read them, according to the Pew Internet Project. Not surprisingly, bloggers are more educated than the population as a whole. Thirty seven percent of bloggers in the U.S. have college degrees, compared to 27% of the population overall, and 38% of bloggers are students compared to 16% of the U.S. population overall, according to the Pew Internet Project.
Also according to the study, while the most popular blogs are updated daily, most bloggers post less frequently. Twenty five percent of those surveyed said they post every day or two; 15% said they post three to five days a week; 28% said they post every few weeks, and 19% said they post every few weeks or less, according to the Pew Internet Project.
Typical bloggers spend about two hours a week on their blogs, the study said.
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