Blogging Statistics to Supercharge your Blog Today | All the statistics you’ll ever need!
Just like every other year, Orbitmedia released their research report on Blogging with statistics, data and trends that have changed over the years.
This story is a goldmine of reports and statistics curated from thousands of bloggers over hundreds of industries.
How long is it taking to write a Blog?
As of April 2020, an average blog takes about 4hours to write.
The average time invested in blogs increases every year. This year, the average time spent has jumped 30minutes from the last year and is 67% up, as compared to 2014.
Does it pay off? Yes, bloggers who spend more time per article report better overall performance.
How long is a typical blog post?
Average blog post today is about 1,236 words long.
The length keeps increasing year on year as bloggers are spending more and more time writing detailed articles.
How frequently do bloggers publish?
About half the bloggers publish several times a month or every week.
Bloggers who write either frequently or long or both report strong positive results.
Bloggers who publish daily are more likely to report strong results than bloggers who publish several times per day.
What content formats are bloggers using?
Let’s see the shape of the content being published online.
Quick takes:
Practical, how-to content is dominant in content strategies.
About half of bloggers publish news. About half publish an opinion.
Just one-third of bloggers use collaborative formats: round ups and interviews.
Bloggers who create long-form guides, ebooks and original research are most likely to succeed.
Bloggers who published news and opinions were least likely to get a dedicated audience.
To gate or not to gate?
We asked if bloggers were putting content behind led generation form, requiring readers to give their email addresses before being given access.
32% of bloggers gate their content. Of these, 88% report positive results.
What does a typical blog post include?
Let's look at some features of specific articles, including images, videos, statistics and quotes. These determine how scannable the blog post is in general.
Crossing with correlation data, we see specific elements correlate with success
Notice, videos make the biggest difference. The correlation between video and positive results is growing day by day.
How many images in a blog post?
Generally, the more images the blog adds to their content, the more likely they are to see positive results.
Just 3% of bloggers add 10+ images but they see 2.5X more results than the average blogger.
How is your content typically promoted?
Social media is a given here. But, only 1 in 5 bloggers user paid influencer outreach.
- The percentage of bloggers using email marketing has increased 2x since 2014
- The percentage of bloggers using paid promotion has increased 3x since 2014
- 1 in 5 bloggers leverages influencers to help drive traffic (that’s down from two years ago)
- 1 in 5 bloggers buys traffic (that’s levelled off after a dramatic rise)
Are Bloggers using Analytics?
Half of the bloggers usually check the analytics for a post. The other half check occasionally, rarely or never.
Do they update their old blog posts?
Two-third of bloggers update their older blog posts with newer information and links.
This is another of those tactics that have a very strong correlation with success. Bloggers who update old posts are 2x more likely to report success.
- 35% of bloggers who update old content report “strong results”
- 16% of bloggers who do not update old content report “strong results”
Are bloggers getting results?
Most bloggers are getting results, but just 30% are getting strong results.
If you put 10 bloggers in a room…
- 5 would report getting some results
- 3 would report strong results
- 1 would report disappointing results
- 1 wouldn’t even know if they’re getting results
Is there a trend here? No. These numbers have changed very little over the last four years.
What are the biggest blogging challenges?
This year we added a few questions about the challenges. What is the hardest thing about blogging? The most common answer is personal: finding time.
We further asked what is getting harder day by day?
This is probably because search and social are dominated by digital monopolies, which control the user experience. Google and Facebook have reduced clickthrough rates to websites in order to keep visitors on their platforms. But email isn’t owned by anyone. There’s no intermediary between the blogger and their audience. Bloggers are reporting an easier time.
Two key takeaways
There are a few big themes here. There seem to be two main factors that are the strongest indicators of success: depth and consistency.
Deep Content
Bloggers who do more are getting better results. These are the bloggers most likely to report success:
- Bloggers who write 2000+ words
- Bloggers who include 10+ images per post
- Bloggers who consider 20+ headlines
Consistent Performance
Bloggers who are more consistent are getting better results. These are the bloggers most likely to report success:
- Bloggers who always research keywords report strong results
- Bloggers who always collaborate on content report strong results
- Bloggers who always check Analytics report strong results
These tactics are so effective because bloggers are using them every time.
Thank You for Reading!
I publish similar stories revolving around digital marketing and everything about it. Check out my other stories here:
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