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There is a harsh new reality to blogging, and it really affects both bloggers and blog followers, particularly those who utilize Facebook, so I thought I’d share what I know and what I’ve learned about it to this point.
Follow along with this line of thought. It all comes together in the end.
The Harsh New Reality of Being a Blogger
- Writing a daily blog post takes me anywhere from 10 minutes to 50 hours. The usual post probably takes me about two hours to write, put together, layout, and schedule on my website.
- I upload 1-2 new posts here on Single Dad Laughing every day.
- For most posts, I record a podcast to go with it. This takes me usually about 30 minutes to 1 hour to record it, convert the music, upload it, and add it into the code.
- I have followers on Facebook (SDL), Facebook (personal), Twitter, Pinterest, RSS, Email, Podcast, Instagram, YouTube, and bookmark/direct entry.
- Even though roughly 75% of my readers are subscribed on Facebook, more than 90% of my traffic is driven through Facebook.
- Each day I spend 5-7 hours in all of those social media platforms liking things, sharing things, bantering with people, commenting, etc. Keeping up with a readership as much as you can is a necessary part of blogging.
- Each week I spend an average of 4-8 hours doing web and blog post design/coding.
- Each day I receive between 5 and 1000 emails from readers. On a typical day when nothing “big” is going on, I get about 30 or 40 emails from readers and 30-40 from companies, advertisers, sponsors, interview requests, etc. Each day I only have about one hour to spend answering emails. Unfortunately I have to spend most of that time with the more official and business-related correspondences.
- At least 3-4 times a month, I have a major issue with the website that takes me anywhere from 20 minutes to eight hours to fix.
- With a blog like mine that is fortunate to have spike-traffic (viral) posts every four months or so on average, I have to have two servers in place. One to handle the databases, and one to handle the processing. Most of the time I don’t need near that much power/juice, but I have to have it in place for the really high traffic stuff or my site crashes during those times and nobody can get on. These two servers amount to about $7,200/year.
- There are seven billion people in the world.
- Two billion of those people speak English.
- It is estimated that there are more than fifty million blogs in existence.
- This is just an educated guess, but I’m guessing about 500,000-1,000,000 of those blogs are from personal bloggers who actively push non-family and no-friends to their blogs, and I’m guessing only 100,000-200,000 bloggers really try to grow their blogs and platforms into revenue makers. So, 150,000 average. These are just guesses (no definitive data exists that I know of), so please note that I may be way off.
- If you take the two billion English speakers in the world and narrow that down to native English speakers which account for 400 million people, you cover about 99.5% of blog readership on my blog.
- Women cover 85% of my readership, men 15%. From what I understand this is typical of many blogs. So take that 400 million people down to 235 million. Now take out the very old and the people under 18 (for which blogs have almost no readership), then take out an increasing percentage of the population who don’t follow blogs by age (the older the demographic goes past age 35, the less blog readers there are) and the number becomes something more around 90 million.
- Now take into account that most people don’t follow blogs, don’t care about following blogs, and never will. So let’s cut that 90 million down to, oh, I don’t know, 5 million for math’s sake. Keep in mind I’m not talking about people who visit blogs here. I’m talking about people who follow them, which is a blogger’s life source.
- This means that 150,000 bloggers are trying to divide the attention of 5 million people. If they were distributed evenly to every blog without overlapping, that’s about 66 potential blog followers for each blog. But we all know that we don’t live in that kind of world. And readership is all relative. Some bloggers think I have a huge blog following. I do. But There are other bloggers who have many more times the readership I do. And many bloggers that are close to the same as me. And the further you get to zero followers, the bigger the numbers of bloggers gets. It’s very similar to the “wealth curve” of America.
- This means that the vast majority of those 5 million blog readers are reading only the top 5,000 blogs or so. And the vast majority of the majority are reading the top 500 blogs or so. And the majority of that majority are reading the top 50-100 blogs or so.
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FAB post. Although, I started weeping into my cup of tea when you pulled out the stats on what it takes to make a living as a blogger. Luckily I make an okay living as a journalist but I would love my blog to make more - it's fun to do and I'm passionate about it.
Story of many bloggers' lives I guess :)
Thanks for posting this Dan. I've been trying to grow my blog, and now I know more of what I have to do. Like most I don't care about getting rich but it would be nice to make a living, any living, doing what I love and what I know I am good at.
Excellent points about blogging, so long as we're talking about blogging as a profession in and of itself. There are plenty of other business reasons to have a blog that don't involve monetizing the blog. In my own case, I don't care about attracting millions or thousands or even hundreds of followers. I care about providing content that is relevant to my clients and soon-to-be clients. It works for retaining clients and for giving prospects a taste of what they can expect if they work with me. Blogging for blogging's sake is like putting out a newspaper that only has news about newspapers. Mine is at www.getlucid.net/blog
Thank you for this. I'm glad to understand the new algorithm better, and I enjoyed the breakdown.
I've got your homepage favorited and check once or twice a day. Just saying, I donn't much allow Facebook to drive my traffic except in those cases where there is a big news item I somehow miss elsewhere. and I only follow two blogs at all, so I guess I'm less than typical?
Thank you for breaking this down. I wondered why my traffic from FB had become so low. Now I know. :)
You lost me at bad Econ. I tried. I just couldn't do it. You rock either way.
Brandon Magana, that is harder for some than you may think, I have to change from "popular" to "newest" sometimes twice a night. It changes randomly on me.
Give thanks - I manage a FB page & knew there was something with the algorithm & decline in post views/likes - just yesterday I was noticing how many new page likes there were after uploading a bunch of pics & that people really seem to love pics. THANKS AGAIN for the info!
Dude, seriously... RSS feed. That's the only way I get to your blog, and I read almost every post. The fact that Google Reader is dying notwithstanding... sigh :(
First time commenter here though. Love your stuff :D
All people have to do is change their feed from top stories to newest content, changes the algorithm for the news feed
@Brandon Magana And who exactly is going to do this on their own? No offense to the masses but a large group of Facebook users fall into certain categories.
They don't know that there are options available
They know but are never going to even try to change a setting in fear that it is somehow going to destroy the universe.
They are not very bright
They don't care
Then there is the other 1%
@crozell25 Switching my news feel to most recent is the first thing I do when I log on, it's a drop down on the top of your news feed. Maybe I just hang around really smart people, but I was under the impression that most people do that!
Yep Krystal Sohun, I have an interest list called "following" for that purpose.
A tip for those who want to see you but not get their feed clogged up. FB has a nifty little tool. If you hover over the "like" icon on your page, and click "add to interests lists" then pick "pages" That will put all of your sites posts on a tab on the left side of your news feed. You just click pages on the left and VOILA! Theres every page youve put there.
I love the SM gurus who say they spend about 10 minutes per day SM site - how do they do it? I haven't even started my blog yet and it takes me all day to keep up with Pin, FB, Twitter, Linked In, my websites, and email!
thank you Dan for explaining this
Tell it like it is, brother. Hopefully this will strike down those idealists who think making a living as a blogger is as simple as writing a 300-word post once a week.
@Turner lol that's exactly why I didn't go into it myself! I would treat it like my high school diary anyway...write stuff for like a week solid then forget about it for like 2 years =p Not really worth it huh? xD
@delsgirl27
Harper Lee wrote one book in her life.....
@crozell25 @delsgirl27 Well I guess that worked out for Harper Lee then...
I had no idea the world of blogging was so complicated. Discovered your blog in November and it's the one blog I check daily and I'm loving all the additional bits and pieces that you're posting through Facebook. I have subscribed to your email for a while just in case I forget.
Thanks for all the work you put into your blog and all the other mediums.
Great explanation. And I DO like, comment and share many of your posts. So, thanks for all you do.
Very interesting - both the breakdown on what you do and how much time it takes, and the info on FB. Thanks!!
Dan I love your site and you and your passion....I will do my best to support you in whatever way I can. I will strive to visit your page daily and go all click happy as much and as often as I have time for:)...And just an idea...I bet there are people out there that would volunteer there time just to help out this wonderful cause...because that IS what you have going here. Maybe you could look into that. If there is anything you could dole out to a few people that would only take a little time at a time I bet you could find people to do it. I know I have probably 5-10 hours a week that I don't do anything with...anything important anyway:)
This was a very interesting read. I have considered writing a blog as more of a business pursuit, and this definatly helps define what exactly would have to go into it. Right now it is just for fun, and really only read by facebook friends. It does sound like A LOT of computer time, but I am glad that your blog is where it is at as I love reading it. And as a fellow "Picture Poster" (Just because I like them) I love that you have been posting all the funny and witty pics that you do on facebook, and often share the ones that you have posted. Thanks for the explanation! Another great post, from the wonderful Dan!
I understand I lot more now why you are sharing more pictures. I do not mind. Rather see ya then not in my newsfeed. :)
Thank you. This was a good explanation of the changes facebook has made. It seems crazy that we have to inundate our followers with posts just to get a few across to those who are shall we say less active. I love your blog. I only wish I had more time to read more often. I'm too busy writing fb posts for all my pages! :-) Oh and taking care of the family and the rest of the business of the businesses.
This was a wonderful blog!! thanks for the insight. i usually dont read long post/blogs but my eyes were glued to the page!
Great article, insightful, something everyone needs to read, before they click. I like your blog, photos and fun stuff, so I will keep reading and reposting and liking on facebook where I found you. I really can't stand too many blogs cause somewhere my worldly experience tends to break from the bloggers experience, and I can read through the b.s., so you keep it real and I will keep following. Cheers.
you can always create your own mems and post them from quotes of your blog. But i know that takes alot of time too - so maybe throw one or two originals in every other day or so. Just a thought to add originality to your page.
That does explain a lot... I have wondered why I was missing updates to several friends and businesses I follow!
It's an email list collected and administered by feedburner (Google). You shouldn't need a Google account.
Fascinating article - thank you, Dan. My husband is a self-published author and I own a small design firm, so insight like this is especially useful. Question though - I just tried to sign up to get daily emails, but got a weird link to Google - something about FeedBurner? I really don't like using my Google account (and only have it to download apps to my phone). How can I get your feeds to my email address of choice?
@shadeflower It's an email list collected and administered by feedburner (Google). You shouldn't need a Google account.
As a small business owner who gets the majority of my clients through Facebook and word of mouth I have had a really hard time the last six months or so since Facebook changed things up. I have over 1,100 fans and my posts generally get about 200 views. I need to figure out the best time of day to post, and instead of posting an album (I am a photographer) then I can only post three or four pictures, and NEVER at the same time. It's very frustrating.
I follow your posts regularly, and I share them all the time, I hope that helps you!! :)
Personally I think you shoudl push your book at the top of every blog post. Why the heck not, its YOUR blog ;) Then I'd rememebr to buy it because I keep forgetting :P Plus it might drive your sales. Lastly, that had absolutely nothing to do with your post, but there were far too many bullets and my eyes rolled back into my head around the time you told me your readership was mostly women.
Interesting how much FB has changed the way it does things over the years. I was one who found you through a friend who shared a blog of yours on FB and I instantly liked your blog page thinking I would see your posts and get to your blog from your posts. For a while I did and when they stopped, I wondered where you had gone. When I found you again, I instantly subscribed via email so that I wouldn't miss a beat and then suddenly posts started popping up. I don't mind them at all. As a "fan" of your blog, I think it's always nice to see the random little pictures and posts from you. So, I will stay up to date both via emails and FB.
I like it all. As a FB'er for a few businesses, I appreciate the insight as well. Thanks! :)
To make a quick point-myself and a good number of other people would not know your blog exists without facebook. Embrace it.
Thank you for the insight! I have now subscribed to you via email, so I won't miss a blog post!
The funny quick stuff you post is awesome, not spam at all, IMO. You pick great stuff :)
That's sort of scary. I like that you break down the hours because I think people underestimate how time consuming blogging is.
This is really helpful. Thanks!
good to know about the change.
Interesting. As I fall into the over 35 realm of blog followers. I have to say that I'm more faithful to reading your blog daily than the other two that I subscribe to. Yours is more entertaining to me and more thought provoking, which is why I get your daily email AND follow you on FB. If I'm helping your numbers, great, but now I understand and will share on my FB page your blog so that other bloggers can see it and understand better too. :-)
Good info. Good luck to all of my beloved bloggers out there, I know it's an uphill battle!
Head pounding.
This post will totally help me with my work's FB page. Thank you for telling us how FB now works!
Thanks for the info..I started a campaign, where the main way of me getting the news out about the blog was through word of mouth and facebook. And my own personal blog. New to the scene, don't make a dime from it yet, but hope to have some income eventually...so THANK YOU for taking the time to write this out for bloggers and followers of bloggers, alike! :)