Here are a few interesting facts from a Pew Research Study on blogging.
6 million Americans (5% of online Americans) get their news via RSS aggregators
8 million Americans (7%) have blogs of their own
14 million American (12%) have commented on other people’s blogs
32 million Americans (27%) read blogs regularly
74 million of Americans (62%) don’t know what a blog is
Interestingly the demographics from earlier studies haven’t changed much.
57% male
48% under 30
70% use broadband
82% have been online six years or more
42% have household incomes over 50K
39% have university degrees
Blogging isn’t really capturing the mainstream - since those figures show that internet users and adopters and innovators are essentially still the mainstream in this medium.
I think we’ll see more people reading blogs as RSS feeds become easier. Again the Pew Study says readership of blogs jumed 58% as feeds and search engines became easier to use.
But I’m not sure that we’ll see a wider spread of people blogging or be that interested in blogging.
While teens may use a live journal concept within their peer group or school, thier interest usually doesn’t last and doesn’t move past their social group.
And as for women bloggers - that is the puzzle. They remain a substantial minority. I’ve wondered if they - like teens - are blogging ‘under the radar’.
But I’m not so sure anymore.
And I don’t know why.
Women read blogs and comment occasionally.
Is it content?
Time?
Technology?
Within the god-blog sector the numbers of male bloggers is even a bit higher than in the Pew study. That raises interesting questions about religious culture also.
If you look at the explosion in RSS feeds in the protestant sector, it’s predictable. Males, (a bit less likely to be under 30) in leadership or seeking leadership roles in their churches, interested in tinkering with technology link to each other. Joing multiple aggregators drives up rankings, but does not necessarily translate into readership.
(A readable look at RSS 101 is here)
According to the Pew Study, blog readers are pretty mainstream. But that isn’t translating into blog ownership.
Within the god-blogs maybe bloggers will just have to accept the reality this is, and will, remain a hobby that attracts few females.
So what do women interested in faith issues want to read online?
Perhaps the best we bloggers can do is let them know they are welcome.
And in the god-blogs were leadership and participation is overwhelmingly male, and that 20% that seek the 80% attention, that may be a bit more difficult than anyone anticipates.
I think we’ll see more bloggers putting ads up as commercialization continues.
Christianity.com was bought this week by Salem Communications for 3.4 million dollars. They have biz-blogs; blogs oriented toward promoting their radio and communication personnel.
Search
Subscribe 
You are currently browsing the Bene Diction Blogs On weblog archives.
Related Entries
For blog design, Wordpress or MovableType coding or blog consulting, see cre8d design.
Hi,
Resonate isn’t really a blog at all, it is network of people talking about the Gospel in a postmodern culture. Our main discussion is actually via e-mail and in person and there is a high percentage of women who participate. Many of them have their own blogs and for whatever reason decide they don’t post on Resonate’s Soapbox which isn’t really a focus of what we do anyways.
Pax,
Jordon
Okay, my apologies.
There is a web page/site called Resonate.
Is it an email group?
Is it a denominational site?
It’s people that meet in person?
Some blog?
Soapbox is a not-blog?
I’m sorry, didn’t mean to mess up, and I posted without understanding. I took it down.
It is not a denomination but rather an offline and online national conversation about the Gospel and culture in Canada.
It is e-mail, Habbo Hotel, meeting face to face in coffee shops, people visiting each other all across Canada. We do have a group blog but it is just a small part of what we do. Most of the conversation happens via e-mail and a lot of people have their own blogs and don’t feel the need to have a group blog. The main part of the blog is a place where were we can network with other networks from around the world and also post longer external articles easily as opposed to the more traditional idea of blogging.
Pax,
Jordon
What female gets time to use a computer these days! Especially if the men in their house hog it!! (Jussst kidding).
I am quite surprised by the lack of female bloggers / god-bloggers. When I got online in late 1995 I *knew* I wanted to a) be able to chat with other people b) have my own webpage. Everything hobby activity on the internet since then has pretty much centred around these activities.
I wonder if it’s a perception that computers are ‘male’ tech toys? My brother and my (male) cousin were both geeky computer nerds and I spent a lot of time hanging around them. Consequently, I’ve always found myself at ease around computer technology (even ended up working on a tech. help desk for an ISP).
In the blog world, you have to be prepared to argue, and to compete. That may be of less interest to some females, who are naturally or educationally unprepared to debate/argue/kvetch.
The Catholic blog world seems well-femaled, including me and my blogsister. But now I’ll go back and check again. Interesting observation.
Bene, sorry to be so late getting to this. There has been a bit of a blogstorm in the female catholic homeschooling mom-blog subset, and I have been rather occupied.
My perception is that the female Christian bloggers are disproportionately home schooling moms. I think that this may have to do with the fact that the internet has been one of the greatest assets available to home schoolers, and that people who use the internet for their day job (in this case homeschooling) are more likely to venture out into other forums like blogging. Right now I have linked on my blogroll a few non-Catholic homeschooling moms as well as several of the Catholic persuasion.
I think that there is a mom blog webring but I haven’t had the time to investigate it further.
I definitely think women blog “under the radar”. There are so many forms of blogging, so many blogging providers… it’s hard to keep track. Women are more journalists and diarists than pundits.
I like being “under the radar” so to speak… the stealth blogging suites me, as I’m a stay at home mom with daily changing schedules and brain capacity to maintain conscious thoughts. My personal blogging time varies and that causes me to have irregular posting, which I notice causes readers to have disinterest in checking back. Sometimes among the God-bloggers, feelings of inadequacy interrupt my posting because I don’t feel I have anything “good enough” to say. ; )
I love blogging… journaling… I don’t know if my blog would be considered a god/blog, but my posts are from a Christian viewpoint as it is my way of looking at things… I am not necessarily a theologian, but I do try to be accurate/correct in my dealings with things of God. Yet, I am a woman. And that just muddles everything, doesn’t it?
I love blogs, because they are not intimidating! I’ve always wanted a website, but HTML blows my mind!
There’s a parallel here with science-fiction fandom, which 50 years ago was the equivalent of the geeky computer nerds of recent years. People used to wonder why the vast majority of fans were male; gradually it changed (especially after the rise of Star Trek and Tolkien!). Perhaps the blog world will develop in similar ways, given enough time.
Sorry, wrong link above.