Blogging is one of the main content streams that brands use to disseminate information. This platform has evolved over the years along with the needs of readers. Orbit Media has recently released it annual blogger survey, revealing the current trends and benchmarks in the blogosphere.
The survey tackled different areas namely blog length, content, frequency, promotion, and more. As a blogger myself, it feels good knowing that more than 1,000 bloggers are doing the same thing! Let’s take a look at the results more closely.
Longer content is the new king
The average length for blogs 1,050 words up 19% from last year. Short blogs with 500 words or less are on a steady decline while long blogs with more than 2,000 words have doubled every year! This means two things. First, readers make time for longer content because otherwise bloggers won’t produce them. Second, writers are driven to give more meat to their content. This snowballs to the subsequent trends we will see further below.
Joanna Wiebe of Copy Hackers said that length can be an indication of quality and a more satisfying content. She said that top bloggers are focusing on meatier posts and they’re also publishing less frequently.
More time means more quality
Producing longer content means investing more time in research, writing, and editing. This translates to higher quality blogs. The survey revealed that the average time for bloggers to write a post is 3 hours and 16 minutes which is a 26% increase from last year. Not only that, there are twice as many bloggers who spend more than six hours on a post! Last year, half of the bloggers said they spend less than two hours but this year they are down to a third.
Ann Hadley of Marketing Profs said that the marketing compass has been pointing to quality content for a long while now and it’s great to see that content creators are headed to that path. She strongly believes that we need better content and not more content.
Less frequent publishing is the end result
With bloggers creating longer posts and spending more time writing them, the result is a dip in publishing frequency. And that’s a good thing! Content creators have gradually pulled back on their frequency from daily to weekly to monthly. Daily posts are on a decline, weekly is still the average response and basically the ideal, but monthly is surprisingly up by 38%. Quality over quantity has been the runaway winner in this survey.
Joe Pulizzi of Content Marketing Institute said that the trend toward less digital content is definitely reflected here and he looks forward to bloggers creating “truly exceptional” pieces instead of many good pieces.
Other noteworthy trends from the research include:
- Increase in multiple images in posts along with significant rise of video inclusion
- Most bloggers have their work edited by another person, self-editing declined (again, emphasis on quality)
- Social media remains the strongest promotional platform, email is significantly getting stronger, SEO is surprisingly flat, and bloggers are now investing on paid traffic
- More bloggers are becoming data-driven as they check analytics more
These benchmarks are very helpful to us content creators who are trying to balance quantity and quality. Personally, it alleviates the guilt when I spend more time creating quality content instead of hurriedly producing more. We’re not short changing our audience in producing less because we’re giving something more valuable with our in-depth, less frequent pieces! Readers have also become more discerning over the years and we owe it to them to give something worth their while.
So take your time, fellow writer! Create content with focus, dedication, and passion. The results will show you that it’s worth it!