AfterTheDotNet

Wordpress version 2.7 release today

The much aniticipated Wordpress version 2.7 release date was perdicted by the blogosphere as December 10th 2008 (refer to Labnol and Wordpress websites). Though there are regular updates to Wordpress but the version 2.7 has some major changes and would change the way bloggers use Wordpress. Some of the advanced users have been testing the new version as it has been released as a beta.

The updates have been talk of the blogs. If you are interested in knowing the features that would be added these resources are helpful.

• 10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress 2.7
• Mashable: WordPress 2.7 - 20 Must See Features
• Stalking the Wild 2.7
• Wordpress Codex Wordpress 2.7 features

Being a keen Wordpress user I will keep a watch out at the home page of Wordpress.

Tags: 2.7, features, release, wordpress

How much do bloggers earn? – Read Write survey

Read Write Web did a survey recently to find out how much bloggers actually earn. The survey participants were 20 top tier bloggers. Though some of the bloggers could not disclose their actual earnings because they cannot do so legally. One thing to keep in mind is that the participants were not owners of the blogs but were people who are employed by the owners of the big blogs on the Internet.

The survey was conducted by sending out emails which requested for information. Some of the findings were

• Most of the bloggers get paid per post. Most of them are paid $25 per post. These bloggers were part time bloggers and not employees
• Some of the bloggers go on to become full time employees as bloggers, consulting or join the marketing department. Their salaries range from $40,000 to $90,000 (including benefits). However this does not include any equity that might be part of the agreement which is usually the case.
• The big money for bloggers is in consultation for which they charge nothing less than $150 per hour. Most of the bloggers are consulting regarding running blogs, twittering and advanced usage of RSS feeds. The bloggers blogging about search engine marketing make the most amount of money as consultants.

The post at Read Write web concludes that most of the bloggers are blogging not because of money but because of the thrill of blogging. One thing to remember when interpreting results is that the survey participants were only 20 and they were hand picked bloggers who were participating in running successful blogs. To read the full post go to the Read Write website.

How Much Do Top Tier Bloggers and Social Media Consultants Get Paid? We Asked Them! - ReadWriteWeb

Tags: blogging, earn, money

State of the blogosphere 2008

Technorati has released “State of the Blogosphere 2008 report” which gives details of the status of blogging around the world. A survey was conducted by Technorati which also included questions about personal lives of selected bloggers. Technorati has released the first report of a total of five reports. The reports are

read the highlights of the blogosphere report

Tags: blog, bloggers, blogging, blogosphere, industry, profile

Why do people blog?

If you are a blogger I’m sure you have been asked why you blog and also why do others blog. This question is not easy to answer. I decided to find out why people and went to my trusted resource Google.

Dane Taylor in his blog mentions that he writes or blogs for personal pleasure only. Way back in 2004 Sandhill had the same question and when he asked his fellow bloggers why they blog the answer he got was the pleasure of sharing or having their comments on different things on the Internet was the main reason why most of the bloggers blog. Victoria Carrington classifies the reason why people blog based on the type of blog one writes for. You can read the list here. Though the list is not complete I would agree with Victoria in general.

One of the websites or blog that impressed me the most was Chris  Garrets. He has conducted a survey to find out why people blog, their demographics and blogging trends in general. A background of Chris is important as that makes the survey more credible.

Chris Garrett is a professional blogger, Internet Marketing Consultant, new media industry commentator, writer, coach, speaker, trainer and web geek. He was also a founding member of Performancing. You might know him from his past writing for such sites as ASPToday, ASPAlliance, Threadwatch, or more recently, ProBlogger, The Blog Herald, FreelanceSwitch, Cogniview, AdSavvy and CopyBlogger.

Top ten readers who best answered the questions in the survey were awarded a Pro Blogger book! The findings of the survey are interesting (please be aware that these statistics are for 2008)

• The number of people who started blogging was the highest in 2007. Though the number of blogs started in 2008 is less but one has to keep in mind that only half of the year has gone by.
• About 75% of the bloggers started blogging after 2005.
• 62% of the responders to the survey were  males.
• USA has the most number of bloggers followed by UK.

• Most of the bloggers have higher education.
• 30% of the respondents were between 20-30 years whereas 50% of them were between the ages of 30-50 years.
• 50% of the bloggers blog for pleasure
• 35% of the respondents blogged for business
• Only 4% of the bloggers blogged for money.

While the results are very interesting one has to keep in mind that it has been assumed that the respondents are a good representation of bloggers around the world. This assumption means that the results are not perfect representation of the blogging community but one can safely assume that the survey results are indicative of the trends. To access the full report of the survey please go to http://www.chrisg.com/survey/.

In the end it is safe to assume that majority of the bloggers blog for pleasure and this is true for me. It would be great if you can share why you blog by adding comments.

Tags: blog, blogging, trends