What do you know? A survey that confirmed what many bloggers could have told them and at no charge. However, in order to be scientifically valid and to have credibility, a research study needs to be conducted by a neutral party and at a cost ($$$$).

Yesterday, Reuters released a post titled, “Storytelling, not journalism, spurs most blogs.” The online article went on to summarize that “many people see Web journal or ‘blogs’ as alternatives to the mainstream media, but most Americans who run them do so as a hobby rather than a vocation.” The findings reported:

(a)About 77% of bloggers do so in order to express themselves, rather than to gain fame or pay.

(b)Bloggers prefer to talk about their life experiences (37%).

(c)Second place went to “politics and government” (11%), followed by “entertainmant” (7%), “sports” (6%), and news (5%).

Of particular interest to this blogger were these findings: (1) 65% did not think that blogging was a form of journalism. (I do.) (2) Fifty-five percent write under a pseudonym. (I have a pseudonym – “Cybernaut” – but also use my real name.) Ninety percent invite comments from other readers. (I do, too!) (3) A year from now, 82% think they will still be blogging away. (I hope so, also.)

The Pew Internet & American Life Project study estimated that about 8% of the Internet users keep a blog and that about 39% of Web users in the U.S. read them. The complete article may be found at
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-07-19T083506Z_01_N18122033_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-BLOGS-SURVEY.xml&archived=False

In addition, I would like to add that many bloggers see themselves as Community “Johnny Apple Seeds.” We ‘re simply trying to spread the word to the largest audience of readers possible and support causes that have the potential for producing the greatest good for the greatest number of people possible. Where we will be in another year, is anyone’s guess. Stay tuned.