Blogging for the Soul

Posted on September 19, 2005

ClickZ reports on a new study called the The Blog Trends Survey conducted by Digital Marketing Services, Inc. for AOL. The survey found that most people do not blog for fame or money. Over half of those surveyed agreed that blogging serves as a "form of self-therapy."

As many as half of respondents say they write a blog because it serves as a form of self-therapy. Further, one third of bloggers write about self-help and self-esteem topics. Thirty-one percent either blog or read blogs in times of need or high anxiety, while only five percent prefer to seek help from a counselor or mental health professional. The only thing more popular than blogs in times of need is seeking advice from family and friends.
The blogging population who do so for personal journaling is no surprise to AOL Community senor programming manager Joe Loong. "Knowing how I blog personally when I'm not on the clock, and how my friends blog," Loong told ClickZ Stats. "The vast majority of us are blogging about what's going on in our lives."

The results were similar to a study conducted by Blog Kits that found 36% of people blog because they love to write. The Blog Kits study found that most people do not blog for money -- although some blogs rewrote the headlines to make it sound like many people blog just to make money. Only 18% of those in the Blog Kits survey said the only reason they blog is to make money and this was on a survey conducted by a blog advertising company. The Blog Trends Survey also found that most people don't feel under pressure to update their blog and only a small percentage are concerned that others people's blogs get more visitors than their blog.

While there are numerous high-profile blogs that report on news and current events, only 16 percent of bloggers do so to pursue journalistic aims, 12 percent blog to break news or advance news and gossip, and eight percent blog to "expose political information".
A majority, 66 percent, don't feel pressure to update their blogs frequently, yet 65 percent pay attention to how often other bloggers post new entries to their blogs. In the casual blogging network, only 13 percent of bloggers become disappointed to learn other people's blogs attract more readers or responses.