Bloggers rejoice!
According to figures from ComScore, approximately 14 million UK web users visited a blog of some description in August this year.
These are fantastically high figures and represent half the overall internet audience in the UK.
But for those tapping away in the consumer travel space it appears there is a lot of work to do before the mainstream public - rather than tech-heads - flock to the hundreds of decent travel blogs out there in the ether.
The most popular blogs in the UK are:
Endgadget.com (243,000 unique users)
Unrealitytv.co.uk (225,000)
Gizmodo.com (223,000)
Interestingly the most popular web categories amongst the blog-reading audience include the following:
Technology (1.9 million UUs)
Women - community (1.9 million)
Entertainment - news (1.8 million)
So far travel doesn't feature anywhere in these various leaderboards, which in some respects is a surprise given that travel, porn and gambling are still three of the most popular activities for which people use the web.
I think these stats are great reading because it shows how much potential there is. What's interesting about the blogs you've mentioned is that all of them are written by a group of people rather than individuals.
Food for thought.
They also have tightly defined subject areas... and I think that's mega important.
PS: the URL is http://www.engadget.com
(not endgadget)
Can you have influence without having to chase "popularity"? [Yes]
Is having influence the purpose of writing a blog? [No]
Consumer travel blogs are never going to take off - except within small niches - as there is no one topic that interests everyone. However for gadgets, you will get anyone interested in gadgets subscribing. The tail is too long with travel for the blogs at the head to have high popularity.
However, as I said, this is not a problem for consumer travel blogs - the goal isn't necessarily ultimate popularity - but in being the best channel for knowledge in a particular niche - or maintaining the best conversations.
i.e. not sure it is fair comparing a consumer travel blog to a gadget one.
Darren - a group blog isn't a blog - but a media brand. Indeed any "blog" that has a strong brand independent of the lead writer / muser / ranter is a media brand.
Aren’t you contradicting yourself Alex?
“Consumer blogs won’t take off, except in small niches, as no one topic suits everyone.”
Small niches will struggle because yes, not everyone wants to read about one topic, i.e. gadgets. Blogs that cover a number of niches for travel consumers will be the ones that are more popular.
If you are suggesting that travel consumer blogs will not take off then I should stop wasting my time, ditch the blog now then eh and sell it on e-bay ;)
Darren - the point that a consumer travel blog doesn't need to be as popular as a gadget blog in order to be classified as successful.
Yes a consumer blog could cover loads of small niches - but you would need to be multi-author - and then I don't think the site would be any different to an online travel site.... so would no longer be a blog in any accepted used of the term. For example WorldReviewer
http://www.worldreviewer.com/member/experts/
has a couple of hundred of travel authors - and no one calls them a multi-author blog (I don't think?)
As for your blog, well I still think you ought to change the focus to a consumer interest blog aimed at people in the travel industry (rather than a consumer interest blog aimed at consumers). You get a lot of industry subscribers anyway - so all this would do would change your monetisation strategy. Also then having, say, 30,000 subscribers would be a major success - but having 30,000 subscribers as a consumer facing blog isn't a great deal. [I don't know how many you have, actually]
Also, if you changed strategy, you could no longer win the Travolution award you won this year.... as you would be aiming at the same sector as I do (and Travolution don't have a category for that!)
:)
Alex, I cover different niches aimed at consumers, and it's not a multi-author blog, and aren't the likes of Gadling or Jaunted not blogs then if you take what you say about multi-authors.
I don't want to discuss TR on here but will pick this up with you next week at BlogCamp. BTW, I wish I had 30,000 RSS subscribers.
Interesting topic here! But to be fair, the blog terminology and definition is getting so out of hands these days that it should be removed from our language.
Where a publishing website is multi-authors or single author doesnt' really matter. The goal is to get some interest and have people coming back to your site to read your news and content. Niche, Mainstream, multi topics...every thing is good to take.
At the end of the day, it is all about how in your daily reading routine you organize yourself when you read your RSS feeds. My Netvibes account takes about 1000 RSS feeds organized in 8 tabs (Traditional Media Travel, Travel Blogs, Hospitality Blogs, Technology Blogs, Finance, Entrepreneurship and Misc).
I don't think a consumer travel blog will be mainstream unless you are a travel celebrity with enough previous media coverage. For instance, we have in France this 60's singer called Antoine who is now travelling around the world and shoots videos of his trips and sell them on DVD in all retail stores. If tomorrow he opens his blog, I can tell you his site will be read almost instantly with a lot of subcribers. If you try to do the same without any fame in your background...I think it will be a very difficult task to catch the audience you think you deserve (whether you are good writer, a good photographer, a good reporter...).
See you next week!
Guillaume
Maybe your right Guillaume and Alex. I am noticing a few people drop the 'blog' and call it a 'Magazine'.
I don't think TR is a mag, it's not media, it's just me, a Yorkshireman ranting and writing about travel as a hobby.
If we don't call them blogs what do we call them?