Synovate recently released statistics on American blog usage, you can read more about  the stats on WebProNews. It seems Web 2.0 certainly is going out there with unbridled relent! That’s good news for the competitive WebPR ilk.

Let’s take a look at what they’ve got for us, shall we?

• Apparently 8% of Americans currently have their own blog.
• 46% of readers are regulars to certain blogs whilst the rest search for different blogs.
• When it comes to the frequency of reading blogs, 39% read less than one a month. 28% have a monthly read and only 15% read them daily.
• 43% claim to have seen advertising on blog sites and a third have actually clicked through onto an advertisement on the page.
• As to why they read blogs, half said that they find them entertaining and 26% said that they read them to research areas of interest. 65% of readers look to blogs for opinions, 39% are seeking news and 38% are looking to be entertained.

That said, the senior VP of Synovate warns that "blogs are (still) not necessarily seen as legitimate information sources despite the fact that some bloggers are experts in their area," but that "as their prominence and influence continues to rise, this could certainly change."

Two things struck me about these statistics; Firstly, I was particularly impressed by the fact that 76% of people who had noticed advertising on blog sites had clicked on an advertisement at some time - which is good news for PPC and Online Advertising.
Secondly, I was surprised to see how few people are loyal to certain blogs. I’d always assumed that people were interested in the opinions or style of writing of specific writers.

From an eMarketing point of view, it’s great to not only get the reassurance that blogging is big business, but to be able to find out what people are expecting out of them so that we can better suit their needs.