Technorati has released the last two sections of its annual report, “State of the Blogosphere,” revealing how bloggers monetize their sites, and how the blogosphere impacts brands.

According to the Technorati's survey, the majority of bloggers have advertising on their blogs. To marketers and advertisers, blogs offer high-quality content and thus attract growing, loyal audiences.

“Bloggers with advertising are more sophisticated in terms of their use of tools, advertising platforms and even events to build reader loyalty,” notes Technorati in the fourth section of the report, “Blogging For Profit.” They tend to spend more time and money on their blogs.

Blogs have also become an information change platform for consumers - over four in five bloggers post product or brand reviews. And companies are already reaching out to them: over 30 percent of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates, according to the last section of the report, “Brands Enter The Blogosphere.”

Advertising on blogs

Currently 46 percent of bloggers don't have any advertising on their sites, according to the survey. The most common reasons include ad clutter, lack of interest and low traffic numbers. Only very few said it was because of not knowing how to set up advertising. “Bloggers are savvy and self sufficient, so when they are ready to accept advertising they will have no problems figuring out how to best approach it for their blog,” Technorati reported.

On average, professional and corporate bloggers tend to have search ads, display ads and affiliate marketing more than personal ones.

Among those who adopt advertising, two out of three have contextual ads, such as Google AdSense, while one-third have affiliate advertising. About 20 percent negotiate directly with advertisers, while one out of 10 sells advertising through a blog ad network.

Twenty-eight percent of bloggers uses at least three means of advertising, according to the report.

Average annual revenue

Based on the survey results, the average annual blogger revenue is more than US$6,000. However, the number is skewed due to the top one percent of bloggers who make over $200k a year. For those bloggers having more than 100,000 unique visitors per month, the average income was $75,000, while the median for this group is only $22,000.

Bloggers with advertising invest $1,800 a year on average in their blogs. Those in U.S. earn $5,000 on average, while in Asia and in Europe the average income are 50 percent and 75 percent higher, Technorati reported.

Brands enter the blogosphere

Discussion and opinions about brands and products are very common on the blogosphere. More than 80 percent of bloggers post product or brand reviews, as well as brands they love or hate. Interestingly, men and women are equally likely to do so, according to Technorati.

Marketers have already noticed the important role blogs play in terms of promoting the brand. One out of three bloggers has been approached to be a brand advocate, more than 60 percent of whom were offered payments or some kinds.

Blogs as an Information Source

The report found that bloggers believe that blogs will become more important as an information source. About 20 percent bloggers don't think that newspapers will survive the next 10 years, while 50 percent believe that blogs will be a primary source for news and entertainment in the next five years.

Bloggers' Media Usage

U.S. bloggers have significant differences in media usage compared to the average U.S. adults. They spend twice as much time on the Internet as U.S. adults between 18 and 49, while only less than one-third as much time watching television and listening to radio.

Bloggers: Active Web 2.0 participants

The study found that bloggers are active Web 2.0 participants. They are early adopters for new Web technologies such as RSS and Twitter.

On average, they participate in five of the 10 Web 2.0 activities listed in the survey, and one-third even adopt more than seven.

Advertising/Content Enticing Bloggers

In terms of the advertising and content which entice them, bloggers said they are most open to receive marketing messages and brand information from other blogs. Other non-blog Web content is also ranked high among bloggers, compared to traditional media sources.

In terms of the future of the medium, bloggers hold different point of views but prognosticate it will keep growing, morph, and then become more ubiquitous. “There will be more blogs used in education, particularly among K-12 students and teachers. Bookmarks will merge with blogs for those of us who use our blogs as note-pads or filing cabinets. Blog archives will be viewed as a rich source of cultural history. Blogs will be a means for more collaborative team work. People will expect businesses, media, and print organizations, even government organisations, to have some form of blog, in order to promote communication. Blogging will also help to provide insight to businesses about their consumers,” blogger Lynn Marentette stated in a blog posting.

The complete study can be found here.

For a previous story on this report, visit our partner site, EditorsWeblog.org.