You've finally finished building your dropshipping store and are ready to dive into the world of eCommerce marketing. If you've already begun your research, you've probably come across the concept of starting a blog and its benefits. True, the latest blogging statistics and data show that it can be extremely beneficial to online retailers. But simply knowing that blogging can help your business grow is insufficient to get started. Your mind must be racing with questions like these:
- How many bloggers exist on the planet?
- How long is the average blog post?
- How frequently should I blog?
We'll provide concrete numbers on blogging statistics to answer these questions. That way, you'll have all the information you need to create an effective blog content strategy to help your e-commerce business grow. Without further ado, here is the top ten list of blogging statistics you need to know for 2021.
A Peek into the World of Blogging
These are all crucial questions that will help you understand the blog readership statistics and your competition. Learn about the number of bloggers in the United States, their primary reasons for blogging, and other blogger facts.
1. How Many Blogs Exist?
The first blogging statistic you should be aware of is the current number of blog posts. To give you an idea of the competition, the most recent estimates place this figure at more than 600 million out of the 1.7 billion websites available (GrowthBadger, 2019). The majority of these are hosted on the microblogging platform Tumblr, which has 488.1 million blogs and is growing. WordPress, its closest competitor, sees approximately 78 million new monthly posts on its platform. Every year, it is estimated that over two billion blog posts are published. Given the fierce competition reflected in these latest blogging statistics, you'll need to go above and beyond to ensure your blog content stands out. This can include having an appealing blog design and layout to entice readers to stay. It's also critical to write about compelling and exciting topics, which will necessitate a thorough understanding of your target audience and market and stay current on market trends.
2. How Many Bloggers Are There in America?
Blogging is a popular and effective eCommerce marketing strategy. With the United States being the world's second-largest e-commerce market, it should be no surprise that it is home to millions of bloggers. The number of active bloggers in the United States is expected to reach 31.7 million by 2020. (Optinmonster, 2019). This represents a 12% increase over the five-year period from 2015 to 2020. Before diving into these important blogging statistics, you should research the type of content you should focus on. Many factors will influence this, including the angle of your content, your market, and the interests of your target audience. The possibilities for blog content are limitless. You're spoiled for choice, with everything from how-to formats and interviews to guides, tips, news, and everything in between.
3. Most Popular Content Marketing Format
Who better assess the worth of blogs than content marketers?
According to a recent survey, blog posts remain the most famous content format among content marketers, with more than nine out of ten producing blog posts to help them achieve their overall marketing goals (SEMrush, 2021). In comparison, only 66 percent and 45 percent of all content marketers use the next two most popular formats, emails, and infographics.
There are apparent benefits to prioritizing blogs over other formats. Businesses with a blog receive 55% more visitors than those without. They also generate 67 percent more leads each month. Failing to include a blog strategy in a company's overall marketing strategy would be a costly mistake.
4. Blog Post Length on Average
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If you're brand new to blogging, one of the first questions you'll have is, "How many words should a blog post have?" Unfortunately, there is no "correct" response. Numerous factors influence the ideal length of a blog post. This includes the topic, the depth, the keywords, the format, the quality, the industry, and other factors. However, here's a starting point. Blog posts with 1,500 to 2,000 words are recommended by experts (Databox, 2020). These vital blogging statistics can assist you in content planning. The typical blog post now has over 1,200 words, up from 800 words on average over the previous seven years. The general rule of thumb is that the more detailed a blog post is, the better. This is because it allows the writer to focus on specifics while ranking for multiple related keywords rather than just one or two. Longer blog posts are therefore more comprehensive, have better SEO, and produce better results.
5. The Average Time It Takes to Write a Blog Post
Naturally, as word length increases, so does the amount of time required to create a blog post. According to the latest blogging statistics, it took nearly four hours to write a blog post in 2020. (Orbit Media, 2020). This is two minutes more than in 2019 and almost a half hour more than in 2018. More importantly, it's nearly 1.5 hours longer than what content writers spent in 2014 to create a blog post, consistent with the increase in overall word count in recent years. It appears that the extra effort is also paying off. Writers who devote more time to a blog post achieve better results than those who devote less time to it. For example, nearly one-third (31%) of bloggers who spend more than six hours writing a blog post report better results than 22% of bloggers who consume one to two hours writing a post.
6. The Value of Content Quality
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The increased time required to write a blog post could also be attributed to the emphasis placed on content quality. According to the latest blogging statistics, "quality of content" is rated as the most important success factor among all bloggers (GrowthBadger, 2019). More than one-third of high-earning bloggers (those earning more than $50,000 per year) believe that reader demand for higher-quality content is now higher than two years ago. But what defines high-quality content? Quality content goes beyond the basics, such as layout and formatting, visual appeal, spelling and grammar, etc. More importantly, factors include high conversion rates, ranking well on Google, meeting marketing objectives, engaging on social media, and more.
7. How Bloggers Market Their Blog Posts
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Distribution is just as important as creativity regarding blog content. Simply pressing the "publish" button without taking further action is unlikely to result in organic web traffic soon. This is where social media comes into play. Today, nearly all bloggers promote their blog content through social media sites, while two-thirds use email marketing (Statista, 2020). Whether you use Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, or another channel, a social media distribution strategy is essential. This is especially important given the reach your content can achieve—there are 3.5 billion social media users worldwide. Furthermore, with so many social media tools at your disposal, there's no reason not to use them.
8. Blogging Statistics: Posting-Frequency
If the aforementioned blogging statistics have persuaded you to start a blog, congratulations. This begs the question, "How frequently should I publish a blog post?" Again, there is no single correct answer. However, allow us to quantify it for you. Companies that publish at least 16 blog posts per month receive 3.5 times the traffic of those that publish no more than four posts per month (HubSpot, 2020). This is not, however, a case of "the more, the merrier." Your resources, priorities, and marketing objectives will determine much of it. For example, if your blog aims to increase organic traffic, you should publish as frequently as possible. However, if the goal is to raise brand awareness, your blogging frequency can be reduced slightly because the key here is to publish informative content.
9. Function in the Purchasing Process of Consumers
Blogs also play a significant role in consumers' purchasing process. Its impact is felt primarily in the early stages, with six out of ten buyers reportedly seeing the value of blog posts at the beginning of their purchase journey (Demand Gen Report, 2019). In comparison, one-third of them see value in blog content in the middle stages, while only a few (six percent) see value in the late stages. If you want to use your blog to target consumers in the awareness stages of the purchase funnel, keep it informative and educational. As many as 96 percent of buyers believe that removing sales messages from content can often improve its quality. On that note, two-thirds of them say they would like to see more data and insight from industry leaders on these important blogging statistics.
10. Priority of Blogging in Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a popular strategy businesses use to attract customers to their websites without using hard selling or paid advertising. Instead, this is accomplished by enticing them with helpful content to familiarise them with your brand. Blogging is one such method that has proven to be especially useful for marketers. More than half (55%) of marketers say that creating blog content is their top inbound marketing priority (HubSpot, 2020). This is so significant that 70% of them are heavily investing in content marketing, and for a good reason: inbound content marketing efforts generate three times as many leads as paid advertising.
How Do You Create a Strikingly Blog?
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Strikingly is a website builder that allows anyone to easily create a blog. You can either build a standalone blog using one of our blog templates or create a website and add a blog section. To add a blog section to your website, navigate to the Strikingly editor and select 'Simple Blog.' Start writing and publishing articles without knowing how to code or program.
Strikingly's features are designed with our customer's convenience in mind. We handle the technical aspects of running your website while you focus on marketing to expand your business.
Conclusion
The benefits of having a blog for your dropshipping business are undeniable, as these critical blogging statistics demonstrate. You'll need to do more research before deciding how you'll go about creating blog content. However, we hope these latest blogging statistics have pointed you in the right direction.
