DESPITE ALL OF THE HYPE surrounding Really Simple Syndication feeds, just 11 percent of blog readers--which translates to about 2 percent of U.S. Web users--use RSS tools to manage blog feeds, according to a report released Monday by Nielsen//NetRatings. Nearly 5 percent of blog readers use feed aggregation software, and more than 6 percent use a feed aggregating Web site to monitor RSS feeds from blogs, according to a Nielsen//NetRatings June survey of 1,000 online users who had visited blog sites. Blog readers themselves are a minority, constituting just 20 percent of the U.S. online population as of July.
A full 66 percent of blog readers either did not understand RSS or didn't know it existed, according to the report, "Understanding the Blogosphere."
"Someone needs to figure out how to convey that the benefits of RSS are worth overcoming the learning curve," CooperKatz executive and longtime blog evangelist Steve Rubel commented on his blog, MicroPersuasion.
The top 50 blogging and blog-related sites grew 29.3 million unique visitors in July--a 31 percent increase from this January, the study found.
Leading the way, MSN Spaces ranked first in year-to-date unique audience growth with a 947 percent increase; that site attracted nearly 3.3 million visitors in July, compared to more than 300,000 in January. Fark.com and Blogger also showed strong gains, with 63 percent and 45 percent unique audience growth, respectively.
And while blogs will never replace other forms of content on the Web, they do have a distinct role to play, according to Jon Gibs, senior research manager at Nielsen//NetRatings. "While these sites will likely never have the traffic of some of the larger ad networks, blogs do have a specific role to play in the online advertising mix," Gibs said in the report. "Advertisers should look to blogs as a way to organically grow trends by leveraging the role of bloggers as peer influencers. By associating their message with the blog's image, advertisers can legitimize new trends they are hoping to promote to a niche audience."
