Blog Traffic Data

comScore's blogging study, which was sponsored by Gawker Media and SixApart, estimates that 50 million US Internet users visited blogs in the first quarter of 2005, up from about 34 million a year earlier, and says blog visitation is up 31% from January 2005 through July 2005.

The top blog hosting services have grown significantly. ComScore reports that the number of unique visitors to six of the top 10 services grew by more than 100% from the first quarter of 2004 to the first quarter of 2005. Blogspot.com (better known as Blogger.com), continues to be the largest service.

About 39 million blog visitors in the first quarter of 2005 visited at least one blog residing on one of the major blog hosts. Some 28 million users visited at least one non-hosted, or standalone, blog.

Of standalone blogs, comScore found that over 40% focused on news or politics, including leading blogs like FreeRepublic, Dailykos and Wonkette. Blogs about business made up just 3% of the total.

The fastest-growing blog site, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, was MSN Spaces, which was only unveiled in December 2004. Standalone sites like Gawker and Daily Kos saw traffic rise sharply over the period. Nielsen//NetRatings said that the top 50 blog sites (a list that includes both blog hosts and individual blogs) were visited by about 29.3 million people in July, up 31% from the beginning of the year.