Here are some interesting stats sourced from the ever reliable Comscore, Hitwise and Technorati.

What struck me the most about these stats was the first bit of info: "A full 28% of all visits to blogs in '07 resulted in some action ( contact form, sign up etc)..." THAT is HUGE. When was the last time your newsletter or postcard mailer produced those results? Just further proof that ActiveRain blogging is one of "the sharpest tool in our real estate business shed". In addition to 28% being a huge number these people are also predisposed to your information since THEY initiated the action of reading/finding your blog and then contacting you.

Consider the generic web surfer that clicks on your site, finds a property, asks for information and then moves on to the next website, clicks on a different property ( or the same!) and asks for information etc etc...We all have had THOSE type of web leads before huh? The 28% blog contact is far different and far more qualified.

It was good timing to see these stats as recently I have been evaluating the blogging experiencing and wondering how better to provide a unique and more engaging blog that viewers would enjoy and that I would enjoy posting to. The blog world is ever changing it seems and there are many opinions regarding it but I find real data like this to be the most helpful when evaluating this medium.

Here are the stats:

Blogging Statistics:
1.    28% of all visits to blogs in 2007 resulted in some kind of action (email signup, contact form, etc.)
2.    There are currently about 15.5 million active blogs (blogs updated within 90 days)
3.    Total blogs tracked by technorati: 74 million
4.    There are 120,000 new blogs being created every day
5.    3,000-7,000 new spam blogs (splogs) created per day
6.    Total blog posts created per day: 1.5 million
7.    36% of those blog posts were written in English
8.    The Japanese language now boasts more blogs than another language (37%

Search Engine Statistics:
1.    75% of Americans use search engines on a regular basis
2.    56% of Americans use Search Engines every day
3.    40% of all search engine searches are for local businesses and services
4.    54% of Americans regularly use the internet instead of the phone book to find local services
5.    92% of all local searches will eventually convert into a sale
6.    Roughly 10 billion search queries made per day
7.    Google’s share of search queries: 59.2%
8.    Yahoo’s share of search queries: 22.2%