A Guide to Irish Bloggers
Blogs now constitute a well-established media with particular appeal for consumers who rather than focus on broad news coverage, seek specialist knowledge and niche information.
This guide was produced to gain a greater understanding of who Irish bloggers are, how they work, and what they want to achieve – with particular emphasis on the increasingly commercial character of blogging.
We set out to talk to a number of bloggers and we found out a number of key findings about the industry;
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Bloggers are predominantly female and blog for personal reasons (This was highlighted in the Irish Times in November last year, and was discussed by well known bloggers such as Timi Ogunyemi, James Butler and James Kavanagh to name a few. http://www.iamtimi.com/lifestyle/2015/11/15/let-the-men-blog )
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Fashion, beauty and lifestyle dominate the blogging categories
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Most bloggers own and manage a single blog, and those blogging across multiple platforms are rare
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Most Irish blogs receive fewer than 10,000 unique visits a month, but those with more commercial ambitions tend to receive more than 10,000
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Half of Irish bloggers spend fewer than 15 hours per week on their blog
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Twitter and Facebook are the preferred way to promote blog content, although Instagram and Pinterest are more popular with women
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PRs frequently pitch bloggers, but the proportion of pitches that actually generate content is very low
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Relationships with PRs are generally good, but bloggers feel they lack credibility when compared with traditional journalists - However we think you are great!
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While some Irish bloggers expect to be paid to promote brands, there is strong agreement that disclosing any commercial arrangement is very important.
So what does it all mean???
Fashion, beauty and lifestyle dominate the blogging categories.
The most popular categories overall were fashion and beauty, lifestyle, parenting and family and food, and there was a clear gender divide across those subjects. Overall male bloggers tended to write about a greater variety of subjects, whereas female bloggers were concentrated within a handful of categories.
Food, travel, tech and gaming were the most prominent themes for men who were also much more likely to use a single blog to address multiple topics, e.g. travel, food and health under one banner. In contrast, women are focused on fashion/beauty and lifestyle blogging, and also strongly represented in the parenting and family categories.
Most bloggers own and manage their own blog
71% of Irish bloggers write a single blog that they own and manage, rather than blogging on behalf an organisation of some kind.
Overall three-quarters (74%) of respondents wrote between 1-3 posts per week. Post frequencies of one, two and three posts per week were evenly represented by respondents – although almost of fifth of Irish bloggers post five times or more every week.
Those who said that they blogged professionally were more likely to post 5 or more times per week (24%), compared with those who cited personal reasons (14%). Those who own more than one blog also tend to write more posts, although the differences here are more marginal. For example, of those who own three blogs, 27% post once a week, 15% twice a week and 30% three times a week.
Bloggers are pitched to frequently by PR professionals
34% of bloggers reported being pitched to seven or more times a week. Unsurprisingly, PRs are focusing on larger blogs with a greater number of unique visitors.
Now this is where it gets interesting..
Despite the frequency of pitches received, 70% of Irish bloggers said that only one pitch a week or less resulted in content on their blog. The patterns were very similar for those who were writing for personal reasons and those with professional motives, suggesting that PR professionals are taking a more blanket approach rather than concentrating on the most receptive bloggers.
A recent talk at the digital hub highlighted the severity of bloggers and journalists being targeted with a blanket coverage approach by PR's, which generally resulted in an unopened email or no response. PR’s need to get more personalized and show more interest in Irish bloggers outside of their own personal gain.
Strong agreement that sponsorship disclosure is important
Over the last few months there has been a dramatic shift in the way bloggers can discuss products and services they write about and of late Google has waded into the mix as well. As far as the Irish advertising Standards agency goes the changes bring us into line with the UK and prodomently with the rest of Europe which have had these rules in place for a few years now.
However, regardless of the reason for blogging, there was strong agreement that all sponsorship should be disclosed.
So what are your thoughts on our findings? Do you agree or disagree with them. Either way we hope it has been insightful into the world of Irish bloggers!