BLOGGING TRENDS -Profiles of the Top Pinoy Bloggers

NOTE: This is the reconstructed blog from the archive furnished by Yuga. Thanks yugz.

Dear mouse,

When this blog was featured in Manila Bulletin, one of the interview questions asked by Analyn was :

Q. What blogging trends do you see in the future? Do you think blogging is here to stay? My response below was not supported by statistics. It was only based on the observations made by visiting different types of blogs that joined the blogosphere or became more visible/popular after my first researh on the profile of the pinoybloggers last January, 2005.

I can see the trend now. Some businesses are now using blogs as promotion vehicles for their shows, products and activities. I am not talking about websites. Some blogs are made to appear as personal blogs when they are not.

Methodology:

I used the descriptive method of research instead of the questionnaire/survey type. One hundred top bloggers were selected from the Pinoy top blogs which has about 613 registered blogs as of the month of October 2005. The choice was not random and does not represent any sample size of the population. The trend as to the type of blogs was the paramount concern of the research so that whatever made it to the top one hundred were included in the list. The study therefore is limited only to those who registered in the Pinoytopblogs and who were ranked in the top one hundred by the unique hits they received for this period between first week of October up to October 18, 2005. The statistical analyses were made using percentages. No correlation was made.

Presentation of the Data

The blogs were categorized into politics/news/current events; entertainment/movies/music;cooking;personal journals;business;technology;comics and about Philippines. The presentation made use of the tabular form where data are broken down to numbers and analysed in percentages.

Table 1 Blogs according to categories

Table shows that half of the one hundred or 51 per cent of the blogs are personal journals. The remaining 49 per cent are distributed as follows: 14 or 14 per cent are entertainment/movies/music blogs; 12 are politics/news and current events; 10 are technology; comics illustrations, five per cent; blogs about the Philippines, 4 and business, 3 or 3 per cent.

Ranking and distributions of Blogs according to Categories

Table 2 Ranking of Politics/News and Current Events

Table 2 shows the ranking of politics/news and current events in terms of number belonging to the top 20 down to the last 20 of the total one hundred. Three blogs made it to top 20, in fact three of them are in top 10. Sassy Lawyer tops the list, followed by PCIJ and Manuel Quezon the 3rd. Sassy Lawyer and MLQ3 have been blogging since 2003. The PCIJ which is a team of journalists started the blog only recently. However, PCIJ website for investigative reportings has also been in the internet for years now, so the name has already a recall for readers.

Table 3 Ranking of Entertainment Blogs Ranking

The entertainment blogs have been consistently staying at the top rankings, in fact 7 out of 14 made it to the top 10 with two of them coming on the first and second in terms of number of hits. The top blog is not about the Philippine entertainment and the audience target is not only the Philippine readers but also the US. The second blog is all about music and the rest are updates on teleseryes and reality shows.

Table 4 Ranking of Personal Journals

Table 4 shows the ranking of personal journals. It is but expected that there will be more personal journals than the other categories of blogs since , the original concept of weblogs is more of a daily journal for people who would like to write more about themselves, feelings, beliefs and experiences. However, it should be noted that only five or 10 per cent of the 51 made it to top 20. The rest of the blogs are distributed almost evenly to the next rankings down to the last 20. The research did not attempt to look into the profiles of the blog owners, the length of years of blogging and the themes of the blogs.

Table 5 Ranking of Business

Table 5 shows that there are only three on-line marketing business type of blogs. One that has to do with wedding business made it to top 20.

Table 6 Ranking of Technology Blogs

Table 6 shows that the technology blogs are also ranked high. Two of this type landed to the top 20.

Table 7 Ranking of Comics

Table shows that the comics illustrators/ blogs are gaining readership. Although not one made it to the top 20, at least the number 10 bloggers in the top 100 indicates there is viewership in this blog the whole time.

Table 8 Ranking of Blogs about the Philippines

When blogs are not yet popular, topics about the Philippines are published in websites. Lately, blogs that aim to promote the Philippines, its regions, products and festivals are increasing in number. All the four blogs are ranked high and are included in the top 60.

The cooking journal is not presented in tabular form. There is no competition; all hands down, it is the most popular food blog next to music and entertainment. It is owned by the Sassy Lawyer.

Summary, findings and conclusion,

The findings that blogs are evolving from personal to non-personal indicate the trends that may be developing in the blogosphere. Literary writers and journalists find blogs as alternative venues for their articles to reach their target audience. While the mainstream media continue to deliver the news and current events, the blogs are gradually developing as good sources of breaking news which are more updated than the online news. The top bloggers/opinion makers deliver their intellectual analyses of the news more interactively since comments encourage feedbacks and inputs from the readers.

The Ca t