Caribbean Blog Revolution Brewing

The Caribbean is not untouched by the global phenomenon of blogs and blogging. A Google check online show there are hundreds if not thousands of Caribbean blogs. There is now a facebook group called Caribbean Bloggers Massive that’s growing at a merry clip.

The online phenomenon we know as blogging started in 1994 and was pretty much perceived as no more than teenaged idler rants and online diaries. Fast Forward to 2007 and the blog is now a bonafide media platform. Now we have tech blogs, news blogs, music blogs, commentary blogs, sex blogs, political blogs, corporate blogs and media blogs. Without question the blog has changed the media landscape and easy to use Blog tools like wordpress.com, blogger.com is fueling the fire as non techies people can get their words out, build a community and these days also make money- see gizmodo.com,techcrunch.com,johnchow.com, shoemoney.com.

What are Caribbean bloggers writing about ?

An observation on the nature of the blogs, shows a heavy leaning to the personal imbued with the personality and self interest led gleanings of the blogger. A fellow blogger from Trinidad knowprose.com observed then concluded that blogs by Caribbean residents tend to be personal and escapist.I agreed and added that blogs by Caribbean visitors and the Caribbean Diaspora tend to be nostalgic.But there are thousands of blogs out there that defy these parameters, like the many others who use the blog format and the blog publishing platform as a basis to launch a low cost magazines, company online marketing communications, artists to fan connections, small business websites and like mine, an online media and publishing business. But what’s influencing the blogging culture in the Caribbean? Is it the level of internet penetration or the existing culture to be social? Is it boredom with mainstream Caribbean and American media and them now in tuned with the varying tastes of its readers and would be readers? The blog as media is growing in the Caribbean. We’re excited to watch and see where it goes.

Which Blogging Platform is being used most?

Ok I’m gonna be very biased here, but a check with the most influential, succesful and six figure bloggers makes me feel ok about saying this- serious, professional and corporate bloggers use wordpress.org and newbies, casual hobbyists and amateurs use blogger.com. Why? Google and observe and tell me what you find. This blog is powered by wordpress and is using a premium paid for theme by Brian Gardner who creates free and premium word press themes. In my mind, blogger.com became the popular starter brand for the phenomenon, but wordpress is enabling it and growing it to another level. Which platform is being most used by Caribbean bloggers, right now I’m seeing .blogspot.com extensions more than anything else.

About Blogoria.com

Labelled as the facebook for bloggers, Blogoria.com is a free networking tool that connects Bloggers with other Bloggers, Blog Lovers and Advertisers, launched November last year. It has some of the most popular social networking features –add to friends list, add to favourites, send a message, chat now, make request to blog on specific blog. Each blogger also has a feed of their blog posts as part of their blogoria.com profile and can use blogoria.com as tool to build traffic to their blogs and get more advertising. The site is social networking savvy and is keeping with the solid growth trends of blogging and behavioural targeted online advertising. The company which is based in New York has a Jamaican guy on the development team, so we had to share it.

American Blog Stats

• Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.

• More than 147 million Americans use the Internet.

• Over 57 million Americans read blogs.

• 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.

• 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.

• 9% of internet users say they have created blogs .

• 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog.

• Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs .

• over 120 thousand blogs are created every day .

• There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day .

• 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs .

• 120,000 new blogs are created every day .

• 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006 .

• 51% of blog readers shop online .

• Blog readers average 23 hours online each week .