Technorati Research – How Much Does the Average Blogger Make?

Recently I’ve been citing statistics from the State of the Blogosphere 2008 research done by Technorati.

You may have heard the expression:  “There are lies, damn lies and statistics”

That’s because while statistics sound like facts (all those numbers!) they can be misleading if you don’t pay close attention to what is being said.

For example, statistics commonly talk about “the average”, as in “the average blogger”.

In this context, “average” usually means the statistical mean. In other words, if you want to find out how much the “average” blogger earns from his or her blog – you add up all the revenue a bunch of bloggers make, and divide that amount by the number of bloggers you asked, right?

Here’s the problem with that – the “average” calculated that way tells you very little if there bloggers on the very low end and/or the very high end of the scale.

For example, Technorati states that the “average blogger” makes approximately $6000 per year from advertising revenue.

However, Technorati is also quick to point out that this average is skewed by a few bloggers who make a lot of money.  In fact, there were bloggers surveyed who make $350,000 per year from advertising.  

When you add those high earning bloggers  into the pool of all bloggers surveyed – the average income gets inflated - and you’re left with the impression that if the “average” blogger makes $6000 from their blog – then most bloggers make $6000 from their blog – so therefore, I could and should make $6000 from my blog.

But, Technorati also provides another statistical calculation – called the median.

The median is important because it is the exact middle of all the responses that the survey got.  In other words, 50% of  the bloggers who responded to the survey made more than the median and 50% of  the bloggers made less. 

And what is the statistical median for the advertising income by US bloggers in the Technorati research?      $200.

That’s right – half of the bloggers surveyed made less than $200.   

But – half made more, and 1 in 100 made over $200,000 per year.

Technorati also looked specifically at bloggers who have over 100,000 page views per month.

The average (mean)  income for these bloggers was $75,000.

But you’re asking (I hope) – What was the median income? 

And Technorati provides the answer – $22,000.

In other words – half of all bloggers with 100,000 page views per month make less than $22,000 and half make more.

And now that you know – Are you surprised by the revenue that bloggers make?  Is it higher or lower than you thought?