Yes. A lot of people ask me about blog research and trends, with readership being a related item. Most people interpret blog readership more as "subscribing." In other words, they think that "reading" a blog is all about coming back and reading over and over again. At one point, blogging best practices led blog writers to believe that a consistent, steady flow of returning traffic was a key indicator of success. (Reason being, returning visitors leads to predictable impressions and the opportunity to monetize a blog through advertising).

To clarify, there are two ways that I think about blog readership: new and returning visitors.

There's a lot of value in both. New visitors may show up, read the blog, and then take the next step depending on what kind of conversion is offered to them. Returning visitors may show up over and over again and never take a next step (perhaps there isn't a clear call-to-action on the blog!). I'm not sure what the general stats are when it comes to new or returning visitors, but I'm sure there are a lot of new blog visitors (readers) who show up, digest a blog, and have no idea at all that it's a blog they're reading. Why? Because a blog may look just like a website or any other web page!

I point this out because this blogging information recently came to my attention: 

According to 2006 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 39 percent of Internet users, or about 57 million American adults, said they read blogs, up from 27 percent in 2004, or 32 million.

I think those numbers are really low even though it's a big jump from 2004. I'm trying to find 2007 numbers but not having much luck. Just remember that when people throw out stats like this, there is probably a very large group of people who read blogs and don't know it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing -- what will make your organization's blog successful isn't that people know it's a blog. It's how they use it to gather the information and education and ultimately, start a relationship with you.