What You Need to Know About The People Who Read Your Blog

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A new study on the habits of blog readers, conducted by The University of California at Irvine, is quietly making the rounds at conferences and on, well appropriately enough, blogs.

Not a lot of surprises here, but it bears highlighting some of the key observations.

People who read blogs tend to:

- find it habit forming.
- consider it as time spent goofing off.
- consider their connection with the author the key reason they keep coming back.
- consider their interaction/reaction to the blog as the real content and not just the content itself.
- bond with the blog's community; namely the author and other regulars who leave comments.

What can business's who blog learn from this?

- Keep it casual.
- Think of your blog as less of an information channel and more of a communication channel.
- Personalize your blog with pictures of the author. Write postings in the first person. Respond to comments.
- Write to engage. Put questions to your readers. Have running themes to keep them coming back. Note the personalities of those who leave comments and reference them in postings once and awhile.

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio