WebProNews

People have debated whether content is really king for some time, and for content producers, it seems a no-brainer: create quality content and the audience will come. That's the way it's always been, that's how it will remain. A survey about blog readership conducted by Vizu confirms that mantra, and reinforces the importance of good writing.

Admittedly, I'm biased. I'm a content producer. I call myself a writer and an artist. Take what I say with the appropriate amount salt, but it's always nice to have your qualitative biases reinforced through quantitative means, especially in an age where it seems the language is under assault, where grammar, spelling and skill are deemphasized.

Just open up a word processor and type – that ain't writing anymore than throwing a line in the water is fishing. No bait, no bites; nothing good to read, no reason to come back.

Rand Fishkin was bragging on Monday about how SEOMoz scored a million links. His explanation, in a nutshell, include originality, timeliness, usability, aesthetics, and writing quality. That last one, you can image, got my attention. I assumed that good writing was important, but now I've got numbers, courtesy of Vizu Corp.'s Blog Readership Report, and I'm not above obnoxious victory dances.

Quality of writing was the number one response to three survey questions:

How do you choose the blogs you read regularly? 43.9%

What factors convey blog quality to you? 56.3%

How do you assess the credibility of the blogs you read? 51.5% 

"Quality of writing" counts for a lot – driving readers' choices of which blogs they will read as well as helping them to determine which blogs are credible and high quality.

So yes, with an air of smugness, I still say content is king.

Some of Vizu's other findings:

2/3 of blog readers read more than three blogs regularly

Community rules: Blog links and recommendations are used more than search engines to find blogs.

Personal interest and entertainment are more popular than business or education.

Niche information and rumors/gossip are the most sought-out material.