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Eight out of 10 Americans know what a blog is and close to half have visited blogs, according to a survey from Synovate/Marketing Daily.

Americans Blogging Habits

"Eight percent of Americans currently have their own blog," said Tom Mularz, senior vice president at Synovate. "This is surprising given that a few years ago hardly anyone knew what a blog was."

Loyalty to specific blogs is relatively strong with 46 percent of blog readers reporting that they visit the same blogs regularly compared to 54 percent who search for new or different blogs.

Awareness and usage of blogs, along with people writing their own correlates to age, with younger people being more active. Close to 90 percent of people ages 25 to 34 know what a blog is, compared to 65 percent of those 65 and over. Seventy-eight percent of those ages 18 to 24 who are aware of blogs have visited a blog, compared to 45 percent of older Americans.

The survey found that there are more women bloggers than men, with 20 percent of American women who have visited blogs have their own versus 14 percent of men.

When it comes to reading blogs 39 percent read them less than once a month, another 28 percent visit them monthly, 15 percent visit them daily and 5 percent read them several times a day.

While blog usage continues to grow, so does its potential as a marketing tool. Forty-three percent of blog visitors said they had noticed advertising on blog sites, increasing to 61 percent among those ages 18 to 24. Around one-third of readers have clicked on an ad while reading a blog.

Even though people are spending more time with blogs they are not replacing other media. Only 13 percent of blog readers said they spend less time with other forms of media (newspapers, television, radio) since they started following blogs.

"Because anyone can start one anytime, blogs are not necessarily seen as legitimate information sources despite the fact that some bloggers are experts in their area," said Mularz. "However, as their prominence and influence continues to rise, this could certainly change."

When questioned about the kind of information they get from blogs, 65 percent said they get opinions, 39 percent get news and 38 percent get entertainment.

On the main reason people read blogs, close to half said they find blogs entertaining, and another 26 percent read them to learn about hobbies or other areas they are interested in.