UK Internet visits to weblogs reached an all-time high during the week ending 7/6/2008, with traffic to the Hitwise Lifestyle - Blogs and Personal Websites category accounting for 1.19% of all UK Internet traffic, equivalent to one in every 84 website visits according to recent findings by Hitwise.

Published: 30 Jul 2008

UK Internet visits to weblogs reached an all-time high during the week ending 7/6/2008, with traffic to the Hitwise Lifestyle - Blogs and Personal Websites category accounting for 1.19% of all UK Internet traffic, equivalent to one in every 84 website visits according to recent findings by Hitwise.

‘The market share of blogs has been increasing steadily over the last three years according to Hitwise monthly data. Traffic to News and Media sites has also increased over the same period, with these 'traditional' news sites still receiving more traffic than blogs. However, traffic to blog sites is growing at a much faster rate: over the last three years, UK Internet traffic to Hitwise's Blogs and Personal Websites category has increased by 171%, compared to a 70% increase in traffic to News and Media sites.

Interestingly, blogs have a greater market share of visits in the UK than in the US. Blogs accounted for 1.09% of all Internet visits in Britain during May, but only 0.73% in the US.

The top 20 websites in the Blogs and Personal Websites category cover a variety of topics, ranging from gadgets to gossip. Blogger (www.blogger.com) is the most popular blogging platform, while the appearance of MySpace Blog (blog.myspace.com) in the top three highlights the importance of social networking blogs. Traditional media players also feature prominently, with BBC Blog Network (www.bbc.co.uk/blogs) and Guardian Unlimited Blogs (blogs.guardian.co.uk) ranked in the top 10.’

Meg Pickard, Head of Communities and User Experience at Guardian Unlimited will be sharing key insight on how to build and maintain successful blogs and online communities at EyeforTravel’s upcoming Social Media Strategies in Travel Europe conference.
Meg’s main area of expertise lies in social media, consumer experience and product strategy, but she’s also had years of experience of creating content as well as commercial solutions and strategies for small start-ups, global brands and large corporations.

Using real world examples, she will be discussing how to develop and manage existing and new social web strategies and experiences.

Blogs and other forms of user-generated content are playing an ever increasingly important role in the research of holidays online and the interaction of consumers with travel brands. As traffic to such sites continues to increase, the influence of such content is of key interest for many travel companies.

To find out more about this topic and the other topics for discussion at the conference which will be held in Munich, 14-15 October visit
http://events.eyefortravel.com/smeurope/socialmedia/agenda.asp