Here are my top 10 blog posts of 2008 ranked by number of hits. Although it’s really only since June as that’s when I started using Google Analytics. I’m impressed that my post about PR Bloggers on Twitter is so high up considering I only wrote it two weeks ago.

1. World’s top PR blogs 28 comments 1,400 hits
2. Top 75 PR blogs: September 2008 10 comments 527 hits
3. Top 50 PR blogs: August 2008 10 comments 458 hits
4. How long should a blog post be? 1 comment 410 hits
5. Top 75 PR blogs: October 2008 16 comments 399 hits
6. Technorati releases blog report 1 comment 294 hits
7. PR bloggers on Twitter 6 comments 229 hits
8. Does size matter for PR graduates? 1 comment 153 hits
9. Has Liverpool One put the city on the map? 5 comments 131 hits
10. Where are all the women? 10 comments 103 hits

I’m not sure I agree. Certainly paid for blogs produced by professional bloggers or PROs has had an impact on the blogosphere, but I don’t believe that it’s killed off the blogosphere as professional and amateur bloggers blog for different reasons.

Professional bloggers blog to share news or their opinions about issues affecting the industry they work in, as well as to network, whereas amateur bloggers blog to share their thoughts and ideas, and to keep in contact with friends and family. As long as the barriers to entry stay low, amateur and professional bloggers can co-exist.

Further proof that the blogosphere is far from dead comes in the form of Technorati’s recent ‘Blogosphere 2008′ report, which reveals that 79 per cent of bloggers write personal blogs. This hardly makes amateur bloggers sound like a dying breed.

Instead of pointing the finger at PROs or professional bloggers I would suggest that social networking sites, such as Facebook, have had the biggest impact on the blogosphere. Since many amateur bloggers blog to share news and photographs with friends and family it is no surprise that some have swapped blogs for social networking sites.

I’ve picked out a few interesting facts.

• 133 million blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002
• 76,000 blogs have a Technorati rating of 50 or higher
• 41 per cent of bloggers use Twitter
• Technology is the 2nd most popular topic for bloggers
• Corporate blogs make up 12 per cent of all blogs
• Professional blogs make up 46 per cent of all blogs
• 50 per cent of bloggers are aged between 18 and 34
• 44 per cent of bloggers are parents
• 42 per cent of bloggers spend 3-10 hours blogging per week
• Only 15 per cent of bloggers spend less than an hour blogging per week
• ‘Blog’ is the 5th most popular tag
• ‘Technology’ is the 11th most popular tag
• 83 per cent of blogs are listed on Technorati
• Just 4 per cent of bloggers pay to advertise their blog
• 46 per cent of blogs don’t feature any advertising
• Bloggers spend twice as much time online as U.S. adults 18-49,
• 82 per cent of bloggers post brand and product reviews
• 89 per cent of bloggers post about brands that they love or hate
• 37% of bloggers have been quoted in traditional media based on a blog post
• Half of bloggers believe that blogs will be a primary source for news and entertainment in the next five years
• 1 in 5 five bloggers don’t think that newspapers will survive the next ten years

Last year Stuart Brown performed research into the ideal blog post length. He measured the 10 most recent blog posts for each of the Technorati Top 100. Stuart revealed that half of the blogs had an average post length of 100 to 249 words, and the majority of blog posts were between 100 and 500 words long.

This got me thinking – What is the perfect length for a PR blog post?

Unlike Stuart, I don’t have the patience to sit down and measure the word lengths of nearly 1000 blog posts. So instead, I took my most recent list of PR blogs and looked at the five most recent posts published by the top 10 blogs.

These are the average word lengths for the top 10 blogs:

1. PR2.0: 1791 words
2. PR Squared: 405 words
3. A Shel Of My Former Self: 372 words
4. POP! PR Jots: 1042 words
5. Pro PR: 172 words
6. PR Blogger: 229 words
7. Strategic Public Relations: 153 words
8. Young PR: 417 words
9. PRNewser: 186 words
10. A PR Guy’s Musings: 210 words

The posts ranged from a short and snappy 27 words to a whopping 4500 words. Overall the average length was 498 words, which doesn’t include content inside videos, slideshows and podcasts used in the posts.

I consider 498 words a good guideline for a blog post length, but ultimately I don’t think the post length really matters. Writing nothing but 498 word long posts won’t get you noticed or attract new readers. It’s the quality of writing, interestingness of content and frequency of updates that make a good blog great.

And yes, I realise that this post isn’t quite 498 words long.

That was in June. Two months passed and for many of us there was no sign of the relief pack. Not good news for blogger’s stress levels, or the nice people at Berocca who must have been quite concerned by posts like this declaring the exercise a PR fail. Since commenting on that post, I received a relief pack in just a matter of days. Coincidence?

To avoid this Berocca should have carried out a weekly send out of relief packs so that bloggers weren’t waiting too long to receive their goody bag. And, when they did send out the relief packs they should have taken a little time to address the nice letter inside with my name. Dear blogger doesn’t exactly build up a personal relationship with the brand. That said I’m very impressed by the campaign. It’s very brave for a non-techy brand to experiment with blogger outreach and I commend that. Also, it’s especially important to try relationship building exercises like this during a recession when premium brands like Berocca are in danger of being abandoned by consumers in favour of cheaper supermarket versions.

Well done Berocca, this blogger is now full of vitamin goodness and will stay that way.