10 Things Your Blogger Won't Tell You

The most popular do boast huge followings — tech-news site Engadget, for one, has more readers than most print newspapers and magazines. But beyond the elite few, it drops off significantly — the top 25 blogs account for roughly 10% of blog readership, according to web-traffic measurement firm ComScore. To be fair, most bloggers aren't seeking a big audience. "The pleasure of blogging is in forming a sense of intimacy readers and fellow bloggers can enjoy," says Rachel Bray, whose Babayaga.ca gets a few hundred hits a day.

So what's the norm? Google CEO Eric Schmidt told a recent gathering of U.K. politicians that the average blog has just one reader: the blogger.

When such tactics aren't enough, companies will even pay bloggers to praise their products. In 2006, Florida outfit PayPerPost sparked controversy by offering to connect advertisers with bloggers willing to drop a company's name into their daily scribbles for a fee (between $4 and $40 per mention). The practice was quickly denounced as online payola, and in December, the Federal Trade Commission weighed in, ruling that word-of-mouth marketers must disclose their sponsorship. Says PayPerPost CEO Ted Murphy, "We're trying to strike a balance that makes everybody happy."

While more than one-third of bloggers consider their work a form of journalism, their news-gathering consists largely of borrowing content and posting links to traditional news sources, along with some added commentary. What's more, bloggers don't face the same consequences as journalists for getting it wrong: In a recent libel case against a woman who posted a critical letter about two doctors, the California Supreme Court ruled that those who post content from other sources aren't liable for defamation. In other words, bloggers are off the hook so long as they aren't the original author of the mistake.

Allysa Myers, a virus-research engineer at security-software maker McAfee, says researchers now see such attacks, which first appeared less than a year ago, almost daily. Keeping your operating system, browser and security software updated may help contain the damage, but the responsibility is partly that of web site operators, who need to put proper filters in place so rogue users can't upload bad content. The bottom line for readers: "If you don't know the person doing the linking, don't click on it," Myers says.

Indeed, companies are only now beginning to realize that employee blogs can be a threat to information security; so far just 7% of firms have policies on personal blogs, according to a survey from the American Management Association and ePolicy Institute. But that doesn't mean you can blog with abandon. "Don't piss off your boss," says Robert Scoble, author of "Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk With Customers." Ask about your employer's stance on blogs and what subject matter is out of bounds before ever typing a word.