Five differences between male and female bloggers

Posted by stuart as , ,

This post is in response to Darren’s Group Writing Project:

I read a lot of blogs, and I’m adding new ones to my reader every day. One thing I’m discovering is that there seems to be some distinct differences between the online income blogs of men and women.

I’m no psychologist, and despite my 13 years of marriage, I certainly have no idea how the female mind works, but a couple of things are becoming apparent which may give some insight into the difference between the sexes.

Whilst of course the following observations are certainly not the case for all bloggers, and there are plenty of exceptions out there, they are just some things which I’ve noticed whilst making my way through the blogosphere.

Payperpost top earners Observation 1: Women don’t seem to mind working long term for their money, whilst men seem to want to put a lot of work in up front, then sit back and enjoy the spoils. The classic example of this is payperpost. Eight out of the top ten earners on payperpost are women. Readers of female bloggers also seem to accept this type of blog monetisation better than those of male bloggers.

Similarly, sponsored posts seem to be much more attractive to female bloggers, with one particular female blogger having 8 sponsored posts out of a total of 30 posts in her feed on the day this post was written.

Observation 2: Female bloggers seem to “go off the deep end” less. I have no evidence to back this up, but it just seems to me that male bloggers seem to get angry and lash out, either in blog posts or comments more than females.

Observation 3: Women bloggers seem to use more obvious forms of monetisation on their online income blogs than men.
Observation 4: Women seem to use free blog hosting more than men. Don’t believe me? Hover over some of the links in this list. 81 out of 107 on this list of women bloggers use a free blog hosting service.
Observation 5: Women seem to include much more of their offline life into their online income blogs than men. I’m guessing this is because female bloggers tend to attract female readers, who in turn are more interested in this sort of thing.

This is in no way intended as a judgement of either female or male bloggers, it’s just some observations I’ve made in the year or so I’ve been blogging.

Can you think of any other differences between female and male bloggers? Have I got it wrong? Do you think that if you read a blog without knowing the sex of the author, you could tell what sex they were?

36 comments so far

Sapphire says May 11th, 2007 at 12:57 am

Women seem to include much more of their offline life into their online income blogs than men. Iâ€™m guessing this is because female bloggers tend to attract female readers, who in turn are more interested in this sort of thing.

I’m not sure it’s “interest” so much as how women and men are taught to communicate. From babyhood, we see men sticking to facts and talking third person, while women talk about their own experience. I’ve always assumed this is nurture rather than nature.

My OWN theory on why I input some personality is that… well, look which people get interviewed on cable news. Not the smartest ones with the best facts: the ones who have the personality (bad or good) to keep the audience watching (whether in horror or awe). It’s all about personality, baby.

I haven’t noticed the PayPerPost thing, but then I haven’t looked for it. I personally stopped doing that because it was just a lot of work to give PPP a lot of backlinks. I don’t mind planning longterm, but I definitely focus more on stuff I can do once and then just reap the spoils forever. Otherwise, it’s a job, not a business. And the other female bloggers I talk to who are trying to earn money with it feel the same.

There’s one thing wrong, however, with using that list from my site with the female bloggers’ blogroll - most of those blogs are for fun, not for money. Of course they’re going to use free sites. Why pay for a hobby unless you have to?

BpMonaco » Blog Archive » My Top Top 5 (Part 2) says May 11th, 2007 at 7:27 am

[...] 5 Differences Between Male and Female Bloggers by Stuart [...]

Everyday Randomness » Top 10 Group Writing Project Entries says May 11th, 2007 at 8:23 am

[...] 5 Differences Between Male and Female Bloggers by Stuart [...]

stuart says May 11th, 2007 at 9:23 am

Hi Sapphire!
I’m particularly interested in your first paragraph. As a male who was taught to “express his feelings”, I sometimes feel caught between “being a blokey bloke” and giving a little more of myself in my blogs.

I think there’s a fear in some male bloggers to express too much of themselves for fear of opening themselves up to ridicule.

Would it affect the way you see male bloggers if they gave more of themselves in their blogs?

Everyday Randomness » Group Writing Project Update says May 11th, 2007 at 12:20 pm