EnglishSet on the theme of the Environment, the first annual Blog Action Day surpassed all expectations. Huge numbers of bloggers participated, the event attracted the support of the United Nations Environmental Programme, the European Union Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas, and received international press coverage.
To measure Blog Action Day, we tracked both the number of registered bloggers and their combined RSS readership, the number of top 100 blogs participating and the incidence of the words "Blog Action Day" and "Environment" on the web. The results were staggering:
20,603 Blog Participated
23,327 Blog Posts (Google Blog Search)
14,631,038 RSS Readers
19 of Technorati’s Top 100 blogs participated, including:
Boing Boing, LifeHacker, Mashable, Daily Kos, Problogger, Treehugger, Official Google Blog, Read/Write/Web, GigaOm, DoshDosh, LifeHack.org, CopyBlogger, The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), Valleywag, Telegraph Blogs, ZenHabits, Explore Vox, Download Squad, and Pronet Advertising
October 15th witnessed the entire spectrum of opinions and ideas about the environment. The best ways to find them are through Google Blog Search or Technorati’s Authority Search. Here are a few samples that showcase how Blog Action Day brought out ideas and ingenuity that tapped into niche audience interests.
- Build your own mean, green computing machine - DownloadSquad
- BadBuster Helps You Identify the Greenest Companies - Read/Write Web
- How to Green Your Electronics - Lifehacker
- Optimized code could help reduce global warming - Polygeek
- The Butterfly Effect and the Environment: How Tiny Actions Can Save the World - Copyblogger
- Items you Never Thought to Recycle - Dumb Little Man
- SEOMoz goes Carbon Neutral, you can too! - SEOMoz
The Blog Action Day story not only featured across the blogosphere, but was also picked up across all forms of traditional media from TV stations in Greece to radio stations in Spain to newspapers in New Zealand. Here are some of the media outlets that ran Blog Action Day stories:
Online Press
Cnet/News.com, Wired News, SlashDot, Digg, Reddit
Traditional Press
BBC, Reuters, Financial Mirror, FOX, Star Tribune, Skai TV, Rem.FM, Sydney Morning Herald, Vancouver Sun, Manilla Standard Today, New Zealand Herald, The Peninsula, Chicago Daily Herald, Post Star, Christian Today, Washington City Paper, Kathimerini Greece
United Nations Environmental Programme
Blog Action Day was officially supported by the United Nations Environmental Programme. In a press release, they stated: “UNEP welcomes the simple yet powerful concept of Blog Action Day and calls on bloggers around world to participate”.
European Union - Commisioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas
The EU’s Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas held a special live internet chat to coincide with Blog Action Day. A blogger himself, Dimas said afterwards:
Dear bloggers, Thank you for the very broad range of questions and commentaries you’ve sent in this afternoon. It has been a fine way to mark international Blog Action Day and your strong interest greatly encourages me in my work!
Companies Through corporate blogs, logo changes, promotions, support and notices to their customers and clients, many companies participated in 2007, including:
Reddit, Wells Fargo, Google, AOL/Weblogs Inc, eBay, Yahoo, Six Apart, Opera, Mokono, BlogTV Brazil, PixNET, and BlogAs Lithuania
It’s about solidarity, if I didn’t sign up, who would take my place? An effort like this can’t be successful if I don’t do my part to make it successful. And if one person out there reads an article today that makes them think twice before they throw their cigarette butt on the ground, then my part mattered.
Nora Paul, director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota, From the StarTribune
Wow! The inaugural annual Blog Action Day was quite something. It showed the power of one and the power of many.
Small Business Mentor
It’s a holiday for all bloggers to celebrate. It’s a holiday to unite all bloggers on one issue. It’s a holiday for the good of mankind. It’s Blog Action Day.
Can The World Hear Me?
So today, I decided to donate all the direct cash proceeds from this blog this year (2007) to a worthy environmental cause (in my case, The Sierra Club). To do this, I had to figure out how much money I made. To my amazement, this was $605.23 (primarily through Amazon and FeedBurner). This is without really trying. My eyes are now open to the opportunity.
OnStartups
One reason I like Blog Action day is it demonstrates the viral power of an idea. It shows how far and how fast something can spread via word of mouth, using today’s technologies. I also like it because it shows the vitality and importance of New Media (of which blogging is a major player).
American Chronicle