New figures confirm what smart online marketers already knew:  Blogging has become a huge marketing tool, one no business person can afford to ignore.  And blog surveys give you a way to “stand out in the pack” by engaging your audience and building that all-important bond with your customers and prospects

The numbers tell us 2 important stories:  about the explosion of bloggers and, even more important for marketers, the enormous growth in blog readers.

Although estimates vary, the estimates are that nearly 28 million Internet users have blogs that they update at least monthly; that’s about 14% of the population of Internet users.  Projections tell us that by 2013–just 4 years from now–the number could rise to 37.6 million bloggers.

Looking at the other side of the picture, some estimates put the number of Internet users who read blogs at least once a month at 96.6 million.  That’s a LOT of traffic.  By 2013, that number could reach 128 million people.  That would could mean that 58% of  Internet users read blogs.

As the author of a new report on blogging states,“Blogging activity presents new opportunities for marketers to monitor and influence conversations relevant to their businesses,” says Mr. Verna. “Opportunities no marketer should ignore.”

And if you’re running one or more blogs–as you should be–blog surveys give you a wonderful way to generate content, draw traffic, and produce buzz on your blog.  Find out how.