...According to something I read recently the growth in the blogosphere has flattened out. The original idea, a couple of years ago, was that everyone and their dog would have a blog eventually. And that may already be true, considering that there are about 75 million blogs out there.

Seriously. That's a real number. And it's sobering when you think about it because when you're a regular blogger who hopes to get noticed in the 'sphere it truly illustrates that one blogger is a microbe in the vast online world.

But take heart fellow bloggers - that number is *all* of the blogs out there. Only about 15 million of them are actually active, and that number has remained flat for a while now. Like every other good thing on the web people start these things up and promptly realize that it takes work, thought, or energy to maintain it with any regularity, and then they let it die. Or they've started them up with names that they hope will get bought out someday and they'll make an easy buck.

Also note that this number doesn't include blogs started on MySpace or Yuku. These are so-called "real blogs" on dedicated blogging services that are being tracked in that number. And the disparity between active and inactive blogs will probably climb when you add those figures in. It's sobering when you think about it - the web was already littered with lots of dead websites before blogging started, and blogging just added more trash to the streets.

But still, there are dedicated bloggers that will keep going until life truly gets in the way or they die. Or sell a book of their blog entries, in which case then they're a "published author" and might let their blog die for the sake of trying to get more things published. I'd love to get a book deal out of this blog, not that I'm hunting for one at the moment. I don't have good enough insights or hits or word of mouth to turn me into an author. And I don't really know that I'd want to be one either - it's just the dream of a blogger (and the dream many of the serious ones have). But for now, I'm just a lowly blogger...

...but at least I'm still blogging.