While our recent surveys have focused on ways in which conservative and liberal blog readers disagree, this week’s results show they do actually agree on some things.

Readers of liberal and conservative blogs agree that the personal computer will take a backseat to mobile devices over the next decade. They also feel strongly that employers and schools should not have access to their private social networking information.

BUT…

Fans of political debate will be relieved to know that America’s political polarity has NOT yet subsided.

Conservative blog readers are more than four times more likely to be very concerned with national security threats and more than three times more concerned about the US federal deficit.

Ever wonder why do partisans’ views on things like mobile phones and school privacy match so neatly, while opinions on issues like US security differ so strongly?  Most likely this is because the parties have not (yet!) staked out positions on those issues.

As Ezra Klein notes in the June 25 New Yorker,

Each of us can have firsthand knowledge of just a small number of topics—our jobs, our studies, our personal experiences. But as citizens—and as elected officials—we are routinely asked to make judgments on issues as diverse and as complex as the Iranian nuclear program, the environmental impact of an international oil pipeline, and the likely outcomes of branding China a “currency manipulator.”

According to the political-science literature, one of the key roles that political parties play is helping us navigate these decisions. In theory, we join parties because they share our values and our goals—values and goals that may have been passed on to us by the most important groups in our lives, such as our families and our communities—and so we trust that their policy judgments will match the ones we would come up with if we had unlimited time to study the issues.

Posts about our prior survey results are here, here and here.

The numbers come from surveys conducted between March and June on well known political blogs including ThinkProgress, Political Wire, Wonkette, Drudge Retort, Right Wing News, Althouse, Outside the Beltway, News Hounds, Pandagon, Linkiest, Wizbang, Viral Footage, Informed Comment, The Agonist, Jack and Jill Politics, Yid With Lid, Burnt Orange Report, Chicago Boyz, NoisyRoom, The Steel Deal, MyDD and damnum absque injuria.

Many of these blogs are members of Liberal Blog Advertising Network (LBAN) and the Conservative Blog Advertising Network (CBAN).

If you’re a blogger and would like to see how your readers compare to the readers in this study, send us a note to data@blogads.com.

Ten years ago today, I posted an essay titled “Blogonomics: making a living from blogging.” Peering into the future of media, I argued that traditional publishers would soon be defeated by hordes of ad-supported bloggers.

At the time, both claims — that a) traditional publishing was doomed by people-published content and b) that blogging would be lucrative — seemed ludicrous. Shares in The New York Times were just a couple of months shy of their all-time high, $52. Martin Nisenholtz, then managing NYTimes.com, spoke for most media insiders when he dismissed the “weblog phenomenon” as nothing “fundamentally new in the news media.” (more…)

Looking for a recipe on Pinterest? Hope you like processed pork products, because the majority of pins you’ll find in the Pinterest “recipe” search is straight up spam. (more…)

Readers of conservative and liberal blogs appear to inhabit diametrically opposed realities, our recent survey of blog readers indicates.

Compared with conservative blog readers, readers of liberal blogs are 13 times more likely to be “very concerned” about climate change. Liberal blog readers are nearly 6 times more likely to rely on newspapers versus conservative blog readers. Liberal blog readers are also 1.9 times more optimistic about making a major purchase in today’s economy.

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I was watching TV at my sister’s house when another commercial for another NEW Android phone aired. “Which one do you have?” she asked me.

“Uh… Droid.. um…” I had to take apart my giant case to remember which HOT NEW model I had gotten just a few months back. And then it hit me. “iPhone users don’t have this problem.”

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Hi, I’m Kelly, and I have an email addiction. How do I know? Because I meet every single one of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) standards for addiction (explained lay-people terms here). This is the definition used by doctors, people! And I bet you have one, too. Take a little quiz and find out: (more…)

As the media landscape becomes more fragmented, blogs are human hubs for sharing insights, gossip and news. For the last 10 years, we’ve helped thousands of advertisers connect to the readers of these influential hubs. As much as we like to tell the success stories of our advertisers, we prefer to hear their stories first hand.

Author Kia Heavey recently found herself on a blog called Bookworm Room after following a link from another book blog. (more…)

John Cleese argues that taking your time and tolerating the anxiety of not having a solution are crucial to exceptional creativity.

I was always intrigued that one of my Monty Python colleagues, who seemed to be more talented than I was, never produced scripts as original as mine. And I watched for some time and then I began to see why. If he was faced with a problem and fairly soon saw a solution, he was inclined to take it. Even though I think he knew the solution was not very original. (more…)

Memphis-based Ardent Recording Studios takes a unique approach to blogging. Instead of playing the role of pundit or tastemaker, Ardent Studios play themselves: an active studio in downtown Memphis, where the musicians are the stars. Featuring the Instagram Photography of editor Rachel Hurley, and original content from guest musicians, reading the Ardent Music Blog feels like spending an evening hanging out in the studio.

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As we’ve observed time and again (for ten years now!) people prefer real stuff created by humans versus over-engineered “products” manufactured by droid-workers. This preference for authenticity holds for content — blogs, youtube videos, Instagrams — and also for advertising. Why should there be any difference, right?

Here’s yet another wonderful example of this reality principle at work. Dude posted two ads, one highly engineered, the other a VERY sketchy Microsoft paint experiment. Which one do you think outperformed by 2.8X?