A blog focused on helping bloggers and online retailers make more money online.

Time spent on social networking and blogging sites accounted for 17 percent of all time spent on the Internet in August 2009, according to a new report from Nielsen.

“While video and text content remain central to the Web experience – the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the medium’s growth.”

“This growth suggests a wholesale change in the way the Internet is used,” said Jon Gibs, vice president, media and agency insights, Nielsen’s online division.

Nielsen – Significant Gains in Advertising

Year-over-year, estimated online advertising spend on the most popular social network and blogging sites increased 119 percent, from about $49 million in August 2008 to $108 million in August 2009. The share of estimated spend on these sites has also grown, increasing from a seven percent share of total online ad spend in August 2008 to a 15 percent share in August 2009.

While a number of industries decreased their overall online ad spend year-over-year in August, spending on the top social network sites increased across the board. The Entertainment Industry led in growing its online ad dollars, increasing ad spending on the top social network sites by 812 percent in August. Travel Advertisers followed suit, increasing their ad spend on these sites by 364 percent.

“In the past, advertisers had significant concerns with social media advertising,” said Gibs. “The considerable increases we’ve seen in ad spending over the past year suggest that many of these concerns have subsided or been addressed.”

“In particular, advertisers that want to connect with core fan bases, such as movie studios, are allocating more and more dollars to online communities like Facebook and MySpace, where they can engage in an ongoing dialog with their target market.”

There’s convergence happening today between social media and online advertising, and the results are going mean exciting changes for web publishers, their readers and advertisers.

It’s telling that in 2009, a time when many businesses are cutting back, online advertising budgets remain quite resilient, and is expected to grow a lot over the next two years.

There are plenty of reasons for these trends, and key among them is the simple fact that money goes where the people are. Well-placed ads have a much better success rate than those that are broadcast to the masses. But there’s a deeper connection happening too. Consider the results of a recent study conducted by TrendsSpotting Market Research, which found that the #1 advertising trend in today’s new economy is what they call the “Identification-with-Individual-Needs Approach.”

In other words, it’s easier to connect with people when you’re offering then something they need or want.

Figuring out what people want in real-time: that’s the goal of exciting platforms like AffinityClick. The solution is to focus on algorithms that help predict audience behavior, coupled with geo-targeting to determine the location of website/blog visitors, plus click-stream data to determine product interest. The outcome is that readers see brand-name ads for products that are useful to them.

It’s a win-win for readers and online publishers alike. Readers enjoy a better online experience and publishers make money doing what they love.