New State of the Blogosphere survey examines strength of the blogosphere, trends, benefits of business blogging, and more.

Once a year, leading blog search engine Technorati publishes its annual State of the Blogosphere report. This year they have surveyed 2,900 bloggers in the largest and most comprehensive look at the inner workings of the blogosphere to date.

The 5 part report offers a fascinating glimpse into why people blog, what they write about, how they blog, how content is monetized, and emerging trends in 2009.

While the whole report offers interesting insights for online marketers, day 4 of the report examined the 14% (out of bloggers who monetized their blog) of corporate bloggers and their responses. Among corporate bloggers, a full 71% have increased visibility within their industry and 56% claim that their business blog has helped their company establish themselves as a thought leader in the industry.

Other benefits of corporate blogging include 63% who claim that prospective clients read their blog and later bought from them and 36% of respondents who have been asked to speak at industry events because of their blog.

Read the full 2009 State of the Blogosphere report.