Reader Survey Results & What I Learned

There were lots of people who said “through another blog” that couldn’t remember, but a few specifically mentioned the blog I co-host Chaotic Goddess Swaps, and some fab bloggy friends like High-Heeled Love, Printcess, and Kimi Who. Another common factor was “through a giveaway on another blog” and “through a Facebook group”.

What does this tell me? Well for one, it tells me that advertising on other blogs and participating in their giveaways is paying off for me. Obviously a lot of people found me not only through the word of mouth of my dear friends, but from bloggers I pay to sponsor. That is good information to have!

A few of them tell me which social media sites to focus my attention on. Since Bloglovin, Twitter, and Facebook groups were all mentioned, I know that I can keep focusing on those sites as they are yielding good quality readers who take the time to enter my giveaways and fill out my surveys. That’s awesome! The Passionfruit comment was fab too-hello whoever you are!

I also love that people searched for DIYs, Recipe Posts, and “handmade goods” and found me. That shows me what kind of things I should post more often so that people keep finding me via google and twitter searches. Awesome! I also love that someone found me through my blog awards, and it helps me decide if I’m going to continue them or not.

This is perhaps the most useful information in the survey. It’s really great to see what people are responding to on my blog and see what they want to see more of. I’m certainly glad they want to see more Home Improvement tips, because I see that being a much bigger thing in the future, especially with more and more people looking into designing a home workshop or new kitchen!

Some of the “Others” mentioned included “Giveaways” and “International Giveaways”… This was also the response to a lot of other questions where it didn’t apply… So I guess I do have some people who are only here for the giveaways, but hopefully they are getting more out of it than just that.

This one is tricky, because responses are different based on people’s tastes and what they’re working with. Pretty much everyone was nice about their responses, which is great, and some people left comments like “average” which makes me go-uh, thanks? Care to elaborate? I don’t think they care to though-probably just here for the giveaway.

For the most part everyone seems to like my design and set up-which was the overwhelming majority of the responses (seriously like 90%). They like the consistency, the ease of finding things, and the color scheme. There was a few mentions of the NavBar jumping around and sizing, but I think I’ve fixed those things by moving to WordPress.

A few people feel like I should add more color, and I’ll admit-I go back and forth on that. Sometimes I want color, and sometimes I like the stark contrast. Maybe I can find some middle ground.

Again, this was overwhelmingly positive, which is good. A lot of people mentioned how happy they were with the variety they find here, which is great-I often wonder how I fair without a niche and this tells me that people are still digging it. Thanks readers! I also love that someone told me they almost never mark my posts as read instead of reading them, that’s great! I love this comment too “I love it. I plan on making a personal nerd blog of my own, and you are actually my inspiration! Just do what you want to do. =)” (make sure you send me a link when it’s up!) and this one “You have a little bit of everything and I love it! It keeps me coming back because I know there will be something new, fun, quirky (in the BEST way!) and exciting to read.” So sweet. So many of you said sweet things like that. I heart your faces!

There were requests for more blogging tips which is great-I am totally going to write more I promise!

One person mentioned that they were offended by one thing I wrote on one occasion, though they mentioned it was to do with the imagery more than what I wrote, but they didn’t tell me what it was. I wish they had-can’t fix something without an example.The Features here:

That pretty much reflects what I see in link ups too, except The Monthly Goals which gets a lot of attention. I just wonder if people are moving away from link-ups in general? My next question asked if they participate on other blogs and the overwhelming response was not really… Some say they try but it doesn’t work out, and some just say no. Though there are a few that were mentioned that I’m going to have to check out. People still love those giveaways though!

Also, to the person who skips Musical Mondays because they don’t like music, I hope you stop by sometimes still, I’ve been sharing a lot of really personal stuff on Mondays and then just adding the Music onto the bottom of it. I’d love if you read the personal stuff and just skipped the song since you’re not into it.

Where my readers can be found:

About Giveaways:

This definitely helped me in learning what people like when it comes to giveaways.

Someone recommended I give away some specific gift cards and even some kids toys. I love the suggestions, but I wont give away things that aren’t relevant to my content. I’ll take the other recommendations into account though.

One person mentioned they don’t like “selling their soul” to enter giveaways. They mean following people they don’t care about in order to get entries. That’s cool-honestly, I get to the point where I just check out people in the giveaways and if I don’t relate to them I skip that entry, it’s really okay. However, this does not discourage me from participating and hosting them, because as I saw in the “how did you find me?” answers, several people found me and actively follow my blog from giveaways, and I know I’ve found some awesome new blogs through giveaways. But we all have different methods.

One person requested I announce the giveaway winners. It’s actually against the FTC guidelines to do that via Social Media of any kind, and I don’t have the blog space to create a whole new post, so I just put it in the original post. Feel free to check the original post after the close date to see who won! Perhaps I should start linking to that post again when winner’s are drawn though?

On sponsoring blogs:

Most people who said they didn’t sponsor blogs had financial reasons. It didn’t fit into their budget, or they don’t make money off of their blog currently to support it, etc. Totally understandable, and it’s also understandable if that’s just not your thing. We love you still. 🙂

A few people mentioned that they were new or didn’t know how to start, for you folks I say totally check out my New Bloggers Series post about Becoming a Blog Sponsor.

When asked about sponsoring me in particular:

A few people requested an option for new bloggers who aren’t very large. I do already have this option friends! You can either swap ads with me on my sponsor page (when the option is open, it’s currently full) or you can fill out my Small Blogger/Small Business Form to get a free Saturday Spotlight! Someone also said they’d like to see sponsorship incorporated during the week instead of just Saturdays, and I do that as well plus I’m working on more options. The Saturday Spotlight is just one option I’m working on growing currently.

This graph was good to see that people do respond to sponsor ads. I also want to specifically respond to this one comment I received:

“I don’t think there’s a clear idea of what it means to be sponsored, or be a sponsor, anywhere. Does that mean I’ve paid you to say nice things about me? As a reader, it influences my opinion when a blog is sponsored. I think I’d rather see “hey I found this cool blogger” because someone found a cool blogger, not because they were paid by said blogger. But if it’s a matter of “hey, this person contributed to this giveaway, or feature, something else collaborative” then it feels more genuine to me.”

Good question. Just because someone applies to sponsor you, does NOT mean you have to accept them. I personally am not going to approve someone for a sponsor spot that I have to work my butt off to promote if I don’t like them or their blog/product, and I’m working to be more clear on this going forward so that my readers can understand that the people/blogs/shops I promote are definitely ones I love and respect. I want my sponsorship options to also be genuine, and I don’t want to waste my time promoting people or products I don’t actually care for.

Of course not all people who accept sponsors feel the same way, and that’s okay. You just have to pick and choose who you sponsor, and who you choose to believe when they talk about their sponsors.

Personally, I’ve made wonderful friends by seeing them recommended by a blog I trust, and I’ve made great friends simply by them applying to sponsor me when I hadn’t been aware of their blog or shop before. I’ve found so much new reading and shopping due to this!

And to anyone reading, if you have ANY questions about sponsorship please feel free to email me. 🙂

On how readers are influenced:

I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves. 🙂

Who are my readers?

Want an idea of who my readers are based off of this survey? It was only a small sampling of readers, but here’s what I found-based on this small sampling.

Two-thirds of my readers are blogger, 7% of the remaining third would like to start blogging.

The vast majority are between 18 and 40 years old (81.5% of them) with the vast majority being between 25 and 40. The remainder are 40+.

70% of my readers are married or in a relationship, the rest are single (like me!)

It’s pretty split on kids, over half do not have kids, but it’s not over by much.

Three-quarters of my readers own pets of some kind.

39% of my readers own their own home, the rest rent or live with parents/roommates.

Over half of my readers have a degree, but 80% of my readers have attended some college.

85% of my readers shop online. 60% of those readers only choose handmade if it’s cheaper/easier.

Only 3% of readers who took this survey did not enter the attached giveaway. (Winner HERE)