First off, I wanna say a huge fat THANK YOU to everyone who participated in my readers survey. No lie, I was really worried that only my mom would take it. I got over twenty responses, which is great considering I launched it when everyone was still straggling back from the holidays. I'm not gonna beat around the bush though: I was really hoping I'd hear from more people. But I get that if you don't really ""know"" a blogger, it might be difficult to really say what you love and don't love about a blog. I do like that everyone who took it had awesome feedback and I can't wait to integrate it into my blog. So, here are the results! (Keep in mind, since my sample size was small, I'm not giving exact numbers, just rankings. Oooo, science!!!)
1. What's your gender?
Not really a surprise, but it was a girl party up in here. Literally everyone was female. Whaddup!
2. What's your age?
The 19-24 age group was the most popular, which makes sense since I talk a lot of college and "young stuff" around these parts. The second most was 25-30, with a few stragglers that were 16-18 and 31-35. Hey-oh!
3. Do you live in the US?
I wasn't really sure what to expect with this one - I live in the United States, but I do follow a lot of travel blogs and made a bunch of connections when I was abroad. It ended up that about 1/4 of my respondents hail from outside the United States. Awesome!
4. How did you find my blog?
Here we get into the reeeeeal technical stuff. It turns out that most had found me via a sidebar ad on another blog, closely followed by a feature on another blog. This is helpful since recently I was wondering if I should do away with ads that only offer sidebar space...but maybe not! Apparently my beautiful face keeps bringing the people back (wink). Yet, I had several respondents who said they found me via twitter, pinterest, and even facebook! Some were even helpful enough to reference exact linkups that they found me through - will definitely continue to participate in those!
5. How often do you visit my blog?
In retrospect, I think I would have swapped this question for "how long have you been following my blog." That would have served me a bit better, since the overwhelming response here was 'a few times a week' - which makes sense, since that's how often I post! (Some were even nice enough to say "whenever you have a new post" or "whenever I see something pop up in Bloglovin'" - you dolls.)
6. How do you keep up with posts?
I was pretty certain that it was going to be blog readers here - and I was right! Yet, there were a good chunk that said they followed through twitter! I'll make sure to have all my posts up on there, in that case - every once and a while I forget!
7. What are your favorite types of posts?
Yoooooo, this I was stoked about. Since SZTP is going through some major changes, I love getting feedback on people's favorites. Tied for first place were travel and photography! Two things I rarely post about! Haha, those will definitely be emphasized in the coming months. Also in the upper-categories were fashion, music, and college-related posts. Awesome! These are all things I love writing about! People also cited their favorite posts - some liked my IB post, others my Concert Survival Guide, and some just said they loved my jumping photos...don't worry, those are here to stay!
8. What are your least favorite types of posts?
The only two that seemed to stand out here were music and fashion - two of my top two! What's up with that? I went through all the responses and analyzed each one. Turns out that whoever answered "least favorite" with music ended up liking fashion and vice versa! So fashionistas and music-lovers, you're officially in competition! Hahaha.
9. Any additional comments?
I got such sweet comments in this section - thank you to all you anonymous wonders! It made my heart do pounding things. A lot said something along the link of me being "spunky" or "cheeky" - really? Can you tell? Hahaha. One person had an awesome suggestion that I include my favorite haunts in Boston - what a great idea!!! I can't wait to get started on this. For some reason, it's just never occurred to me to talk about where I live...how dumb am I, right? Will definitely think about this for the future!
What did I learn?
Whew, a lot! Despite being a writing girl through and through, I love looking at data - especially when it pertains just to me! If you're thinking of a readers survey, my best advice is to go in with no expectations and to appreciate every single response you get! Really puts everything in perspective. :] In the future, maybe I'll add a giveaway or something small to sweeten the deal. People's time is precious and a little Starbucks never hurt anyone :]]]
So, in conclusion...not a huge lot is changing. There aren't any subjects that I'm cutting out or anything that is now of utter importance...but it did show me that people are always going to have favorites and least favorites - so do your own thing!
Another HUGE thank you to everyone who took my survey, you're all lovely!!!
Labels: blog things, reader survey
