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Survey Results of My Blog’s Readership and My Accompanying Analysis
June 16th, 2007 | Posted in Blogging |
Last week I posted a survey on my site asking who my readers were. Here are the results of that survey.
You can view the report here as well.
Geographic Breakdown
Here’s a geographic breakdown of where my readers are located.
Survey Analysis
Most of my of my readers are in technical communication. They’re more interested in blogging than podcasting, and only a handful have met me personally.
This means I’m largely writing for strangers. A lot of my posts are descriptions of good podcasts I’ve listened to. But if readers aren’t interested in podcasts, these recommendations may have little appeal.
What Is Blogging’s ROI?
I have been a little concerned about the ROI of blogging lately. I’m thinking that —
- Blogging requires a lot of time without producing any direct monetary rewards.
- Only a tiny percent of my readers actually know me personally. (What kind of relationships am I building?)
- Neither blogging, podcasting, or wikis seem to be skills in demand in the field of technical communication. (If you find a job description for a technical communicator that even mentions the word blog, wiki, or podcast, let me know. I don’t think they exist. Or if they do, they’re one in a thousand.)
How Readers Consume Blogs
After the survey dropped off the front page, I had only a few more respondents. This confirmed my suspicion that even though you may have written 250 posts, only the last 10 exist to your reader. This leads to the treadmill effect Arrington described — the idea that blogging is like running on a treadmill. You just keep putting time and energy into something that goes around and around without taking you anywhere.
Ideally, blogs should present readers with a neatly organized view of posts related to their interests. The index doesn’t really work (for example, see my index). Neither do users peruse categories much (at least I don’t). Perhaps providing related posts, top ten categories, and other aggregations that appeal to users is more useful.
Update: I decided to build in more embedded navigation into each post. Now at the end of each post, I show you 10 Related Posts and also the Top 10 Posts on my Site. Since 70% of my site visitors are supposedly first-timers (according to Google Analytics), it might make sense to provide per-post navigation like this.
Any Feedback ?
Do you have any thoughts for my about my analysis? I’d really like to hear them.
Related Posts
- Who are you? A one-question survey to identify my readers
- Survey Results: How I’m Changing My Blog Based on Your Responses
- Prove My Help Authoring Tools Survey Wrong
- Take Clyde’s Blogging Survey
- First survey results with Survey Gizmo
June 16th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I hear a lot of advice about adding a top post widget to sidebars, etc. You do have your top posts & related posts listed at the end of each post, which is good. One of my favorite techniques is to have a “top posts” page with lists of their most popular posts either with the popularity contest plugin and/or their personal favorites.
Also, for something ongoing like a survey or contest, I often add a link or box or both to the home page or all pages to draw attention to it. I also see a lot of “reminder” posts for those types of things.
June 16th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
My immediate reaction is that 10 related posts are too many at the end of each post–too many to comprehend at a glance. I prefer to see most popular posts in a sidebar, but what do i know?
Meanwhile, although I am involved in technical communication (as a copy editor), I read your blog for its Word Press and blogging posts. I’m a pretty new blogger, and I appreciate your professional skills in explaining the platform.
As to your other remarks, I know I get traffic on my site from Google (and other) searches, and I’ll bet you do, too. Your regular readers may just read the latest post, but newcomers, surely, look around. If you do want to make money from your blog, I’m sure you know how to add ads. Or if you’re looking for some freelance assignments, you need to make that clear. Don’t know who listens to or produces podcasts, so have nothing useful to say there.
I think you do a good job with your blog, and I hope you keep it up.
June 16th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Jordan,
Thanks for your comments and tips about putting the top posts on a different page. I used to have it as a widget in my sidebar, but after upgrading to 2.2, the popularity contest plugin ceased working as a widget, and I haven’t been able to determine the conflict.
Re the survey, you’re right — if I want readers to continually see it, I should add it to the loop.
June 16th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Hi Janet,
Thanks for your comments. Sorry I never responded about your Related Posts integration question. Did you give up on that. Re the number of related posts, I can see how 10 related posts is a little much.
If you’re interested in blogging, make sure you’re subscribed to the Blog Herald and Lorelle’s site. Another good one is Weblog Tools Collection.
Re podcasts, be sure to check out the WordPress podcast. And of course if you haven’t listened to my podcast, called Tech Writer Voices, check that out too.
If you’re a copy editor, there’s a good site on copywriting that you might like: Copyblogger
At one time I did integrate Google ads into my site, but it wasn’t very profitable (about $10/month). Am I looking for freelance assignments? Sure, although I haven’t been advertising for them on my blog. I have been a little busy lately, but I used to promote myself as a freelancer through another site . When freelance opportunities come my way, I usually fit them in.
A few services out there pay you to blog. Problogger lists jobs for bloggers.
June 18th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I agree that it’s hard to see the ROI of blogging, or even of a website, for technical communication. Most of the people who read my site do not know me. This means that my site has traveled by word of mouth, which is great. Half of my readers are return readers.
However, I’ve never had someone call me up and say that the saw my website and decided to hire me. It’s always been through a referral or the STC Canada West Coast contractors directory.
I figure that my website adds to my credibility as an information architecture consultant and while it may not have direct ROI, it lends itself to establishing me as a professional.
And, along with a website, most of the networking and volunteering I do has an indirect impact on my business. It takes 6 months from the time I meet someone to have them come back and need me for something. I have as of yet to crack that marketing mystery…
June 18th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
No worries about the related posts, Tom. I’d like it on the front page, but it’s not a priority. Thanks for the link, but that’s technical copy _editing_ not copy writing that I do.
Actually, Theresa, I did have someone contact me because of my website, and I got a volunteer gig out of the deal. (Why is it that work for free is always the easiest to get??) But it’s a volunteer gig that will regularly mention my blog, so I look upon it as publicity.
My hope is to gradually build my traffic so that eventually I’ll make some money off the ads. In the meantime, I get to spout off about things I care about and enjoy, and know that at least some people are listening! A nice return, all in all.
June 19th, 2007 at 3:48 am
I think the ROI of blogging is there, it’s just hard to quantify. It’s similar to proving, for example, the ROI of having consistent information across all your company documents.
There is one side (cost savings) which is easy to monetise, but the other side - our customers get a better feeling about us if we are consistent - is much harder to quantify.
I’d say the ROI for your blog will start to kick in if it helps you get jobs, or appear at conferences, or get articles published. The ROI is found through increased PR. Getting your name out and about in our industry for example.
Admittedly I only heard about certain people’s blogs ONCE I heard or seen their name mentioned elsewhere but these things take time I guess.
June 20th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Blogging and podcasting has really gotten my name out there. I guess if I attached a service that I was also selling, it would provide more tangible ROI. But as far as visibility goes, blogging and podcasting have been amazing PR tools.
I guess that even if blogging provides very little monetary ROI for me right now, it does give me a nice outlet to express myself and to gather feedback (like the feedback you just gave me). Thanks,
Tom
October 29th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
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