The Scoop on The Survey

Thank you for completing my blog survey!  If you’re interested in a little behind-the-scenes blog action, here are the results, along with my analyses.

1. Are you male or female?
Male 4.17%

–
Female 95.83%

This does not surprise me. I think I can identify all my male readers by name. You are the brave few and I commend you for your courage. Truth be told, I love having a little testosterone around here. It stops me from writing too often about menstrual cycles and stuff.

2. How old are you?
21-30     3.13%

–
31-40     32.29%

–
41-50     45.83%

–
Other (all responses were ages 51 and higher)
18.75%

First, I’m sorry I didn’t include an “over 50” option. I used the free version of Survey Monkey, so I could only have four choices for each question. I wasn’t sure if anyone under 21 read my blog, so if I would have included an “over 50” option, it would have precluded the “under 21” readers from answering. Turns out, no one under the age of 21 answered the survey. Maybe they don’t read my blog either? I don’t know.

I was surprised how many people ages 60 and older read my blog. Thank you! This humbles me (and also scares me a little.) I feel like I should be learning from you.

3. Which social media sites do you typically use?
Facebook 89.13%

–
Pinterest 50.00%

–
Twitter 13.04%

–
Other (most of these said “Instagram.” A few said “Linkedin”)
27.17%

Note, the percentages total more than 100% because respondents could choose more than one.

I’m not sure how accurate these results are, because I made a direct appeal to my Facebook friends to complete the survey. This may have skewed the results toward Facebook. However, I do know most of my social media traffic comes from Facebook (Did you know I can see how people come over to the blog? I can also see exactly what you typed into your search engine that led you to me. Pretty cool.)

I, personally, have an Instagram account, but I am not active there. Based on this, perhaps I should be? I am not on Linkedin, but I do receive requests weekly to join other people’s circles or groups, or whatever they are called. (Sorry, but, for now, I delete these requests.)

Regarding social media, there are only so many hours in a day, right? If I were active in all these areas, I would not have time to write. For the sake of balance, I will continue to spend the majority of my creative time actually writing posts. I will spend a little time each week promoting them on various social media sites so that you all can find them and share them.

Someday when I have a staff of people (ha!) I will be all over social media.

4. How did you find The Scoop on Balance Blog?
I know Sandy personally 21.88%

–
Facebook 16.67%

–
Referral from a friend or a link on another blog 40.63%

–
Other (Most of these said “Google search” A few came over because they heard me speak. And a few could not remember.) 20.83%

“I know Sandy personally” is probably not accurate (too high). I think people who know me personally were more inclined to complete the survey.

Most of the readers found me because someone referred them. Word of mouth is powerful. If you ever read a post you like, please take a minute to share it. Not only mine, but any post. If people “follow” you anywhere, they are more likely to read what you tell them to read.

That’s kinda sad and kinda awesome.

5. How do you feel when you see ads on the blog?
Ads? You have ads? I don’t notice the ads. 67.37%

–
I like them and sometimes see something I am interested in. I sometimes click on them, too! 7.37%

–
I hate ads. I find them annoying or distracting. 12.63%

–
Other (most of these said “I ignore them”) 12.63%

I put this question there because I, personally, hate ads. However, a few months ago, I placed a few ads on my blog as an experiment. I wanted to see what kind of income I could generate if I did.

(Just FYI, I have never made a penny of profit from this blog. Even the sales I’ve made from selling Beachbody products or being an Amazon Affiliate have not covered the monthly hosting costs, my Beachbody coaching fee, and the money I paid my blog designer. I know many bloggers who make a good income blogging. I am not one of them).

Now, if I would have had a few ads on the blog when my Mean Kids post went viral, that would have made a decent amount. But with my current traffic, Google Ads only generate pennies a day.

Honestly, I just don’t know how I feel about ads. I have very little control over what shows up. I can block certain types of ads I find offensive, but that’s about it. I don’t like that.

Anyway, I wanted to know how you felt, hoping you’d help me make a decision. It appears most of you don’t notice them or don’t care. So, it’s still up to me then, huh?  Sigh…

6. Based on what you’ve read on the blog thus far, how likely would you be to purchase a book written by Sandy?
Very likely 55.21%

–
Maybe. Depends on the subject matter and the price of the book. 40.63%

–
Not likely 2.08%

–
Other (Half of these said they don’t have time to read books and half said something like, “I would pre-order it!”) 2.08%

You guys, this made me so happy. Almost all of you (96%) would buy my book if it was a subject matter that interested you. YAY!

There will be a book. I can promise you that. In fact, there will probably be an e-book or two soon. And a full-blown published book (paper and everything!) at some point in the next two years.  I’m going to hunt you down if you don’t buy it.

7. How many Scoop on Balance posts are you likely to read in a typical week?
Just one. Too much and I can’t keep up. 18.75%

–
2-3 34.38%

–
I’d read as much as The Scoop can publish. 35.42%

–
Other (These answers were a variety of “This is my first time reading” and “It depends on how much time I have”) 11.46%

I honestly did not know what to expect you to answer on this one. I know I stopped reading certain blogs because they posted too often and I couldn’t keep up. Other blogs, I’m salivating every time I see them show up in my inbox. I was happy to see most of you (about 70%) like to read 2-3 a week or as much as I can publish. That is encouraging.

8. What kind of posts do you most enjoy reading on The Scoop on Balance? (If more than one, say so in “other”)
Essay-type posts with a spiritual emphasis. These can be about parenting, marriage, faith, etc. 30.11%

–
Funny posts, irrelevant lists, stupid stories that have no redeeming value except they made you laugh. 7.53%

–
Informative or how-to posts. These can be about fitness, nutrition, house-hold tips or recipes. 7.53%

–
Other (Almost all these responses said “all of them”) 54.84%

First, I’m sorry about answer choices here. I thought I formatted it to be able to select more than one answer. I didn’t realize this error until the survey had a few responses. Unfortunately, at that point, I couldn’t change the question because it compromises the integrity of the first responses. The best I could do is add “other.”

In any case, your responses confirmed what I thought to be true. I like to write a variety of posts. Apparently, you like it that way, too. Nothing will change here.

9. For E-mail Subscribers: When you receive a blog post by email, how do you feel if only a summary of the post appears and you need to click over to the blog to read the rest of it?
It’s whatever. I will read it either way. 57.14%

–
I will click over to read the rest only if the summary grabs me. 27.38%

–
I refuse to click over. It’s a pain. I will unsubscribe from blogs who do this. 4.76%

–
Other (These responses were all over the board. Some of them told me the print is very tiny. Some said they are annoyed but click over anyway. Some said they always click over, no matter what.) 10.71%

Like the question about the ads, I put this here because I, personally, hate having to click over. I recently added the feature to force you to come over to the blog, which helps generate more pennies from the annoying ads.

I have already changed it back. It annoyed me too much. You should now be receiving the entire blog post again by email, so you don’t have to click over if you don’t want to.

I did not realize that some of you cannot read my posts on your phone because the print is too small. Because I’ve been blogging since the stone age, my subscribers are from 3 different mail delivery systems. I’m not quite sure which ones are not formatted well or how to fix this! I will inquire with a techy person. (If you are a techy person who knows these things, help me!)

10. Is there anything at all you’d like to see on The Scoop on Balance? Anything you wish I’d write on, but don’t or haven’t? Anything that bugs you? Anything you love and can’t get enough of? Anything at all you’d like to say to me? This is your chance. The world is your oyster.

Almost half of you answered this. A few of you asked me to write about specific topics. All great suggestions!

Many of you said you liked that I was “real” or “authentic.” Many of you thanked me for writing about depression. Many of you told me not to change a thing.

But most of you heaped (undeserving) compliments on me. I was not prepared for this. I think I cried every day since this survey went live because you all said such nice things to me. One night, I sat and read all the responses aloud to my husband, and cried again. You guys…I am just so blessed to have all of you in my life. So, thank you, thank you, thank you.  Whenever I’m feeling like my writing is not making a difference, I’m going to pull out these responses and read them again and again.