Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts in the recent reader survey. It was the first survey in a year, and as always, I had so much fun reviewing the (1222) responses. I felt like I had a pretty good idea of who reads this blog, mostly because of the lively comments section, but you all surprised me (again) with some of your answers.
I promised I’d share the responses with you. This is part 1; tomorrow I’ll dive a little deeper and answer some specific questions brought up in the survey responses.
First, some basic demographics.
69% of readers are between 26 and 44.
85% of readers are married. I’m surprised the percentage is that high, but probably shouldn’t be—it’s identical to that of last year’s survey.
70% of you have children living at home; 24% of you don’t have kids.
A little about how you use this blog:
 The majority of you found this blog because another blogger linked to it. (Thanks, bloggers!)
This category is the most changed since last year, when 53% of you named reading posts as your favorites. However, much like last year, numerous comments said either that you had a hard time choosing, or that it’s the variety of topics discussed here that keeps you coming back.
I’ve read that 99% of readers don’t comment on blogs, which made these answers very interesting. (Thanks for making this one of the best comments sections on the internet!)
The fun stuff.
I asked, “What other blogs do you read regularly?” I really enjoyed browsing through your answers, which contained so many blogs I love and so many terrific-sounding blogs that were new to me. These were the most mentioned:
- Art of Simple
- Young House Love
- Pioneer Woman
- A Holy Experience
- Jen Hatmaker
- Everyday Reading
- Money Saving Mom
- The Nesting Place
- Camp Patton
- Rage Against the Minivan
I asked, “What one adjective best describes your experience on this site?” These responses were sooo interesting. The top 13Â most cited were:
- Fun
- Inspiring
- Pleasant
- Introspective
- Refreshing
- Enlightening
- Fulfilling
- Interesting (“not just mindless fluff!)
- Enjoyable
- Thought-provoking
- Positive
- Informative
- Tranquil/relaxing/rejuvenating
This list doesn’t include ones I loved but didn’t get mentioned multiple times, like “nerdy in the best possible way,” “addictive,” and “bliss.” It also doesn’t include the less-flattering ones, like “uneven” and “adequate.”
Not as fun, but really useful. To me, at least.
I asked, “What’s the most frustrating thing about this site?” Thanks so much for your honest feedback in this area. I feel like a broken record, but I’ll say it again: the site is getting a major overhaul this fall and I so appreciate your input on what would make MMD easier for you to use.
The most frequently cited source of frustration, hands down, was not being able to easily browse the archives. You all said over and over again that you want easy ways to find old posts, browse by category.
The rest was a mixed bag: the posts are too long, the posts are too short. There are too many posts, there aren’t enough posts. The site looks awesome on mobile, the site is a beast on mobile. I’m not sure what I can do about the first two, but mobile-friendlier is on the list for October.
My favorite most frustrating things: “That we’re not neighbors.” “That we aren’t in a real book club together. Like, in my living room.” “Hard to binge read on older posts.” “That you don’t post several times a day.” “That you don’t have a podcast.”
Thanks again for participating in the survey! If there’s anything you want to tell me that you didn’t tell me there, feel free to leave it in comments.
18 comments
Well done, Anne! You’ve become a regular part of my reading, and I’d miss hearing from you if your posts suddenly stopped showing up in my box.
Oh, that was fun to read. I concur with Caroline! 🙂
I am one of the 7% of your readers over the age of 55. 🙂 Even though I am in a minority of your readers I enjoy your blog because I get a lot of great book suggestions! And being an empty nester I have a lot more time to read than a lot of you. 🙂 I also enjoy the thoughtful posts and I am encouraged to see that women of your generation are thoughtful, intelligent and care about the non material things of life. And…I get great gift ideas for my granddaughter…I had never heard of Roominate!
That was fun to read. And now I really want to do a survey of my readership!
Please do! I want to read all your results. 🙂
Yes to Roberta’s comment about book recommendations. I love that other readers are so honest about why they did or did not enjoy a book. And while I’m one of the readers who’s here mostly for book discussion, I do enjoy all of your posts. You write in a conversational tone that makes me feel as if we were chatting over a coffee (or tea, if you prefer), and several of your “OT” posts have, as the song goes, made me go, “Hmmm…..”
I also find it interesting that there is such a wide age range (I’m closing in on the second half of my lifetime) of people drawn to your site. That speaks volumes. (Pun was not intended, but appropriate!).
Thanks for the feedback and kind words. And bookish puns are ALWAYS welcome here. 🙂
I’m amazed at how many young women with younger children have time to read! I’m in your smaller category of 45-54. My kids are almost all teenagers and I’m just now finding the time for reading for pleasure. (I do a lot of reading for work.) I couldn’t let myself read novels before because they consume me. If I have a really good book, I don’t want to do anything else but read! I’m so glad I’m at this stage in my life and that I’ve found you and your group of reading buddies.
(Reading Attachments now, listening to Wives and Daughters, and just picked up What Alice Forgot and Dear Mr. Knightley from the library,)
I picked the books category as my favorite, but I had a hard time choosing because I really like the variety on your site…everything you write is interesting to me! Please don’t change. 🙂
I’m in your 45-54 category also. My favorite posts are your book posts but I love your whole blog.
I put out a plea to my friends via Facebook for a couple blog recommendations . . . places I could go to get a dose of positive encouragement, food for thought, and hear a like-minded woman’s voice. And several friends recommended you. I recently moved away from a community of deep friendships in a big city on the east coast, to the Alaskan bush and, even though I don’t usually comment on blogs, I’m introducing myself here, since I can already tell I’m going to be a regular visitor. Thanks for writing!
Howdy, Marlena!
Oh, wow, thank you! And thank YOU for reading. 🙂
Fascinating about the blog comments. I know from Google Analytics that there must be many readers of my blog who don’t comment, and it seems you find the same thing (most people just don’t comment). It becomes tempting to write for the regular comment writers or not write about stuff that I’m interested in but I know they’ll harp on, but that limits the blog. I’m one of your readers who probably prefers the non-book stuff, so I hope you’ll keep up the variety, despite the overwhelming response on that!
Very interesting. I found myself in the minority on nearly every question, so apparently I’m your “spice of life”! 🙂
One thing I’d like to know more about: you listed the top ten blogs mentioned, but I would have loved to see more than ten. All of your readers have enough in common to keep them coming back, so odds are that we’d enjoy many of the blogs read by other readers.
Thanks for always being a bright spot in my day!
Re: the blogs you all loved: NOTED. 🙂
Well I am wildly flattered to be included in that very impressive list. Day made!