Survey is a great way to get feedback and answers from people and here are the results from blogging survey I asked fellow bloggers to answer.
The people who responded this question were gathered from various blogging forums and via Twitter. The results might not be "statistically significant", but that wasn't the purpose here, as we do have the mother of all blogging surveys, state of the blogosphere giving detailed data about blogging right now.
The data does show what the 40+ bloggers who answered the survey think about various aspects of blogging, including why they blog, how they promote their blogs, what kind of promotions has worked and what hasn't. And the advice given in the two open questions near the end gave some great advice for beginning bloggers.
10 Picks from the Blogging Survey
The detailed results are included in this post too, but here the most interesting results I hand-picked from the data.
- The number#1 advice for beginning bloggers:
- Follow your passion, keep going and never give up.
- 89% blog because they like writing
- Nearly 80% blog to make some money
- Bloggers very rarely promote their blogs via press releases (My analysis, not a direct data)
- Nearly all bloggers promote their blogs via Twitter
- Only 13% promote their blog via Digg often or very often
- Blog commenting, forums and guest blogging are the best (and/or most used) blog promotions methods (in addition to the social networks)
- 85% of the bloggers blog about personal experiences
- 97% blog to provide information
- 70% blog about their interests or hobbies
What Advice Would You Give to a New Blogger Just Starting Out?
At the end of the survey, I asked couple of open ended questions, the first one being "If you would give one advice to a new blogger just starting out, what that advice would be?", and here's what people answered:
- Be yourself.
- Relax and enjoy the ride
- Persist, persist
- If you blog in English, learn how to use the English language correctly!
- Just keep doing what you like. If you feel passionated, but when you first start out, and you make no money on it. Don't worry, it will come overtime.
- Post post post .. on a singular topic
- Hang in there and don't be discouraged. Be consistent. You are not in competition with anyone but yourself.
- Connect and engage with other bloggers
- Choose a niche where you have something unique to contribute and that you have passion for, and get started
- Follow your Passion
- Don't give up!
- Plan on doing it for the long term.
- Get a mentor to help you understand the nuances of the blogging world.
- Post consistently, no matter what!
- Keep going!
- Take a blogging course before making any commitments.
- Do your homework first. Don't start blogging blindly. Have a purpose
- Focus on creating great content.
- Be authentic. Don't try to write about things you cannot truly relate to. Don't try too hard, just be yourself.
What Would You Do Differently If You Would Start Blogging Now?
I asked: "If you would not blogging already, would you start now and what would you do differently this time?", and here's what the bloggers had to say...
- Would have started a long time ago.
- I would concentrate on building a community
- I would have liked to have had Become a Blogger, so I could get a better foundation. Now I am going back and fixing certain things. But this doesn't mean I should not have started
- I may or may not do things differently though. I prefer to be me, and that comes out naturally through what I do. I wouldn't do it any different. ;)
- Get a killer blog site from the beginning. Implement opt-in with Aweber from day 1
- I would pick a specific niche and stick to one topic.
- I would start now but I would be more careful about a domain name, I would spend more time researching my blog subject(s) and I would take a blogging course first.
- I would have started sooner and I would have done more research before posting my first article.
- Focus on creating great content and building subscribers
- Build email list
- Choose niche market more wisely as to something I would really enjoy writing about.
Blogging Survey Results
Here are the detailed results from the survey. I didn't include all the hard data, but combined the most relevant answers.
Demographics
- 43 responses
- 60% males, 40% females
- 43% were 34 years old or younger
I've been blogging for...
- 33,3% Less than 1 year
- 23,8% 1-2 years
- 28,6% 3-5 years
- 0% 10 years or more
My annual income from blogging is...
- 86% Less than $30k
- 69% Less than $1k
- 10% More than $30,000
- The rest would rather not tell
I mostly blog about...
- 22,5% Arts/culture
- 65% Business
- 47,5% Creative Work
- 37,5% Education/academics
- 22,5% Entertainment
- 40% Family/friends
- 70% Interest/hobbies
- 85% Personal experience
- 7,5% Politics/politicians
- 25% Sports
- 62,5% Technology/science
I rarely or never blog about...
- 77,5% Arts/culture
- 35% Business
- 52,5% Creative Work
- 62,5% Education/academics
- 77,5% Entertainment
- 60% Family/friends
- 30% Interest/hobbies
- 15% Personal experience
- 92,5% Politics/politicians
- 75% Sports
- 37,5% Technology/science
I blog...
- 21% because blogging is my main source of income
- 62% because I can access it wherever I am
- 62% because I can publish at any time
- 89% because I like writing
- 18% because it helps pass the time
- 53% because it is easy to update
- 32% to document my life
- 68% to feel like I am part of a community
- 53% to keep a record of what I learn
- 24% to keep in touch with my family/friends
- 41% to keep track of what I am doing
- 79% to make some money
- 77% to meet new people
- 71% to practice my writing
- 82% to present information on my interests
- 97% to provide information
- 65% to refine my thinking
- 97% to share information useful to other people
- 77% to show my personality
- 62% to tell others about myself
- 6% when I have nothing better to do
Blog Promotions Methods
Ranked from best to worst (whether or not bloggers who answered the survey use the method in question probably affects the ranking, thus the ones on the top of the list are the blog promotions methods used the most)
- Blog Commenting
- Forums
- Guest Blogging
- Video
- RSS Feed Submissions
- Article Marketing
- Podcasting (audio)
- Blog Directories
- Teleconference/Webinar
- Press Releases
Social Networks: I promote my blog via
- Twitter
- 77% Often or very often
- 19% Sometimes or rarely
- 4% Never
- Facebook
- 65% Often or very often
- 26% Sometimes or rarely
- 9% Never
- StumbleUpon
- 20% Often or very often
- 55% Sometimes or rarely
- 25% Never
- Digg
- 13% Often or very often
- 55% Sometimes or rarely
- 32% Never
- Delicious
- 3% Often or very often
- 65% Sometimes or rarely
- 32% Never
What I Learned from this Blogging Survey
Apart from the answers provided above, I personally learned a lot from making surveys and I'll be feeling lot more confident in the future when doing more surveys. If you haven't done a survey before, I recommend you do it right away, to get a feel of making surveys as you'll learn a ton about getting feedback from those who answer the survey in addition to the actual survey results.
- Getting people to answer a survey is hard, especially if you don't have your own mailing list
- If you don't have a mailing list, ask people to answer the survey via Twitter, Facebook and Forums (or that's what I did at least)
- When making a survey, keep the questions simple and quick to answer
- Everyone should make a practise survey and test different kinds of questions to learn what works and what doesn't
- Always include open questions too (at the end), you'll get a lot out of the open comments and answers
Thank you for everyone who answered the survey. If you have anything to add, e.g. your advice for beginning bloggers or just a comment about the results and the survey, feel free to add your input through the comments.
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