It’s All About You — Reader Survey Results
Two weeks ago I participated in the International Delurking Week and asked my regular readers to fill out a survey and post some thoughts about where my site has been going, and where they’d like for it to go in the future. Here are the results.
3 Times Out of 4
… you have dangly bits downstairs. Feel free to use the comments on this post as a pick up joint. Ladies — odds are in your favour. I think that ratio might be high for a tech blog, and I’m blaming it on the cat.
… and yes, I did purposely rotate the graph so that it didn’t look like Pac-man.
More Than 4 Times Out of 5
… you’re over the legal drinking age in the States. If you print out this post and ferment it for a month you’ll get a hell of a buzz.
7 Times Out of 10
… you have a blog of your own. This wasn’t that surprising to me — I write about blogging a lot. I also have a theory that the majority of people who regularly read blogs either have one of their own or at least try it.
3 Times Out of 5
… you’re using RSS to read the website. It would be interesting to cross-reference this to the number of readers who also blog. I have a theory that RSS is mostly used by bloggers — everyone else doesn’t know/care what it is.
Response Time
This one was *very* interesting. Within 24 hours the majority of readers who would respond to this survey did. Within 72 hours 95% of the total responses were reached.
The pie charts were done using Adobe Illustrator and this guide from Modern Life is Rubbish.
Link Love
The following readers mentioned their blogs in the comment section of the survey. If you missed out, drop a comment with your blog name on this post and I’ll update it to include you. The list is done in the oh-so-scientific first to last submitted format. Except for Beats Entropy which I jumped to the top of the list as a means of shameless promotion and because they know where I live.
- Beats Entropy
- Grassroots Science
- Biocultural Science and Management
- Cerebral Odd Jobs
- 4th Dimensional Journalism
- Technology . Mathematics . Elegance
- Software Abstractions
- Cat’s Blog
- Cam Turner (link broken?)
- Google Maps Applications book blog
- We Create – Professional Web Software Development
- Sometimes Bored in Ottawa
- Word of the Day
- Thursday Rants
- Unstable beta public alpha release candidate
- Bare Feet and Teeth (BFAT)
- RedSaidIt (MySpace)
- Bob
- Bloggers Blurt
- Digmann
- qPlog Brainblaster
Most Popular Posts
Most Recent Posts
Site Map
Random Post
About Me
Subscription Options
Free Software
Wordpress Tools
// Internet Duct Tape 
Interesting that 23% of your readership are females, specially considering your tech-oriented topic. I guess that is a trend we can not ignore in any segment nowadays.
also, now I see why you commented over Daily Blog Tips mentioning your 3% of email subscribers ;)
Do you think the cuteness of cat has any influence over the types of readers you have? :)
envec69
I think the trend for over half of humans to be female, but far fewer to be included in discussions, is too long ignored. Fortunately, //engtech is progressive, i.e., doesn’t write down, for male readers only.
The only reason I keep coming back to this blog is to perhaps one day, read a blog posting by engtech’s cat…and the occasional technical article ;)
That’s kind of sad if I’m progressive because I don’t write down to female audiences. As a guy I keep thinking we’re past the point where that is progressive — but I know that isn’t true.
One thing I have been guilty of in the past is thinking that my audience was teenage guys and including sexually suggestive images. The survey has shown that they are very much in the minority.
I knew that comma wouldn’t convey subtle dig at those who write write down and thereby attract a male audience.
You don’t write down, therefore you do appeal to women.
We do where know where you live, and have ruthless robots at our command.
They’re not as ruthless as they are uncouth.
I’m just curious- now that you know your audience better, do you anticipate changing the content or style of your posts to better write to that audience? It’s the chicken or the egg question: You can change your writing style to fit what you assume are the whims of your audience, but you got that audience in the first place with your original writing style.
Good question.
My only real plan for changing in content/style was to be more user-focused / useful information, and to try and put more of my sense of humour into the site — also to post less, but of higher quality. Looking back into my archives a lot of posts have just been links to other content with minimal commentary. That’s satisfied by asides / my linkblog now.
I still think I write about blogging too much, but given that over 70% of my readers also blog that may be more helpful than an hindrance. What will be more interesting is how this changes over time. I’ll probably do this 1-2 times a year in the future and compare to past results.
I don’t think I would have found your blog without the blogging tools ( in spite of being a female reader who should care more about your cat ;-) )
Oh, the name of the other site of mine is called One Woman Show – that unstable thing is my tagline (note to self: fix SEO line on homepage)
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