Hi all, Jane here for a second before Ryan takes over. Thanks so much to those of you who took my reader survey! I was a little surprised there were only 47 responses when I know I have a lot of readers. . . so I’m wondering if I did something wrong or maybe my survey bored you? Anyway, I think 47 is high enough to help draw some conclusions on where the blog should head in the coming year.
Hello all! Now that the survey results have been tabulated, the counts have been verified, and I’ve been bribed with cake I’m here to bring you the results of the great The Borrowed Abode 4th Annual Blogiversary Reader Survey Extravaganza-pocalypse!
I thought I’d share the results, my analyses, and then make promises of the new direction the blog will take though I have no control over that whatsoever and none of my suggestions are probably possible.
To the numbers!
First up we have:
As you can see, the Renters took the lead and edged out the Owners in a narrow 23-22 victory! Sorry Owners, but at least you have plenty of time to train up new recruits before our 8th Annual survey! In a distant third are the Other Options people. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what the actual other options were, so I’m imagining one person is dwelling underground and checks in to see what curtains go best with an abandoned railway tunnel.
The other person is probably the most devout follower of What The Hell?!? and is living in a mental institution and thus neither renting nor owning! I always thought those crisp, white jackets with the floppy arms that they give you really pull the room together.
On to Number 2:
This one made me a bit sad. We had 47 respondents and each of you had 5 votes. By the way I figure it, What The Hell?!? should have 235 votes. That didn’t happen. I lost to sewing. I beat out pets, barely. If Pets teamed up with Small Business Advice they could totally take me. I’ll tell Jane to not interview any small businesses about pets.
What else do we have? General decorating?
I thought this was more of a niche topic, but I guess we have a lot of military buffs in the DIY group. Good for you!
DIY Projects and Tutorials… makes sense. Rental-specific decorating posts… 26 votes. But wait, only 23 people rent. This is why you guys lost, Owners! You have some traitors in your ranks! Sure they all smile and act polite when the conversation turns to mortgages and replacing the roof, but really they’re thinking about handing large amounts of money over to someone on a monthly basis (besides their spouse!)
On the not so popular end we have the small business things. I guess that means everyone here is a big business already. Good to know that Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, et al are still loyal readers.
We also have giveaways, which is a bit weird. I mean… she’s giving stuff away. And out of 235 votes, 7 went for free stuff. That’s less than 3%.
If we had 100 people in the room, that means that someone’s left arm and leg would want free stuff. Everyone else would just want to read The Borrowed Abode. That’s kind of touching. And weird.
Number 3:
Okay, only 1 person skips posts about decorating Generals. Who is reading this blog?
Not too shocking here. It’s mostly the reverse of the previous post. I’m kind of curious what the person who skips DIY Project and Tutorials comes here for. Probably What The Hell?!?. Which you’ll notice is not on this list. It may be because everyone loves it. It’s also possible that I sneakily deleted the option before the survey was posted. I forgot which the correct answer is, so we’ll never know. Moving on…
Number 4:
Good retention values. It looks like there are a lot more people in the 2-3 years category, but it spans 2 years unlike the other categories. And I must have been half asleep when we worded the “6 months” and “less than 1 year”. I’m hoping everyone read that as “1-6 months” and “greater than 6 months, but less than 12 months, because then I would be clicking on the 1 year category”. Broken up into 1 year segments, it’s actually a mostly flat curve with a little spike at the 1 year mark. I’d show you in a picture but I already closed Excel (the charting tool of kings).
And for the 6 new people, good timing! You invested significantly less time in the blog than everyone else, yet still managed to capture almost 13% of the voting power! You lucked into disproportionate amount of influence!
Number 5:
Post whenever there’s something awesome to say. Those are wise words that I first learned from Mr. Ed, the talking horse:
3 days a week is pretty reasonable. We did test pilot the continuous webcam idea for two months. The biggest problem we had was everyone became motion sick from the violent swinging of Jane’s head as she dashed from project to project around the house. Also the 400 ft long USB cord was a bit of a tripping hazard for me.
Number 6:
I wimped out on this one and used the survey tool’s graphic instead. This is what I like to call a Goldilocks question. Unlike the regular 1-10 scales, you don’t want to be on either end, you’re looking for the “Just Right” response. And it looks like what Jane does has met your expectations pretty well.
The one thing that stands out to me is that some of you feel that she doesn’t post frequently enough. And on the earlier question the majority thought she should only post when she has something awesome to say. Which by deduction means that some of you think she’s not awesome enough to suit your needs.
See the conclusions we can draw when we harness the power of surveys? That rush you feel as your heart is racing right now? That’s statistics.
Number 7:
Personally, I use a computer screen and my eyes. Those were deemed “too silly” to go on the questionnaire. But “osmosis” made it on? This is just unfair. Now I’m no social media expert (as my tin foil hat proves) but I expected more hits from the Tweeterers and the MyFace people. We see the shift (flight?) from Google Reader to other RSS feeds as Google is closing its doors. Bookmarking the website is nice and old school. It’s how I use these new-fangled internets. My other answer would have been “I don’t read it, I live it.” If anyone else gets that experience, keep a fire extinguisher handy and 911 on speed dial.
Thanks everyone for 4 years of support! I’ll see you again for the next The Borrowed Abode 8th Annual Blogiversary Reader Survey Extravaganza-pocalypse! At that point we’ll be in 2017 which means Jane and I will probably be renting a crater on the Moon.
Or we might be renting a crater where we’re currently living after a DIY project goes awry. Which will it be? Stay tuned!
3 Comments
I heart Ryan, this WTH’s makes me smile and all the numbers make my heart sing (being an engineer by trade).
Sorry I missed the survey.
RYAN IS AWESOME TIMES 20!!!!!!!!!!
Oh Ryan. You math-master, you. I think I heart you even more.
What the Hells are wonderful, but you’re the one that doesn’t post enough. 🙂
I looked around a long time for blogs to do with renting and renting/decorating. They are very few on the interwebs (in fact I think Jane has the monopoly). Most everyone has bought their home and can do violent things with hammers nails and paint.
I love that you decorate in a rented home, and love the ideas. Keep doing what you do. I ain’ted going anywheres.