Aug 26, 2012 / News

All About You: Key Survey Findings

Hundreds of you took the time to fill out our survey (thanks!), and we’ve been combing through the results all weekend. As we’d hoped, we got some really helpful feedback that will allow us to tweak The Daily Post in ways that will make it more useful for you.

Interested in what your fellow bloggers think? Here are some of the key findings:

  • The majority of you – 79% – post to your own blogs at least once a week. 15% of you are overachievers who post every day and make the rest of us look bad.*
  • About half of you are happy with your current posting schedule, but the other half would like to bump up the frequency. For the latter half, the most common obstacles to posting more often are lack of time and a perceived lack of anything interesting to say. You also worry a lot about boring your readers.
  • A quarter of you blog to become better writers and/or photographers, and another quarter like being part of a larger community. Lots of you are also interested in promoting your non-blog writing and making some dough, while some of you just want to make people laugh or create an enduring record of your experiences.
  • While you love blogging, many of you find it a bit difficult to attract readers, encourage commenting, and find other like-minded bloggers.
  • The vast majority of you want more blogging tips, both beginner and pro. You’re also fans of our new Freshly Pressed series and writing challenges, and want to see some more new features on using social media and marketing your blogs.
  • Two-thirds of you have no idea what Plinky is, and of those who do, most of you don’t use it – but lots of you remain interested in daily writing prompts.

We’re going to be taking a closer look at all this data and using it to figure out ways to enhance The Daily Post. In the meantime, leave us a comment here if you’ve got any other feedback or questions about either The Daily Post or the survey results.

Thanks again for sharing your opinions with us!

*We kid because we love.

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  3. Thanks for this great post. Just started my blog and i could definitely use all the tips and help offered. 🙂

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    1. Feel free to give us some feedback here: what are you goals as a blogger? What current Daily Post features to you enjoy? What kinds of new features would be helpful?

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    2. Ruth, you should know better. 😉 I *did* complete the survey, and think the findings are pretty interesting (and about what I expected).

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  5. I’ve been blogging since 2004 and just realized I *grew up* with WordPress. It’s nice to have this virtual family who cares =) Even if I go on hiatus, I find something interesting and lovable whenever I go back to blogging!

    Thanks guys!

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  7. I’ve been at this for two years and I still don’t know what half of the wordpress.com jargon means. I’m looking forward to more info in the future. Thanks!

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  10. Guess I missed the survey too but definitely related to much of the feedback you provided. I post twice weekly (occasionally three times). It’s enough to keep me out there w/o overloading myself time-wise. The return is currently discouraging, but like Aesop’s crow, pitcher and pebbles (I even wrote a post about it, lol: http://joannaaislinn.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/small-mindshiftpotential-big-changes-over-time-of-course/), I keep posting in good faith.

    Writing posts is good exercise for me too and I love to chat about all kinds of topics. Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll make Freshly Pressed–one could hope, right?

    Thanks for sharing the results! WordPress rocks!

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  12. Thanks for asking and reporting back. I did miss the survey. Too busy blogging. I have a number of blogs on WP, but only use two with any degree of regularity, but post at least three times a week on each blog, sometimes more. I am an old lady and have a lot to say. I have two published parenting books and some think I am an expert. So one of my blogs is to share knowledge specifically for parents. I love doing that on Word Press.

    I can also be a cranky old lady, so I need to say, I am not so happy with how post a day has been handled this year. I liked the old format for reviewing. Also why not just Today’s Posts so people don’t have to feel they failed if they miss the schedule. I loved the post a week photo challenge but just couldn’t keep up. Maybe a weekly theme that could be done in pictures or more standard mosts.

    Also I am a very small business owner that tried to do a .org so I could have small store that sold my books and a few associated affiliates that related to my stuff. It was a total flop for me and a wast of time and effort. Support was not helpful. Word Press.com could also beef up its support. I can do some programming, but was way out of my depth on Word Press.org. As I am on a limited income,I could not pay for help. So I am hoping you will figure out a way to let us do more selling here more easily. Maybe a cap on how much you make or a small per cent of sales going to Word Press.

    Along that line, I would like to be able to read a clearer post about what I can sell and cannot sell and help putting up a shopping cart, but perhaps I have missed seeing such posts or information.

    For those who struggle getting readers, it is really a long slow process. The same with likes, comments, reblogs, and shares. I like and share over and over again. Many recipricate, but lots more don’t. I get down, think I must be a terrible writer, but then someone lets me know through a comment that I have something to say and am appreciated. Makes it all worth while, which is why I have started a tike, comment, share, reblog twitter that I send out once a week.

    Perhaps Word Press could do a post on the importance of supporting each other.

    I also am beginning to fall be hind in being able to respond on a personal level to all my readers and all I read. So a post on managing that might be useful.

    Finally, you are the greatest and I seem to be long winded. Apologies. I am a fan of giving and getting feedback.

    Stay strong, at my age I have to work at it but Word Press has been a big help keeping me happy and productive.

    Kat aka Grannykat.

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    5. […..Perhaps Word Press could do a post on the importance of supporting each other…..]

      I think along these lines very much as well. WordPress has such a fantastic community of people and it does take time to build up exposure. If I hadn’t of read WP’s Support article on being ‘Patient’ to keep going in the early days, I’d of given up. But the more we can get encouraged to support each other, will really help us all oldies and newbies.

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    6. Hello Granneycat, I guess you could call me PaPaDog. Ijust made that up but I am old to a lot of folks at 73.I have several sites in the works and as you say It’s hard keepng up with it all sometimes.my typing is real bad ’cause I have the”Muchael J. Fox” disease. my fingers just wont go where they used to.I write songs and have several written none published yet. I sent one to a popular girl singer about three weeks ago,making sure I have the copywrights if she does do something with it. KI’ll let you know if you want. I can also get long winded and can’t stop myself untill people tune out and say you’re an old windbag, but I’ll take that as a compliment.Like your blog and will follow you and as for the selling part of the net it has been a long road to get down, but iwould love some pointersq from a professinal like youself!keep Blogging PAPADog

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  16. Very cool info and just so you know… I don’t think of myself as an overrachiev because I blog everyday. In fact. I thin of myself as underachieving… Which is kind,of scary whemI read that posting,every day is over achieving! 🙂

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    1. I posted more than once a day on post a day last year. I am lucky to still have some brain left now that I have a bit more time to write which is my life line along with my kids, grandkids and Punky the pup. When I read the skill with which others right, I feel underachiever to. But at my age, such titles have less meaning. Do your thing, when, you can, the best you can, and with the most passion you can. At least that is how I try to live life on my downhill slope.

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  17. I have learned so much from your preliminary results. It appears I’m in the majority so that makes me feel good.
    Look forward to the rest of the results.
    Peace,
    Alexandria

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  18. Really appreciate the feedback and would like more writing tips…. as others commented. what is pinky? One last comment.. So thankful for WordPress for just being there and caring.

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  19. I kept putting off taking the survey, so thanks for a second chance. I post daily as a participant of Project 365. It’s easy some days, and I am dragging my tail on others…but I do it. It is a long process to garner the respect and feedback of other bloggers, but it does come along with time, and I enjoy those who follow me, and those who I follow. I don’t feel badly about not being able to read everyone’s posts I follow all the time. There are other things in my life, and I know that it is true in the reverse, and am not offended if I don’t see someone drop a comment every now and again. I have never liked plinky, the prompts always seem too simplistic to me. I would love more posts on how to maneuver through some of the technical stuff.

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  24. Thanks for the update on the survey Michelle! What!!? 2/3 of our blogging folk don’t know about one of my favorites: Plinky ?
    I like Plinky because, if nothing else, it helps me generate some of my own fresh ideas by modifying one of the prompts. I read the prompts regularly and sometimes use them for a post. 🙂
    Anyway, upwards and onwards with all the great stuff you keep giving and giving and giving us. Like the energizer bunny, WP never quits or sleeps. 😉

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      1. Vashaneish,
        Plinky provides a new prompt, daily, (usually a question, or a challenge), and everyone gets a chance to answer it by writing a blog post on the topic… It is a blog topic generating tool. It offers ideas, questions and such. Hope this helped. Click on the Plinky link in my post or on Michelle’s and visit. 🙂
        Eliz

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  25. “Two-thirds of you have no idea what Plinky is”, Guilty! 🙂 I was not able to take the survey, but you guys really do a good job at encouraging me to write. Just seeing the dailypost banner on my page encourages me. 😀

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  27. This is great. Thanks for sharing. I’m glad I’m not alone in wishing more people would comment. I think sometimes we forget that blogging is a form of social media and is interactive. I love being a part of the blogging community and it definitely improves my writing. 🙂

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  28. I’m new with my iPad,I’m new with Internet,so I can’t believe I’m here with you to share this page. I’m an old Italian lady,who has being studying English for 50 years or more, and whose aim would be : I can cope with it! I can correspond with my new English-speaking friends! I did a lot of things in my life,I’m a mother of two sons, I live in Milan,Italy, though I spent part of my youth in Latin America. Being new with the blog ,too(I joined only last week) I find everything interesting and I just want to participate…….PS: I sorted out what Plinky is. Thank you for all!

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    1. That’s such a wonderful comment, I wish there were more people in my area of your generation with your positive mindset who were able to reach out and connect online. Good for you.

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  30. Thanks for the feed back so quickly!
    I checked out Plinky but wasn’t all that impressed. I think the best ideas I have found are from other bloggers, in fact all that I have learned have been from reading other blogs. Time consuming, too, but there are some amazing writers out there! Click on the bloggers who “like” a certain post and you will open up a new world!

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