Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Persnickety Snark Survey Results

Last month I asked Persnickety Snark readers to take part in a readership survey.  One hundred and forty six people anonymously (some self declared) shared their thoughts on the blog and its future direction.

Here are the results -

Who are PSnark readers?
Chicks dig me :)  I am pretty happy with the gender split as I was expecting it to veer even further towards the female audience.  Nine percent of my readership are guys!

And the older set (meaning 25+) are the bulk of my readership.  Persnickety Snark appeals more to the adult YA reader.  I'd be curious to hear from the teen readers about what I can do to appeal more to the target YA audience.  That being said, these results didn't surprise me.

I also asked readers where they were from in the world and the sheer expanse of locales was amazing.  Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States represented strongly.

The When & the How

My readership are a loyal bunch with 82% checking in at least several times a week.  I was completely amazed to see that 37% drop by daily.  I love you guys.

As for the 'how' most people reader via the website directly or via a reader.

PSnark Content
I had no real expectations in terms of the results about the content I produce.  That being said, it was lovely to see that readers respond to the reviews and discussion posts strongly.  All my readers judged my reviews to be of 3/5 standard or higher which is a ginormous compliment.  Thank you.

Fishing for Information
The audience only slightly leaned toward not wanting me to add a rating system.  I am still undecided but suspect I'll stick with my habit of not rating, just writing the review.

50% of readers have bought at least one book based upon my review.  A few people said that they had borrowed books from the library based on my reviews so I will be sure to add that as an addendum to the question next year.  That figure was much more inflated than I believed it might be, specifically the 19% who have purchased four or more titles.  Yay for YA!

User friendly?
73% respondents claimed to like the new purple look better than the black (with white font) format.  Some commenters encouraged me to try a more pretty approach or find a graphic for the header which is something I am looking into.  Unfortunately I am picky beyond belief :)

Contests.....I find it hysterical that 4% of readers find that my choice to very rarely run contests influences their enjoyment of the blog.  I think the fact that I don't push the contest angle works for the vast majority of my readers (as seen in the responses.)

Changing focus?  A good or bad thing?
I was tossing up focusing entirely on contemporary, which readers recognise as my wheelhouse, but these figures show that while I'll retain most readers, some would be less keen.

Comments
In a few days I will post comments I've received about improvements, suggestions and what needs to be covered in discussion posts.

Thanks for reading!

5 comments:

Cat @ Beyond Books said...

I liked the "Have you ever bought a book based on my review" question. It's one I think I would ask if I ever decide to do a survey.

Hmmm, I wonder if I should do a survey on whether or not I should do a survey? ;)

In a completely random direction - it amuses me to no end to scroll my mouse over the Persnickety Snark title and have the font change size. I tend to do that while reading your blog. I have simple amusements. ;)

Adele said...

I do that too! I think it disconcerts some readers though :)

Do the survey! Feedback always helps, even the negative stuff. I am not objective when it comes to PSnark so it's good to hear what people think under the veil of anonymity.

Carla said...

See, I am one of those people that doesn't have a filter, so I tend to do these things and then talk about it. I am pretty sure when I filled out the survey, I immediately found you on twitter and told you.

And the no contest thing? made me laugh. As does the header when it goes big, like Cat, I am easily pleased.

Steph Su said...

And my reaction upon reading this post (besides for "well, duh, I already knew how awesome Adele was before!) was, "Dude, how did she manage to create such pretty pie charts?"

Ahhhhhhh *drowning in academia*

Rachael said...

I would suppose that the data indicating that your readers are largely 26+ suggests that a significant number of your readers might be parents or teachers or librarians searching looking for books for their children/students as well as themselves? I am a librarian (although I fall in a different age category) and have added books you have reviewed to our "to order" list for our library. I've also checked out several for myself. More, actually, since I am an elementary school librarian, and while we need more high level reading material, we still need 10 year old in a conservative community appropriate material, and YA doesn't always fit that bill, to no fault of you, or the authors or the publishers. It's simply a fact. 10 year olds who read on a college level have a hard time finding challanging material that isn't going to cause parents to have a fit. Therefore, an possible addition to your survey would be "why do you read?" as well as the more straight forward demographic questions.

I enjoy your reviews very much. Thank you for your honesty. I haven't been disappointed yet by a book you reviewed positively.