So last week, I asked you all (blogger or non blogger) to participate in a Blogger Questionnaire. I wanted to gauge how blogging changing and what people/my readers think about how they read and follow blogs. And ultimately what you like and don't like.
I was beyond blown away at the number of responses. 408 in total. I apologize it took me a little bit to put this all together, but I just didn't think there would be that many responses! If you want a refresher on the the questions or if you want to see if you won the $20 paypal cash you can check that out here!
So let's get right to it!
1. Are you a blogger?
Yes- 368
No- 40
Ok, so the majority of you who responded are bloggers, which is what I thought would happen. But just wanted to see who was answering the questions.
2. What Reader Do You Use to Read Blogs? (could choose multiple)
This one was really interesting. I thought for sure no one used blogger dashboard anymore, but it turns out a lot of you do. Most people use multiple forms of readers or social media to read blogs. Most of the “other” category was people just typing in their favorite blog's URL.
Since people could choose multiple answers, there were 851 selections made. They are ordered from most to least popular:
Bloglovin: 301
Twitter: 153
Blogger Dashboard: 145
Facebook: 107
Instagram: 39
Email: 20
Feedly: 17
Other: 15
3. Which do you use MOST often to read blogs?
Now if you just had to choose one, here were the responses:
4. What's Your Favorite Form of Social Media
Instagram: 164
Twitter: 123
Facebook: 68
Pinterest: 20
Other: 15
Most of you said you didn't read blogs through instagram, but it's your favorite form of social media. It's mine too. It's just so fun to scroll through, but it doesn't necessarily translate to blog readers.
5. What Time Do You Read Blogs?
Sporadically: 195
Morning: 114
Evening: 42
Afternoon: 27
I'm a morning reader for sure. But then I find myself needing a break throughout the day and reading at all times during the day. I'm definitely with the majority on this one. But it's hard to figure out when to post your blog- since people read it all times, but I don't want to get lost in the shuffle!
6. What Types of Blogs are you most Likely to Read? (could choose more than one answer)
Lifestyle: 347
Humor: 216
Fashion: 103
DIY: 112
Food: 80
Other: 15- most of the others were Travel, which I should have included in this section!
I was surprised by the number of people that said they liked to read lifestyle, but I guess that is kind of the “everything” category. And I'm fine with that, seeing as that's my category.
7.When Do you write Your Posts?
It depends on what's going on – 120
Not a Blogger – 40
Pre Schedule Everything – 20
Right Before I hit Publish- 68
The Day Before – 33
A mix of the above – 111
Most people chose a mix or It depends on what's going on. I wish I was organized enough to preschedule blog posts, but then I would want to publish something completely different the next day.
8. How Do you Organize Blog Posts?
I Don't! – 247 (so glad I'm not the only one!)
Preschedult posts- 37
Use a Planner- 64
Other- 25
Other responses: “I use a notebook.” “The editorial calendar for WordPress.” “I use Evernote to keep track of ideas.” “Google Calendar.”
I personally use my notes in my iPhone to keep track of ideas. It's not organized, but it's something.
9. How Long does it take you to write a blog post? (This was an open ended question, so there were answers everywhere.)
0-20 Minutes – 43
30-45 Minutes- 99
45 Minutes to an Hour- 73
Hour + – 58
Depends- 45
This was pretty shocking since it takes me a minimum of an hour to two to put together a post. Some people said 5 minutes!! For me, it absolutely depends on the type of post, but it takes at least an hour + every time.
10. Have you Sponsored a blog before?
Yes- 222
No- 186
11. What Do you look for in a Sponsor?
Cheap Prices- 48
Number of Followers- 176
Relevancy to my blog – 225
Pageviews – 245
Other – 55 (Included things like social media shoutouts and giveaways
Most picked a combination, but it's clear followers, pageviews and relevancy matter most. I always like to look at a bloggers pageviews, because that's the number of people that will actually see my ad. I will pay more if I feel like I can get more out of it.
Your Thoughts: “I especially look for ones that do social media shout outs (and not the I <3 my sponsors ones with a list of names but ones that genuinely take an interest in their sponsors and publicize specific posts”
“Someone who actively pays attention to their sponsors.”
12. How Do you choose who to sponsor?
A lot of you said you like when bloggers use passion fruit (I agree) it just makes things easier! You like blogs that have reasonable prices and have a similar “feel” as yours.
Your Thoughts: “Bloggers who I am really interested in and giving a lot of bang for the buck. And who seem genuinely nice. I mean, I am giving them my money.” “I choose blogs that I have a relationship with, and they must interact with their followers. Decent stats and followers are expected, as well.” “Recommendations from other bloggers.” “I like to get to know who I am sponsoring, so lots of emails and chats help me get to know the person. If a blogger comes off as being too busy or above me, I won't sponsor.”
13. Why do you unfollow someone?
The majority of you said: Too many giveaways or sponsored posts, negative, boring or “annoying” or “genuine” content.
Your Thoughts: “Too many promotional tweets…I want it to be like I am following one of my friends- not a business.” “Content transitions into something I have less interest in or can't relate to.” “They lose what makes them unique or they fall back on only sponsored/guest posting.” “I love blogger interaction, so I usually unfollow a blog after a period of time if I haven't gotten ANY feedback. No response to a comment, no visit to my blog. I think even bigger bloggers can respond to a nice tweet or something once in a while.”
14. Do you like when bloggers reply to comments?
Yes: 348
No: 2
I Don't Care: 58
15. Do you reply to comments left on your blog?
No: 7
Sometimes: 54
Yes: 320
16. What's one thing that makes you mad about bloggers/blogging?
I wanted to post all the responses, since I thought this was so interesting! Maybe I'll do that as just one blog post? But here are some of my faves:
“Bloggers that come off snobbish, bloggers that worry too much about the number of posts than the quality of posts.”
“When sponsors don't follow or comment on your blog. Or when people say, “Thanks for visiting,” when you have been reading for MONTHS or YEARS.”
“People complain about cliques, but that is the nature of the beast. I hate when I read and comment regularly and the blogger never responds in any medium (Twitter, IG, ect) you don't always have to email a comment.”
“Blogging is about sharing your personality, individuality and life with others through your words. It drives me crazy when people say things you should or shouldn't do on your blog. It's their blog. If you don't like it, don't read it.”
“The way people fawn all over certain bloggers, like they're celebrities or something.”
“The mean girls. The drama and attacking done by bloggers sometimes is too much.”
“When a blogger apologizes for not posting the previous day or writes a posts and says they had no idea what to post but they had to write something. Waste of my time! If you don't want to post, don't post. Don't apologize about it.”
17. Anything else you want to add?
“I like when bloggers blog for THEM, and write from their hearts.”
“Turn off Captcha!” (Hint, check that you have this off, go to your blog–> settings –> posts and comments and make sure word verification is set to “no.”
“Blogging is such a great community, when bloggers become negative it makes me question why they are blogging in the first place.”
It's clear a lot of you want SOME kind of response. Maybe not every time (I hate when someone answers my comment with a “Thanks!”, just don't respond) but some interaction is nice. But I can see that some people just cannot respond to every comment, tweet etc that they receive.
Thank you so much for filling this out! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it! I really feel like it's important to take a step back and look at how bloggers/people view and read posts. A lot of times I think I'm doing something completely off track. For instance, my instagram following is no where near some of the bloggers I follow. I also really need to get organized. A lot of what you guys said was such great insight!! I know this is a very text heavy post, so I'm going to stop now.
So, was this helpful? Let me know what you think!
