Inside the Numbers
At the beginning of the month, I asked readers to respond to a little survey I’d developed. The purpose was to allow me to get a better sense of who reads this blog and what you get out of it. While hardly scientific, it was helpful to me and I thank everyone who took the time to fill it out.
My Extreme Tracker gives me a numerical profile of how many people stop by, how they were referred and where they may live geographically. But through this survey I hoped to learn about your age, race, sex, sexual orientation, religious and political beliefs, in addition to what you liked about the site. Needless to say, there were some things that surprised me and other things which met my expectations.
It came as no great surprise to me to know most of my readers are Black or African-descended (86%), male (85%) and same gender loving (77%). While I might think my writing reflects a diversity of interests, it clearly attracts a readership that resembles the writer. Having done zero marketing of this blog, I can only assume folks have found it through six degrees of separation.
Only 15% of readers are women and just 10% are heterosexual.
The blog skews a younger demographic than I assumed. Forty percent of you are between 30-40 years old. An equal number, 27%, are either 19-29 or 41-50.
Most readers identified themselves as politically progressive--71% versus 29% moderate, with no conservatives showing at all. There has been nothing I’ve written to date that would even remotely resonate with conservative ideology, so there’s no surprise there. Fifty-nine percent of you consider yourself spiritual but not religious, with another 9% agnostic, and 4% atheist or practicing some other religion than those choices listed. Considering the sexual orientation of most readers and the loss of faith in Christianity many gay men feel, this also seemed right in line.
An equal number of you—31%--have been reading since I started the blog, or for the last 6 months to a year; 38% visit several times a month or at least once a week (33%).
As for those aspects of the blog you like the most, I was flattered to read that my writing does it for most of you (25%), with another 21% finding the topics informative and thought-provoking.
Concerning content, 16% found the editorials and commentaries most interesting, with 14% enjoying my news and informational pieces.
Now in three different questions, respondents expressed interest in knowing more about me through the blog. Fifteen percent, the third highest response rate, felt they got a true sense of the writer through the blog; 14%, also the third highest response, liked items about the writer’s personal life; and in answer to what you wanted to see more of in the future, 21%, the highest response, wanted me to reveal more about my personal life.
I think all bloggers wrestle with the question of how much to reveal about their own lives, and I am no different. Since anyone can read this thing, you just don’t know who will see this and whether or not you want all your business on the Internet. Nevertheless, personal entries tend to get the best response in terms of comments. It is a balancing act I will consider carefully.
Finally, 8% of you wanted to see more sexual content. Ha! Ya’ll must have me confused with some other Bernard.
Posted by bernie at March 26, 2006 11:40 PMI would like to see this broken down into a power point colored pie chart with reference keys, thanks in advance.
Posted by: Troy at March 27, 2006 12:15 PMAnd folks in Hell want ice water. That don't mean they're gonna get it.
Posted by: Bernie at March 27, 2006 1:56 PMWow, that was quite detailed. So what have you decided to change?
Posted by: Shawn at March 28, 2006 9:25 AMWho knows? Maybe I won't change anything, continuing to do what I already do, just more of it? Or maybe I try something else.
Stay tuned.
Posted by: Bernie at March 28, 2006 11:14 AM