Blogger Survey Results – Part 2: About the Blogosphere

Blogger Survey Results - Part 2: About the Blogosphere

This second set of results focuses on the blogosphere. It includes both book bloggers and readers of book blogs.

About the Blogosphere (Blog Readers & Bloggers)

How many blogs do you subscribe to (and check regularly)?

None (2%); 1-3 (5%); 5-10 (26%); 11-20 (24%); 21+ (43%)

I think I was a little bit surprised by these numbers, just because I personally have a really hard time subscribing to a ton of blogs. I think it’s because I subscribe to my favourite/regular blogs via email, but I really can’t handle getting a ton of emails every single day (on top of the ‘normal’ ones I get). I think I’d just have a hard time regularly checking over 20 blogs!

But I think it’s awesome that other people manage to subscribe to so many!

What are your favourite kinds of blog posts to read?

Review (32%); Discussions (28%); Blog Tips (20%); Memes (14%); Other (6%)

I think this is another interesting set of results, mostly because I don’t feel that my page view numbers reflect them. Reviews are winning, at 32%, and yet my reviews don’t get the most amount of page views; blog tips and discussions do.

As someone who comments on other blogs, what is your preferred commenting system?

Built-in WordPress (45%); Built-in Blogger (25%); Disqus (19%); Other (6%); IntenseDebate (2%); Livefyre (3%)

For the most part, these numbers don’t surprise me. I do kind of find it interesting that people like the built-in Blogger system over Disqus.

What things annoy you about other blogs?

Too many promo posts (133); Cluttered sidebars (152); Laggy/slow site (160); Bad design (137); Advertisements (78); CAPTCHA (197); Poorly written posts (114); Doesn't post often enough (34); Blogger posts too often (34); Other (7)
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It’s no shock here that CAPTCHA takes the gold. But another big one is having a cluttered sidebar and a slow/laggy blog (which is usually a result of a cluttered sidebar!). So strip them down to the basics, people!

Also it’s comforting to know that not many people are bothered by a blogger who doesn’t post often enough. So don’t be afraid to take a break!

Do you enjoy reading positive or negative reviews more?

No Preference (69%); Positive (22%); Negative (9%)

I always thought that negative reviews were more popular because it feels like they get more comments. Maybe people don’t have a preference when it comes to reading reviews, but they’re more inclined to comment on a negative one? What do you think?

What are the most important factors that make a blog worth subscribing to?

Original content (225); Honest & interesting reviews (252); Good discussions (189); A lot of giveaways (53); Promo posts to showcase new books (31); Memes/features that you can link up with (45); A blogger who replies to comments (154); The blog is really popular (7)
Click to Enlarge

I ADORE these results! I love how they prove that people won’t subscribe to a blog just for giveaways. Hopefully these results will encourage bloggers to ease up on the giveaways and memes and just focus on great, original, high quality posts.

Agree / Disagree Section

This section consists of a series of statements that people could agree/disagree with.

You get jealous of the “big” blogs because of their success or amount of ARCs

Strongly Disagree (17%); Disagree (28%); Neutral (26%); Agree (26%); Strongly Agree (3%)

The “big” blogs are cliquey

Strongly Disagree (7%); Disagree (22%); Neutral (38%); Agree (24%); Strongly Agree (9%)

You avoid small/new blogs because they’re boring or unestablished

Strongly Disagree (36%); Disagree (48%); Neutral (11%); Agree (4%); Strongly Agree (1%)

Woohoo, go new/small blogs!

You judge a blog by its design

Strongly Disagree (4%); Disagree (10%); Neutral (34%); Agree (43%); Strongly Agree (9%)

Snarky/ranty reviews are more interesting than nice ones

Strongly Disagree (8%); Disagree (27%); Neutral (44%); Agree (18%); Strongly Agree (3%);

Bloggers are too obsessed with ARCs

Strongly Disagree (2%); Disagree (17%); Neutral (40%); Agree (33%); Strongly Agree (8%)

Advertisements on blogs are annoying

Strongly Disagree (4%); Disagree (13%); Neutral (37%): Agree (34%); Strongly Agree (12%);

Do you use AdBlock on your browser?

No (39%); Yes (36%); I don't know (25%);

So, interesting fact: if you sell advertisements on your blog they are not reaching about 36% of your readers!

What do you think about these results?

Which results (if any) stood out to you the most?

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24 comments

  1. Interesting results. I think the first one (subscribe and check regularly) may be answered different based on how one interprets it. Like, I literally go through and check the blog posts of 100+ through my Feedly everyday. But, I don’t actually read them. I go through and pull out ones based on type of post or if it’s a book I’ve read or something similar, and then while I know what the others wrote about because I’ve read the post title I haven’t actually read the post. But, if you interpret it in a way where you actually read a blog’s post regularly no matter what the content… well, that number would drop. Plus, what is regularly? Obviously you know that all of these can factor into the results, but for some reason my brain has to point it out because in class they are forcing us to notice such things. Haha.

    I think the reviews thing is interesting. I’m split on it. I do think many people only do reviews so their answer would likely be that they prefer reviews. Or because it’s such a huge part of the blogosphere they don’t want to allow reviews not to be a necessity. Or maybe they really just do like reading reviews. I don’t know. It’s a very weird subject. Maybe it comes down to why people come to your blogs. Maybe they come to you and me for our discussions, which is why our reviews seem like nothing. But, maybe for other blogs that focus on reviews they go to them for that. I do think sometimes I go to certain blogs for certain things, so maybe it’s the same here which is why we get confused. I don’t know, I’m rambling.

    So last bit I’ll comment on, yes I think negative reviews probably spark more of a discussion because people either will have conflicting views or share their misery. But, then again that can happen with positive comments. Maybe we just pay more attention and remember the bad over the good?

    Asti (A Bookish Heart) recently posted: Bookish Review: White Cat by Holly Black
  2. This was SO interesting. I’m hugely surprised to see reviews are highest “wants” for posts. I do 1 review a week and 4 original content posts, and the reviews get hardly any traffic/comments. So interesting! Thanks for posting this. πŸ™‚

  3. Wow, these stats are really interesting, captcha and laggy sites just don’t work for me, I don’t have all the time in the world to wait for a site to load or type some numbers/letters, sadly. I don’t get bothered about designs though, even though I’ll find it love it more if there is a great one. WordPress is definitely the best commenting system- love it.

    Thanks for sharing, Ashley! <33

    Melanie (YA Midnight Reads) recently posted: Review: Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles
  4. I find these results so interesting! I’m with you…my pageviews don’t reflect the reviews being as popular. The memes, giveaways, original content have the most pageviews typically. This always makes me sad since I spend so much time writing my reviews. For me, the negative reviews I write typically get less comments than my positive ones. I hope you do more of these surveys in the future!

    Kristen@My Friends Are Fiction recently posted: Top Ten Tuesday-Book Turn Offs
  5. Wow, I’m surprised that Reviews are winning in the preference category, too, because my numbers don’t reflect this either! Again, I’m disappointed that so many people prefer the Blogger commenting system; I can only assume that these people are Blogger users themselves.

    Fascinating results — thank yo so much for sharing all of this, Ashley!

    Kelley (Another Novel Read) recently posted: TBR Tuesday – 10/1/13
  6. Thank you for sharing, Ashley! πŸ™‚
    I always read book reviews fully -from the first line until the last line of it- and I follow a book blog strongly based on its reviews too (not only from the design & contents) so I’m not that shocked to read this result. I’m more shocked by the comments above that said reviews hardly get any traffic. Really? And the amount of blog people subscribed, too. More than twenty? Wow. I follow and check many blogs regularly but I hardly subscribe to them. Maybe because I can’t stand having so much incoming emails in my inbox, heheh

    Tirta @ I Prefer Reading recently posted: The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
    1. Well I can’t speak for everyone else above, but I recently did an analysis of my posts which really shows that book reviews get some of the least amount of page views. The averages per post per category were like this:

      Waiting on Wednesday: 61 page views
      Stacking the Shelves: 126 page views
      Reviews: 185 page views
      Giveaways: 393 page views
      Discussions: 398 page views
      Bitchin’ Book Blog (blog tips): 957 page views

      So when compared to blog tips and discussions, reviews don’t get a ton of page views.

      I guess everyone’s blog and their statistics are a little different though. πŸ™‚

  7. I’m pleased that readers don’t write off new blogs immediately, and also that most of the readers are in it for the reviews. I admit, reviews are my main reason for visiting book blogs and it was nice to see this consolidated. I also found it interesting to have my own view confirmed of just how important looks are when judging a blog.

  8. I have to wonder though – how accurate are page views when there are people like me who primarily read posts through a Feed Reader? I only click through when I want to comment or if it’s a super interesting post that only excerpts on the reader. I subscribe to nearly 200 book blogs in Feedly. I don’t read every post on every one, but I do look at them and scroll through to see what I want to read.

    Mandi Kaye Ottaway recently posted: September 2013 in Review
  9. Aha! So happy that reviews are still getting the lead when it comes to favorite blog posts.Still, my statistical figures do not reflect the same thing. My memes always get the lot of views followed by discussion posts and lastly, by reviews. It’s comforting though because I am not that creative and energetic in terms of coming up with new contents. For now, I am contented with just doing a lot of reviews. My blog still has hope. πŸ˜€

    I laughed at the captcha. It’s one of the most annoying things there is. It really makes me growl with frustration when I’m visiting a lot of blogs for memes and my commeting is hindered with the captcha.

    And wow to the design. I personally do not care if the blog has the shabbiest design on the planet as long as I can still read posts clearly and I am not experiencing any lag. But this result makes me want to uhm, improve my blog design more which needs to focus on branding.

    Thanks, Ashley, for this very helpful post. Awesome survey!

  10. I’m happy to see that I am not the only one who judge by design. And yes I am guilty of leaving a blog, not reading a blog or not subscribing a blog if the design is bad.

    Also, I love that so many people appreciate a comment back. I need to work on this. Though the question remains. Do they mean a real “REPLY” or a comment back on their blog. Because that makes a difference:)

  11. It seems likely that reviews are getting read in readers but they don’t get pageviews because people don’t click through to comment ya know? I know for myself that I read a lot of posts and enjoy a lot of posts in my RSS reader without clicking through, so the blogger has no evidence that I especially enjoyed that post D:

    Anya recently posted: Waiting on… NIL and Heartless
  12. Wow! love these results! Captcha does not surprise me although a couple of my absolute favorite blogs STILL use it ~ I wonder if the NO CAPTCHA message gets to the right people!
    And I love that people want to read good, honest reviews ~ that’s what we are here for. . .I think when I begin to get caught up in what mommy blogs and other female bloggers are out there doing I just need to remind myself that I like my niche ~ I got into book blogging because I LOVE it and the people who are within the niche. Fantastic survey Ashley! So validating!

    Stacy (The Novel Life) recently posted: Wondrous Words Wednesday

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