What I learned from my 2015 Reader Survey

Earlier this month I created a reader survey and begged and pleaded asked all of you to participate. I have been writing on this site for well over a year now and have recently made it a goal to put more time and effort into making this website a valuable resource for my readers. I want the posts here to inspire and encourage you. I want to help you create more space in your life to focus on what matters most. I want to help you learn processes and develop strategies that simplify your life so that you can actually enjoy this abundant life that God has blessed you with.

In order to do that, I needed to get a more accurate picture of who my readers are. I needed to know what stresses you out the most, what’s important to you, and how you like to absorb new information. I am so thankful for all of you who took the time to participate in the survey. I have been going over the results of the survey and gaining some great clarity for some ideas I have for the future. I want to share the results of the survey with you as well as a couple brief ideas regarding what you can expect to find in the coming months.

Reader Profile

Based on the survey responses, here is what a “reader profile” would look like:

• My typical reader is a female (100% – although I know we have a few men who hang around once in a while) between the ages of 25-44 (71%).
• She is employed full time (86%) although we do have a handful of readers who are employed part-time or stay at home mom’s.
• She is a parent (93%) of an average of 2.4 children in either preschool or elementary school (ages 1-12).
• She is most interested in reading about general parenting (86%), personal development (71%), positive parenting (71%), spiritual topics (57%), and nutrition and wellness (57%) topics.
• She is somewhat interested in learning frugal tips (43%), career satisfaction advice (43%), love and marriage tips (43%), and exercise and fitness information (43%).
• Her biggest sources of pain right now include finances (57%), parenting (57%), motivation/personal development (50%), and work (43%).
• Her preferred methods of learning include reading (86%) and self-guided courses (57%), but she might consider learning through live events or webinars (36%), audio (29%), or video (29%).
• She makes her life easier by spending her hard earned money on personal development (71%), parenting tools (64%), motivational products (64%), and devotionals (64%).
• The things I learned from the “describe your life in three words or less” responses are that many of us are tired, most of us are busy, and we love God.

Key Take Aways

1. I was excited to learn that my target audience really is my target audience! When I setup this site I was imagining full time working moms, within the age range of 25-45, with a few kids who were still fairly young and needing lots of time and attention from mom and dad. Women who struggle to balance all of their roles as wife, mother, employee, Christian, friend, and community member.
2. I talk about a fairly wide range of topics on this site and I’ve been wanting to try and narrow things down a little to focus on the areas that provide the greatest challenges for my reader. Going forward, I will definitely be focusing on parenting issues, personal development, and health and wellness topics. But I’ll also include occasional writings in the areas of spiritual matters, finances, work, and marriage.
3. One of the things that I know and that was reiterated in the survey responses is that working moms are busy! I recognize that many of my posts are really long, so one area that I will be challenging myself in is to write content that is brief but punchy. You don’t have time to read pages of words, but there is value in learning new things, so going forward I will be doing my best to cut out the excess and provide you with more value with less words.
4. Although the majority of our readers are full time working moms, as I’ve mentioned we do have some men, some stay at home moms, some single moms, a few empty-nesters, and some women who aren’t yet moms. When I run into people who read my blog I often get, “I like your blog, even though I’m not a working mom.” My goal is to be as inclusive as possible on this site. I truly believe that most of the topics I write about have value for everyone. If you don’t perfectly fit the reader profile above, please know that you are still welcome here, stick around, join in the conversations, I value you as my reader too.

If you participated in my reader survey, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. It truly blesses me to know that you took a few minutes out of your hectic life to give me a window into your situation.

For all of my readers, thank you. I love writing, I love learning new things and sharing them with others. This is my place to be creative, to share motivation and inspiration, and encourage others to be the best that they can be. I’m so happy that you have chosen to spend a few minutes here. Please keep coming back, comment on things you love, share posts that inspire you, and help us create a community of people who are able to find peace, joy, and life in the midst of our crazy.

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