What I Learned from My 2017 New Year’s Survey

The week before New Year’s I launched my first reader survey. Many of you took the time to provide feedback and it’s invaluable! Thank you! Ultimately, I believe it also benefits you, because it helps me improve the content I create, whether on this blog, on social media, or elsewhere.

I mentioned last week that I'd be sharing the results with you. I also want to share how I plan on using the feedback to meet your needs and exceed your expectations in the coming year.

1. Posts that fit into the category of “goals and personal development” resonate most with you. So I commit to giving you more content around personal development, inspiration, goals, balance, and productivity. This topic rose to the top of almost all my content-related questions. You find these types of posts most helpful, you want more of it, and it’s the topic you’d most like to see an online community develop around. 

2. Your biggest career challenges are extremely varied but there was one common surprising theme in the write-ins: balance. My readers have a variety of career goals but a common theme is that people want more resources on how to find a balance between success at work and success in their personal lives.

3. One of the biggest surprises of the survey: people want a podcast. I added this option on a whim when I was listing out potential new modes of sharing content. I’ll be frank, I have not delved into the world of creating a podcast. I’ll research this and come back to you soon with updates! 

4. I learned a lot about what you want to take a deeper dive into. Half of survey takers are interested in an eCourse on personal brand. Most people are attracted to the title “from Passion to Profit” while “Monetize Your Passion” comes in second. A third title with a totally different topic came in third, “Blogging: Grow Your Business with Content.” 58% of survey takers are interested in an eCourse where they don’t feel pressure to complete each task during a specific window. They want access to all the content and want to move at their own pace.

5. My assumptions were confirmed that my most engaged readers are my email subscribers and Facebookers. This means I’m going to continue to invest in the blog itself, email subscribers, and my Facebook community. My greatest engagement comes from those sources.

If you participated in the survey, thank you for taking the time to do it. It’s the most important picture I have of what concerns and motivates you. I really consider it a gift. Most of all, thank you for entrusting me with your time and attention.

So what are my take-aways from the survey?

Ever since I had people contact me from out of state (and sometimes, out of country) who were interested in the Blogging Workshop and the Going Freelance Workshop, I’ve been brainstorming ways to make those experiences available to people no matter where they are located. What would it take to bring my in-person workshop experiences online? The truth is before launching those previous workshops I didn’t do a large poll, I just asked a couple friends if the topics sounded helpful and then I pulled the trigger. This survey told me a lot about the needs and interests of readers. And it also told me about which readers want to take a deeper dive into the topics I write about. Because of this, I’m crafting a brand new experience that combines lessons on goal-setting, personal development, personal brand building, time management and marketing. This new class will be coming next month and it’s perfect for solopreneurs, freelancers, artists, coaches, and creatives. If you want to be among the first to learn about the upcoming online class then go ahead and sign up here. Seats will be limited because the class includes a 1 on 1 consultation call with me and I haven’t figured out how to clone myself yet*. Those on the list will have first dibs on seats in the class. 

Again, thanks for taking the survey if you were able to. I’ll be back next week with official information about the upcoming class and a new content download chock full of inspiration.

*maybe eventually?