RESULTS ARE IN: Making Home 2013 Reader Survey Results

I recently invited you to participate in a survey so that I could learn more about Making Home blog readers.

It was so encouraging to receive your feedback.  You guys are very kind & yet still gave me specifics when I asked for ways to improve the blog.  Thank you for sharing your thoughts... it has helped Doug & I to think through how I should be spending my time, and where blogging/writing ranks among my priorities.

First, let me share the basics I learned about YOU:

• Nearly 95% of Making Home readers are married females.  
• Nearly 2/3 of you are under 34.  (Makes sense-- I'll turn 34 next month.)
• Nearly 70% of you have a baby 1 or under. (More than I would have guessed.)
• More than 1/3 of you have been reading for 4-5 years.  Another 1/3 have been reading for 1-3 years.  (I am so thankful for you long-time readers that have stuck with me through blogging lulls!!)
• About 1/2 of you come to my blog to read, and about 1/2 of you read through RSS feeds.
• 2/3 of you said you have recommended my blog to others. (THANK YOU SO MUCH!)

Here are the blog topics in order of appeal (it was a multiple-choice question, so the percentages won't add up):

•  75% chose Child Rearing & Discipline
• More than half of you chose Biblical Womanhood & Feminism
• More than half of you chose Homeschooling
• More than half of you chose Marriage & Sex
• 40% of you said Discipleship & Spiritual Growth
• 30% said Suffering & Contentment
• 20% said Bible-Study
• 20% said Politics
• 15% said Newborn sleep & breastfeeding
• 7% said Writing/Honing talents

This information is extremely helpful for me, as I want to write about things that are useful to you.  Here at Making Home, my goal is to write about:

1.  Topics within the sphere of what God is teaching or has taught me, and 
2.  Topics within the sphere of things YOU want to read & hear about.

Now that I've heard from you, my goal is that those two things will line up more often than not.

And then, more than 50 of you left me personal comments about specific ways to improve my blog.  Some of the helpful comments left were:

• Many of you said I need to write more consistently/more often-- I have adjusted my schedule and priorities and I am now posting every Sunday night & every Wednesday morning (with an occasional bonus post at some point in the week).  I hope this will help you all know more of what to expect... every week, the same routine, rather than my sporadic writing habits of years past.  And-- I am enjoying the blogging frequency.  Doug says it's good for me, and he can tell a difference in me when I'm regularly writing.  So for you as a reader, and for me as a writer, this one is a win/win.  :)
• Many of you suggested specific blogpost topics.  I have those saved in my blogger dashboard & will try to address those in coming weeks/months.
• EASIER NAVIGATION was another comment.  Can you tell I've been tweaking my blog?  I'm kind of in love with the new, simple design.  I increased the font size for easier readability.  So I changed the blog to a two-column format, and have listed out "most popular articles" in one sidebar feature.  For how to search past articles, there is now a search box embedded in the side bar.  Simply type in the subject you're interested in.  I am also working (this will take longer) to simplify my categories (there are nearly 600 articles on Making Home, stretching over 7 years, so while I want to keep things simple, I also want the specific categories to serve you well, so that relevant information is accessible to you).
• Two of you said you wish I'd keep sharing links on the blog.  :( I'm sorry.  While I may *very* occasionally share a video or link here, I will no longer do those mega-link posts.  I've moved to Twitter and Pinterest.  Feel free to follow me...  I am sorry to let readers down, but I just can't devote the time here to that anymore, when it is so easy and immediate to share links in those two places.
• One of you suggested that I make contacting me more simple.  So I've put my e-mail address right by my picture in the sidebar.  

I hope these changes will improve your experience as a Making Home reader.  I greatly enjoyed hearing from you all!  You had some good ideas, and now that we've done one, I'll look forward to hearing from you in surveys in the future.

One final thought: 

YOU GUYS (AHEM, YOU *GALS*) ARE THE BEST READERS!  

I felt so encouraged after sifting through your comments... so many kind encouragements, but also lots of ideas for new topics.  I'm excited to keep writing & growing alongside you all.  Thank you for your feedback!

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