Today I’m sharing the results from the Nose Graze reader feedback survey! This survey was fun to do at first, but after a while, I think I lost my steam. Somewhere down the line I felt like the survey wasn’t really helping me. Some of the responses were GREAT, but others felt like they were from people who didn’t even read my blog! Someone complained about too many memes.. but there’s only one meme that I’ve been participating in over the last 6-12 months. That’s Stacking the Shelves, and I was only posting about 1-3 times a month O_O
So I think getting replies like that was discouraging. It made me feel bad about things that weren’t even on my blog, which was an odd feeling.
But putting that aside, a lot of the comments were really kind and helpful! Let’s take a look…
Are you a blogger?
Are you female or male?
How old are you?
How do you follow Nose Graze?
Most popular features on Nose Graze
From most to least popular.
- Bitchin’ Book Blog
- Discussions
- Reviews
- Personal Posts
- Stacking the Shelves
How do you feel about my posting frequency?
Would you say you usually agree or disagree with my reviews/ratings?
How often do you comment on Nose Graze posts?
Are you annoyed if I don’t reply to your comment(s)?
Do you wish Nose Graze offered more giveaways?
Would you like to see more posts about design, rather than coding?
Would you be interested in more personal/real life posts?
Rate Nose Graze’s blog design
Which of my sidebar widgets have you actively looked at, clicked on, or interacted with?
Comments
Here are some of the comments from the survey questions:
Why did you decide to start following Nose Graze?
I enjoy your posts, and the variety of content on your site.
BBB posts are so useful! You rock!
The blog tips are useful & the reviews are professional but engaging. 🙂
I kept clicking through for blogging tips each week and figured I should just subscribe and not rely on others to link your posts 😉
Everyone always links to your content in weekly round-up posts!
When you think “Nose Graze” what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Something with noses, and not book related at all.
Buggers. TBH, I don’t like your name.
Honestly? Like I’m out walking on the street and almost get hit by a car, but instead it just swipes my nose. Weird, I know.
A great resource for book bloggers.
Your nose grazing the page of a book while reading.
Design Goddess and Coding God
How do you feel about Bitchin’ Book Blog?
I really like it! Sometimes the advice doesn’t apply to anything I need, but most of the time it’s super helpful!
I personally love it. I’ve been debating starting my own blog for months and love reading your hints and tips.
LOVE IT! Please have more! Could you perhaps do a java/html/css/photoshop tutorial/class/seminar? That’ll be great!
AWESOME idea! I wonder if I could pull that off…
I like it. No one else offers help like that for wordpress blogs (that I’ve seen) and it’s great tips and advice.
Like it, but most of it is for WordPress users so I’d love to see more for Blogger users.
Also have you used the platform ‘Squarespace’? If so I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
I’d like to see more design-related Q & As. How to layer images in photoshop to make a banner, or how to put your social media icons in your header, that kind of thing.
Any other comments about the design?
I’m in love with your new design!! Everything about it is amazing.
Hierarchy-wise, the images you use at the top of your posts… like the one here for the reader survey are HUGE. Too big, actually. I’m on a macbook pro and the images fill, like, a 5th of my screen. And with this new design, I hardly notice your blog’s name anymore because the post header images overpower everything else on your site. I felt this way with the old design, too.
Other comments/suggestions
I really enjoy your blog because of the tips you give people. I love the posts where people ask questions and you answer them. Those are a big help because I think bloggers who are blogging for a hobby have no one to go to to ask these questions.
I just want to say that I think you’re doing a great job on every aspect of your blog. I don’t know how your other readers feel, but I just enjoy reading your content. The only thing I ever skip are the Stacking the Shelves posts. I rarely comment and sometimes get behind reading your posts, but that’s more due to my schedule right now than anything else. I can’t think of anything that you should change. I say, do your thing however you want to do it. I think the fact that all of your posts are genuine is probably what draws most of your readers in anyway.
I find it surprising that around half your audience is NOT within the “target” of the book you read, I mean the “young adult” group. 45% of your readers are above 25, which means maybe the “Young Adult” category is mislabelled.
I just finished “a Monster Calls” by Patrick Ness. It’s supposed to be a young adult- (if not child-) book. Well I’m 30 and it’s been a while I didn’t read a novel that moving! I hope adults don’t turn their back to young adult books just because they are labelled that way and your stats prove that they don’t, which is great!
Yeah it seems there are a lot of adults who read YA (I’m one of them!). It’s very disappointing when some adults are quick to judge YA books and immediately think they’re “lame” or “childish”. That’s certainly not the case!
If I may interject, I think the “Young Adult” label is more about labeling books that are appropriate for the age group. It’s a way of making it easier for teens, parents, librarians, or whoever else is buying the books to find them. I think it’s just in the interest of throwing away the guess work of whether or not a book is appropriate for a teenager. You’re right, though. Adults often assume that Young Adult novels are “easy” or lack the complexity of adult fiction. They misconstrue the purpose of the label. Young Adult fiction definitely has a bad rep with many adults. Obviously, there are plenty of us who read it though, and we can be advocates. 🙂
I think the survey went pretty well just based on the results you showed. You are going to get some people who do the survey just to do it and not because they really follow your blog. That’s normal. But it looks like people love your blog and that’s what matters.
Yeah, overall I’m very happy with the results. 🙂
Thanks for sharing the results. I think it is great that you shared the results. I have to admit I was one of the people that answered yes that is it annoying when bloggers do not comment back. In my view it makes me feel as if the bloggers does not care that I took the time to comment. It does defer me from commenting a lot because I feel you are too busy to read my comments or spend any time on my blog. Overall I enjoy your posts and so do a lot of your readers, but that would be my complaint for the day. I’m sure people have things about my blog they don’t like also. I generally enjoy your posts and read your blog because I generally agree with your book reviews.
Sometimes it can be hard to reply to every single comment. I do make an effort to reply if the comment is a question, or if I have something to say in response. Sometimes it can be tough to respond to comments if nothing immediately comes to my mind as a reply (because I just can’t think of what to say, or there’s no question in the comment).
So although I do make an effort, I don’t force myself to reply if there’s just nothing for me to say.
But on other blogs, it is kind of a big pet peeve of mine if I post a question in the comments and never get a reply. It can be pretty frustrating!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! 🙂
Thanks for sharing the results. They were very interesting.
I remember taking this survey and I think the answers are fascinating, especially Lily’s comment about the demographics of YA readers. I turned 30 last year and I love YA — been reading it for years.
I think due to the target audience, there’s a lot of experimentation in fiction that differs from the “tried and true” in adult fiction. The one that first comes to mind is Rainbow Rowell’s “Eleanor & Park”. I do wish that adults’ perspective of YA would change though. At my library, it’s in a “teen” area so I get awkward looks sometimes (too old to be a teen, too young to be a parent of a teen). 🙁
The results are pretty interesting. I wish I had seen this to take the survey. Like Jennifer said, a lot of people will take the survey just for the hell of it and as such may throw off the exact results. Overall I think they’re pretty excellent.
… and I don’t think images are too big at all… I personally think your blog is one of/if not THE most appealing ones out there. The writing is easy to read, the colours are very pleasing to the eye and don’t even get me started on the content. The topics are very direct and very clear.
It’s incredibly Professional with just the right amount of personality so that it’s very inviting and homey and not at all … clinical.
Thank you so much Carrie!! I really appreciate it. 🙂