I promised you that as soon as we finished our First Annual Reader Survey, I would report the results to you.
The votes are in, the polls are closed, and this is what I learned (thank you for sharing).
- 77 % of you are 40 or older.
- 44.87% have a Bachelor's Degree; 31.03% have a Masters or Doctorate
- 82.14% of you make over $50,000 per year; 48.21% make over $100,00!
- 87.5% of you are Christians, and 96.43% say your faith is either “Important” or “Very Important” to you.
- 69.64% say I write and talk just the right amount about faith; 25% say you wish I would talk more about faith.
- 81.9% of you are business owners, entrepreneurs, or corporate leaders.
- More of you prefer the podcast to the blog (this was a shocker!)
- The most popular topics you want to hear more about from me are (in order of popularity): making an income online, productivity, copywriting, and spiritual topics.
That's a topline selection of some of the most significant data we collected. Were still sifting through some of the open-ended responses.
The Most Surprising Result
We did ask a follow-up question about what product or training you would most like me to create for you next, and frankly I was shocked by the results. I felt certain the number one choice would be a new, revised copywriting course. I felt so certain, in fact, we had already started working on this. But…
By a healthy 3-to-1 margin, the most desired training is “how to package, promote, and profit from what you already know”. The people have spoken, and I have listened. We are working on this very training right now… more to come on this soon. (Never fear… The copywriting course will be next on the agenda!)
So what does all this data mean, anyway? How will it affect the content we publish going forward?
What We Plan to Do
First and foremost, I want to make this blog more useful for you. A better investment of your time. More helpful to you.
Let me be clear: even if you never do business with my company, even if you never buy a single thing we have to offer, I want to make sure we offer value to you.
Based on what we learned in the survey, here are some things we plan to do:
- Take a bolder stance for being disciples of Jesus in the marketplace. The spiritual foundations of success will take an even more central role. Clearly, we have not been hiding this one “under a bushel”, but the hunger for guidance in this area was made clear by the many comments we received. I plan to respond to this need as a top priority, because that's what you told me you wanted.
- Focus more on the topics you are most interested in. That means you'll be getting more podcasts and articles on how to create your own online business, how to be more productive, how to write more powerful copy, and the spiritual foundations of business success.
- Provide more tutorials and “how to” pieces. It's clear most of you would like more “how to” and tutorial material. We plan to provide this, much of it for free, in the coming year.
- Develop a community. If one thing has become obvious to me, it is that you (the readers of this blog, and the listeners of this podcast) are a powerful, connected, talented, and gifted group of people. I believe one of the greatest gifts I could give you is to connect you to one another. We are exploring exactly how would be the best way to develop a community where we can make that happen.
- Offer practical help for simplifying complex lives. I was pleased to see that so many of you are well educated, already-successful entrepreneurs and professionals. I have also realized, through reading the free-form questions and comments, that those of us in this position facing unique set of challenges. We have to juggle many responsibilities: family, children (and grandchildren), employees, business partners, etc. Many of us don't feel completely free to make radical changes in our lives without carefully weighing the consequences and ramifications for other people who depend upon us. I plan to spend more time focusing on solutions to these problems.
I plan the answer some of the questions that came in, and comment on some of the suggestions we received, in this weeks podcast.
If you responded to our survey, you have my thanks. If you didn't get a chance to respond, or you'd like to add a comment or suggestion, please do so below.
It is my pleasure to serve you in 2014.