I LOVE These Things: What YOU Say About ME {Reader Survey Results}

This week, I thought it would be fun to give you some fun factoids from the Reader Survey I recently conducted. I LOVE doing reader surveys!! I’m able to get into YOUR brains and see what you REALLY think about me and Redefined Mom.

So without further ado, here are the results.

(PS: I promise that won’t be too statistic-dorky. Plus, you’ll want to keep reading because some of the responses I received in the open-ended comments are pure gems.)

Factoid #1: 54% of the people surveyed have been reading my blog for two years or longer, with 30% of the people surveyed having been reading my blog for three years or longer.

Why I Love This: It means you stuck around with me since I first started blogging. I LOVE having long time readers. It’s like having old friends…you can be yourself, because they have seen it ALL with you and still love you anyway.

Factoid #2: 63% of the people surveyed say the number one reason they read Redefined Mom is for the online deals. (And then a few really nice people said it was Kelly’s Personality).

Why I Love This: I’ll be honest, it scares me because there are times I’ve thought about getting rid of the online deals altogether (and then I read stats like this and think “Crap, then I would have no readers!!”). With that being said, since I only post a few amazing deals/steals per week – it is usually less than 10 – means you appreciate the quality and limited amount.

Factoid #3: 67% of the people surveyed would like me to write about Organizing Ideas and Tips.

Why I Love This: We are all in the same boat of starting to simplify our lives. Getting rid of clutter, evaluating our stuff, making better decisions, embracing experiences instead of things…I love this evolution (because I’m going through the same thing) and promise to write more articles about these things in 2016.

Factoid #4: The majority of people surveyed are between 30 – 45, with almost an equal amount 30 – 36 and 37 – 45.

Why I Love This: We are in the same boat…raising kiddos. We might be at different places (potty training vs student driving), but we are trying our best to raise our kids in a very different landscape then when we were raised.

Factoid #5: 70% of the people survey either live in Kansas or Missouri.

Why I Love This: While I love having out of state readers, Kansas City is my home and I’m proud of that (still love my Nebraska Cornhuskers though).

Factoid #6: 66% of the people survey work either full time or part time, with 42% working full time outside of the home.

Why I Love This: WE ARE BUSY and managing it ALL. And most likely, we’ve dropped a ball every so often (or like me, twice this week – someday I’ll get it together). My hope is that every article I write HELPS you life be less hectic and not create additional stress.

Favorite Comments & My Responses:

Here are some of my favorite open ended responses and my comments back.

I get a ton of emails in my inbox every day, and honestly, yours is one of the only ones I read consistently, even after the fact. The content is relevant, often humorous, useful, and I like Kelly’s personality…her relatibility. Keep up the good work!

WOW! I know how many emails I get each day, so the fact that you open mine everyday is a HUGE compliment. Thank you.

Kelly! I have learned Kelly is a researcher, so when she says it’s a good value or tastes good or a product or item works well, I can trust without having to do the leg work myself.

I know it sounds cliche, but I do only post what I would either recommend, have tried or personally buy myself. This includes any sponsored activity.

I get between 10 to 15 “offers” per day from companies interested in having me review/write about their products. Out of that, I may only pick two or three for the entire month. My credibility, as well as protecting you, is VERY important to me.

It’s like what I would write if I could write 🙂

{giggle} I don’t consider myself a great writer (actually, I often say that I write at a 6th grade level), so the fact it is coherent enough is a huge compliment.

I like that you offer good deals without having to get crazy about doing coupons or driving to several different stores. I also love your personality! I feel like maybe in the past year you have expressed yourself more personally than in the past, and I have enjoyed it!

Thank you for noticing. I’ve tried really hard this last year to let my personality “out”…it’s been hard because I’ve always thought of myself as someone who was “less worthy” … my goal is to show even more of myself (the good and bad) in 2016.

Your confident, engaging personality shines through in all your posts! I look forward to reading what you’re up to and what is new in your workout/diet/makeup/closet. I am also envious of how much energy you have and your constant commitment to learning. Thank you for giving me something to hope to obtain!

If you would have seen me last night when I “lost my ‘schtuff”, you would have thought different. I don’t have it all together. I’m really just like all of you…you just get to see the good stuff more often. But, thank you.

And so you don’t think I’m a completely narcissistic, here were some of the comments from…

I used to like it but now it’s all you honking essential oils replace the need for modern medicine and posting about every deal (or not) under the sun so you get referral credit. And I hate how you think you went to medical school since you bought some essential oils. I preferred when you had deals I used, like Hy-Vee. I’m honestly not sure why I still subscribe.

Um. First, let me give you permission to go. There are over 1 million blogs out there and I know you can find another one that will make you happy. Second, I’ve written three blog posts since February about the health benefits of essential oils. The rest of the posts (there were seven) have either been cleaning recipes or DIY beauty products.

The grammar! It needs an editor and a spell checker for sure.

AMEN, sister!! You would think as a writer that my spelling and grammar (see, I almost misspelled that) would be on point. They aren’t. I suck at it. I cringe when I re-read articles and see misspelled words or bad grammar. I’m trying to get better, but if you see misspellings or bad grammar, you have my permission to leave a comment.

Sometimes the advertisements are very difficult to navigate around when they are within the text of an article. You often have to collapse the advertisement and that is super annoying.

Great feedback. This came up often about the ads…know that I’m constantly working to find the right balance of not too many ads, but enough ads to pay the bills. Knowing that you don’t like the in-text ads is great feedback.

More deals/ sales like it was several years ago. Add the coupon matchups back.

This was probably the most left comment outside of “Don’t change anything.” I understand that you want things to be the same as they were a couple of years ago, but that isn’t going to happen. I have to be true to myself and to you, my readers. It would be unfair to pretend I live some super coupon-frugal lifestyle, when in fact, I don’t.

I know you are 40… But I wish you would also look at 30’s and changes or what is appropriate for us too! I feel like I am in this middle area, not young but not frumpy!

Wait, did you just call me “frumpy”? 🙂 Noted…I can see incorporating information about the 30s in many of my beauty and fashion posts.

Sometimes when I click on the email version links, it takes me to your blog when I think it’s going to take me to the deal on Amazon for example.

Blame Amazon for this. They won’t allow us to put “amazon links” in the email newsletter. So you have to be rerouted to the website to see the post/link. Yes, it’s a pain. But they are Amazon, so they can make the rules.