Reader Survey Results

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Before I jump into this post, I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in my survey! You have no idea how much your answers helped me in putting the final touches on this blog, and narrowing down my focus for the content I create. I loved all of the notes many of you left too, which just reminded me of how fantastic my readers are!

I asked a total of 15 questions, but rather than talking about all of the answers I received, I want to focus on a few key questions that gave me the most interesting results. And just for clarification, the survey itself was made before I switched my blog name to The Blogging Brew, so I’ll be subbing it in to make things simpler!

What blogging platform do you use?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen at least ten of my favorite bloggers make the switch from Blogger to WordPress, and if it wasn’t the trend last year, it definitely is now. These results were about the percentages I expected, which I’m actually happy to see because it means I can continue posting Blogger tutorials knowing I have an audience for them.

Where do you hear about new posts on The Blogging Brew from?

While I had a feeling Bloglovin’ and Pinterest would be up there, I didn’t expect direct URL’s to be such a popular choice. I had a lot of readers tell me that they usually visit my site on their own accord, which was crazy to hear! I’m not sure why I was so surprised though, because there are a good chunk of blogs that I do the same for. Twitter ended up at the bottom of this list, so I plan on putting more focus into promoting on that platform and connecting with my followers.

How long have you been reading The Blogging Brew for?

I started my blog less than a year ago, so I didn’t have much room to work with for this question, but that did allow me to be more specific in my answer choices. It looks like I have a diverse group of readers, as the results ended up fairly even across the board. I loved seeing that almost a quarter of my readers have stuck with me for such a large period of my blog’s journey! It’s also great to note that another quarter of my readers are relatively new, which will hopefully set me up for continuous growth.

Which types of topics do you enjoy reading?

These were probably the best results I received, because they reassured me in the path I’m heading on with this blog. Almost everyone selected “blog tutorials” or “blogging tips”, and a lot of the extra comments I received touched on those as well. I guess The Blogging Brew was a good choice! One thing I didn’t expect to see was the large percentage of readers who selected “personal posts”. I’ve always felt like I struggle to create that type of content, so I thought it would be towards the bottom, but it ended up second overall! Because of that, I’m making an effort to create more personal content and let my readers get to know me more outside of my typical blogging tutorials.

How old are you?

I’m not going to lie, for basically the entirety of my blogging career, I’ve felt like a child amidst a community of moms and soon-to-be moms. I normally don’t think twice about it, until I make a post about my first year college and see my favorite bloggers debuting posts about their toddler’s birthday. That said, I was kind of shocked to see that so many of my readers are in my age group! That just made me realize that I need to connect more with my followers through outlets other than the Facebook communities I’m in, because there are a ton of you out there who I just don’t know about yet!

Do you own a business?

This was kind of a wild card question thrown in out of pure curiosity. With my plans to start a business later this year, I was interested in seeing how much of my audience has delved into that field, and it looks like y’all are loving the entrepreneurial life! Over 30% of you already own a business, and over half said that you’re either interested in starting one or are in the process of making one. It makes me so happy knowing how many of you are tapping into the creative business world, and I can’t wait to join in!

Keep an eye out for a post next week on creating your own reader survey and getting the results you want!

6 Tips For Growing Your Blog With Twitter

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I’d say Twitter was the last social network I really got into, and I still don’t use it very often. I kept seeing posts from other bloggers about their success with it though, so a few weeks ago I decided to start investing more time into promoting my content through it. I won’t say I’m entirely in love yet, but that’s mainly because I’m super impatient when it comes to waiting for results. I just want to get a thousand new followers and 50 retweets and have people tagging me and all that jazz, and I think a lot of bloggers can relate to that feeling! I have picked up a few pointers along the way though, and I can definitely tell that they’re making a difference in my Twitter stats.

USE IMAGES

This is something I didn’t pick up on at all until, well, yesterday (see it here). I’m not sure why it took me so long, considering this is something I tell every blogger when it comes to making a great post. It’s been shown that tweets with images receive more interactions (like retweets and favorites), which of course is what we’re going for! The minimum size to have your full image shown is 440 x 220 pixels, but I made my image slightly larger (880 x 440 pixels). Just be sure to keep the main content at the center so it shows up correctly!

ENGAGE

Like any form of social media, engagement plays a huge factor in becoming a well-known user. By engagement, I mean tweeting at other members, tagging them in tweets (#FollowFriday?), retweeting their content, and just interacting with others in general. I love retweeting my blog friends when the tweet about a new post, because it gets their content in front of more eyes and connects them to new people. Engaging also gets your name around to more users, which could lead to more followers for you!

SHARE CONTENT FROM OTHER BLOGGERS

This goes along with engagement, but rather than just retweeting what another blogger already said, try being more organic and tweet about their content yourself! It can make someone’s day if they see a tweet about a positive reaction to their post. If I find a post I absolutely love, I’ll grab the link for it and tweet about what I liked in the content. Don’t forget to tag the author—extra engagement points!

JOIN GROUP CHATS

The first group chat I participated in was with @FireworkPeople. It was so energetic and positive and I met a ton of new people! Group chats are basically scheduled times when the host will tweet about something, or ask questions to their followers, and anyone that’s available at that time can just join in on the conversation! They’re super casual, and oftentimes everyone will follow each other afterwards.

SCHEDULE YOUR TWEETS

I know there are quite a few tweet schedulers out there, but I’ve been using Buffer for a while now and I don’t think I’ll be switching anytime soon! Most schedulers work about the same though. You make tweets beforehand (hours or days) and schedule the exact time for them to be posted. When I make a new post, I schedule 3 or 4 tweets about it for the next day scattered between 7am and 7pm. Then I don’t have to worry about forgetting till after dinner!

TWEET FOR YOURSELF

While scheduling is fantastic for the busy blogger, you should avoid using it for everything you tweet. If your dash is filled with links to your blog posts and that’s it, people will get annoyed and unfollow you. No one likes over advertisement, especially on their Twitter feed! Do include those scattered scheduled tweets, but tweet organically throughout the day as well. Your followers want to get to know you, not just your blog!

Btw, you should definitely follow me on Twitter.

p.s. grab your freebies and check out these fantastic apps

Building A Kick Butt Sponsorship Program

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After you’ve blogged for a while and gotten the gist of things, you might feel the need to take the next step in developing your blog. You may have already tapped into the sponsorship world by sponsoring another blog, or doing free ad swaps with some of your friends. As your content gets better though, so do your stats, meaning more exposure. All that sidebar space is worth a bit more now, meaning one thing: it’s time to build a sponsorship program!

The great thing about the sponsorship system is that bloggers are at the center of it. They’re both the sellers and consumers, meaning it’s a win-win business. Most of the time, bloggers will use the money they make from selling ads to buy more for their own blog, making it a huge system of happy bloggers! And with the right tools, creating your own sponsorship program can be super simple. Here are some general steps to guide you through the process!

DETERMINE YOUR GOAL

Before setting anything up, you need to establish what you want to get out of your sponsorship program. Are you wanting to get more exposure? Help out other bloggers? Make some side cash? This will help you determine what you’ll be offering with your ads, and how much you’re willing to give up that space for. If you just want to meet other bloggers and help them out along the way, you might offer more shout outs at a lower price. But if this is strictly for the business/money-making aspect, you’ll want a more structured program with a higher price.

CONSIDER TIME

Running a sponsorship program can require as little as a few minutes a day, to a couple of hours. Think about how much time you’re willing to devote towards your program, and only offer what you can work with. If you have a tight schedule, limit your spaces to 4 or 5 spots. You can always increase that later!

DECIDE ON A PLATFORM

There are several websites out there that will host your sponsorship program, but my absolute favorite is Passionfruit. They take care of everything, and I mean everything. All you have to do is choose the type of ads you want, set the price and a few other details, and place the code in your blog. Passionfruit creates both the ad display and ad shop for you, so no other coding involved! Passionfruit does charge for their service, but their prices start at only $3, which is totally worth it in my opinion. They take so much work off your back!

The other option is to run your own ad program. The great thing about this choice is that you don’t have to pay someone else to run your ads, but it also means there’s more work for you to do. You can create a page on your blog and write out what your options are, and have bloggers contact you by email to work out the details.

SET UP YOUR ADS

This is where we get into the details. There are a lot of things to decide on here, and it all depends on what goals you came up with.

length – how long will each blogger have their ad on your blog? The most common length is one month, which is enough to build a relationship while giving other bloggers a chance for sponsoring you.

shout outs – how many shout outs will you offer? These can be in the form of blog shout outs or social media shout outs, and if you’re offering a tiered system of ads (small ad, medium ad, and large ad for example) you might increase this number as the ad gets bigger. Once again, consider the amount of time you have and don’t offer what you can’t give out!

will you rotate your ad spots? – rotating means that the order of ads on your sidebar will switch around every time your blog is visited. This is great for keeping things fair and giving your sponsors the exposure they deserve! You can also offer more ads while only displaying a few, giving those sponsors extra exposure when they’re up.

will you make a sponsor post? – sometimes bloggers will offer to post about their sponsors in an end-of-the-month post. Usually they’ll ask all of their sponsors a few questions, and post their answers along with a description of the blog. It’s a fun way to connect with your sponsors if you offer it!

what are your restrictions? – it’s always a good idea to include some restrictions to avoid an awkward situation. For example, if you’re running a food blog and a fashion blogger wants to sponsor you, it might be hard for you to promote them to an audience that will enjoy their content. I generally use these terms:

“I reserve the right to deny an ad spot if your blog doesn’t fit with my blog’s aesthetic, or if your ad is distorted.”

You might choose to have more or less restrictions, depending on your blog type and quality opinions.

CREATE YOUR SPONSORSHIP PAGE

This is an extremely important part of your sponsorship program, because it’s where you’ll hook in a buyer. Rather than just placing your ad shop and calling it a day, I suggest writing up a paragraph or so about you and your blog. It gives your potential buyers some background on your blog’s success, and allows them to get to know you a bit before diving in. Make sure to be yourself! Bloggers want to sponsor someone genuine and organized so they know their money is being spent well. This is the place to brag a bit!

Another good idea is to include your stats. It gives other bloggers an idea of how much exposure their ad will get, so they can determine how much they’re willing to spend. Don’t worry if your stats aren’t off the charts yet though; mine surely are not! Numbers really aren’t everything. In fact, when I decide to sponsor another blog, the majority of my decision is based off the kind of person that blogger is. I would rather sponsor a small blog whose writer is enthusiastic and excited to promote me, than a bigger blog whose writer might not give me enough attention to make it worth the cost.

PROMOTE YOUR PROGRAM

Finally, it’s time to promote what you’ve created! Social media is a great place to talk about your new sponsorship program. Make an Instagram post, pin a snapshot, or tweet about it. Show your potential buyers how great you are at promoting something!

Offering a discount is another great way to bring buyers in. By lowering your prices for a day or so, you’ll bring in more sponsors and fill up those spots faster than ever!