Survey results

We have survey data to report.

Over ten days, the blog survey received 32 responses. It generally takes a month or so for the view counter on any particular post to pass 100, but the first posting of the survey link at the end of November hit 90 pretty fast,  and 30+ responses in ten days seems perfectly adequate to me.  Many many thanks to all -- your responses have been interesting and encouraging!

The Responses:

1  How often do you visit?

Not surprisingly, 66% of respondents described themselves as frequent visitors, and 34% as occasional visitors.  If there is a "rarely" group of readers, it was not looking in that week. Separate from the frequent/occasional groupings, ten per cent of respondents said they had started following the blog in the last year or so.  So we have growth -- or renewal -- going on. Welcome.

2. Name 3 features you particularly like.

Thirty respondents liked Historical News and Comment, 26 liked Political and Current Events Commentary, and 20 liked the Book Notes.  The other options got  slightly fewer likes. That seems about right, but in the comments question (below) there were some grumbles about "only three?" answers allowed for this question.

3 Other blogs and podcasts you follow

I'm going to cover this in a separate post a little later, because there were so many good suggestions.  Active History, you are looking good, and so is Borealia.  Champlain Society website and podcast got some love. There were laments that Unwritten Histories is on hiatus.

4. Where do you live?

I'm impressed to have had responses from readers in each of the major Canadian regions except, sadly, the 3 northern Territories.  Ontario dominated by more than I would have expected (20 readers). Make of it what you will, British Columbia and Atlantic Canada had 3 each, the Prairies 2, and Quebec 1.

And there were responses from Europe, the United States, and Australia.  Just one from each, but hello there!

5  Professional identity

25% of respondents said they were academics, 22% defined themselves as writers/artists, 16% worked in other historical domains, and no less than 35% said they were "other/just interested," which is kinda wonderful. No one described themselves as a student.  Shouldn't have posted the survey in exam season, maybe?

On the age question, 19 of 31 said they were between the ages of 31 and 65, 12 said they were over 65, and no one was thirty or under.  I might have expected the sample to skew a bit older, frankly -- but to have included a few under thirty!

The gender split of those who responded was 66% male, and 34% female.  So not gender-neutral, but actually closer than I might have guessed (on not very much evidence before this). Things are gendered!

6.   What question would you like to ask?

The most common responses were absolutely heartwarming.  'I like all the features," "Just carry on," "Just that I enjoy it," and "I'm always interested." No snarky anonymous attacks at all, bless you all! One said "Hard to say: the whole point, in my mind, of a blog is to follow the writer's interests. I quite enjoy landing on a book review one day and an obituary the next (despite not being in my top three I like reading those, and the prize watch posts)."

It was suggested I might offer snippets from my own work from time to time, which seems like a good idea, though this blog has always been all about me and hardly about me at all, if you see what I mean. And there were some specific questions about historical matters to which I think I will respond in separate posts in the coming weeks, as they are worth discussing.

7.  Prizes?

Coming!  Names are in the hat, and drawing will proceed today.  If you entered, the odds are certainly better than LottoMax.

Update:  I should have said again that the prizes -- an Ancestry genealogy membership or an Ancestry DNA testing kit -- were generously provided by Ancestry.ca and its agency Media Profile, who approached me with their offer.