Survey Results: How Do You Read Blogs?

Here are the results of my How Do You Read Blogs? survey conducted a couple of weeks ago:

Out of the 51 respondents, the majority use a Web-based reader like Bloglines or Google Reader.

The second largest category still types in a URL (or uses a bookmark) when they want to visit a blog.  Ack!   Let me just say to these people that you will enjoy reading blogs so much more when you start using a tool that shows you when something new has been posted.  Trust me, a Web-based reader is easy to use, and you'll be able to follow more blogs more easily if you use a tool designed to help your maximize your productivity.

The third largest category was Other, with 8 respondents, but a closer examination reveals 4 of those 8 use Google Reader and 1 used the RSS feature built into Safari:

Since Google Reader is Web-based, and Safari's RSS feature is a browser built-in, that means that the vast majority of people (who took the survey, anyway) are using a tool to read blogs -- most likely, a Web-based tool.

I'm glad to see that people are subscribing to blogs, even though roughly 25% are missing out on the convenience of a subscription.  If you are are a winery with a blog, you might want to consider showing people how easy it is to subscribe to your blog.  The directions could be sent to them via e-mail, in your e-newsletter, or as a one-page insert in your next snail mailing.  The nice thing is that it doesn't just help people read your blog -- it makes all their blog reading easier, and that reflects well on you.

At the very least, show your fans how to use FeedBlitz to receive your blog posts via e-mail.  It will save them the frustration of visiting your blog only to find there's nothing new to see (which makes for grumpy fans).

Comments

[Tyson Caly]

Mike,

I'm generally at odds with most blog readers and RSS feeds. To be honest, I've only recently begun experimenting with them, so my opinion may still be jaded. On one hand, readers and feeds are incredibly great for quickly informing you of new content, they fall short in so many ways.

Through a reader, your blog loses all branding and originality. Everything look the same. That drives me nuts. Where am I? What am I reading? I feel lost in too much content.

I really like blogs, and feel that ALL of the content on a page can be useful, including, get ready for it... ads. As an example, 37signals' SVN blog is fantastic. They offer really great content and host useful advertising through The DECK Network. Because I actually visit the site, I get to see those ads, and have found some truly great services I would have otherwise missed if I browsed exclusively via readers. I know it's a funny example, but to me that's somewhat important. My point is, you tend to miss out on a lot of potentially useful content, so it's nice to see quite a few people still actually go to websites.

[Arthur]

To add to Mike's comments:

If you want to monetize your blog through advertising, it does not make sense to run any type of RSS feed of your content.