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3 Ways to Learn More About Your Blog Visitors

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Learn More About Blog Visitors

Knowing your audience is crucial. Of course you may be under impression you know enough by evaluating reaction to different content of yours: reading comments, monitoring Twitter reaction, hearing feedback on Facebook, etc.

However those are your “active” readers. They are the minority. The majority of your blog readers are silent followers who keep being subscribed but seldom react because you haven’t appealed to them enough to call to their reaction.

Would you like to hear back from those people? Would you like to know more about your blog readers. If so, here are the three ways to:

1. Create a Personality Quiz

People love personality quizzes. They are usually quite eager to take them because they hope to learn more about themselves. If you also make it fun, you’ll get even more people to participate.

One of the best tools to help you build an entertaining and engaging personality quiz is Quiz School. I have created a couple of great quizzes myself. One of the examples is Which Type of Twitter User You Are – it was both an attempt to give my readers something to enjoy time with and the way to learn more about my readers’ tweeting habits.

The quizzes are fun to create, easy to embed and pleasure to analyze. The stats page lets you see the chart for all questions as well as for each individual question separately.

question list

2. Keep Track of Those Who Contact You

Some people comment, some befriend you on Facebook or Twitter, others use your contact form to get in touch. The latter ones are your most valuable contacts because they took an effort to get to know you personally.

Keeping track of those leads is invaluable. WordPress-to-Lead for Salesforce CRM WordPress Plugin is a possible way to go. It grabs all the details of people who have contacted you through your contact form and saves them all in one place at your Salesforce account.

leads-home

Read this post for more details and reviews and watch the video overview as well.

3. Create a Survey

Yet another way to learn your readers’ opinions is to let them take a survey. You can use one of the popular options like Survey Monkey that offers the readers to take the survey at their site. Or you can go with this nice WordPress plugin that lets you create and analyze basic surveys inside WordPress dashboard.

survey

Do you use any tools and tricks to get to know your blog readers better? Please let me know in the comments!

About

Ann Smarty is an experienced blogger, search geek and a social media enthusiast. If you are serious about blogging, be sure to join Ann's community of guest bloggers My Blog Guest: there you will find bloggers for your site as well as guest posting opportunities to promote yourself

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{ 26 Responses }

  1. Indian Homemaker says:
    I am going to see if I can use these with wordpress.com... I once used PollDaddy and asked readers their preferences. It did help but there's no end to how much one would like to learn about who reads one's blog :)
  2. ravi says:
    thanks for these great tips Ann.
  3. Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
    These are really excellent ideas worth trying out. I have been a fledgling when it comes to SEO blogging, but I think listening to your readers is one of the things that keeps your followers close to you despite the numerous hurdles to getting them hooked to your blog. Yep, and surveying your readers could open a pandora's box of ideas that you would never have thought of for your next blog post. Of course, don't forget those who contact you through your blog's "contact me" page. They are the gems who are really interested in your blog. Answer them and possibly, solve their problems. At the end, a great and short post that captivated me.
  4. SEO Company says:
    Excellent post all three points are good, i feel many times you get bad review but i think this one is also good for your blog, everything is not perfect, so bad review is also good...
  5. ashok says:
    Those are excellent suggestions - they can get people talking about themselves in the comments of a related post, for sure. I try to have posts where I just link out to various articles I've read on the Internet, and usually a few subscribers throw in their opinion of what they liked/didn't like. Giving people an opportunity to say something as small as "thanks/no thanks for the link" does work, I've found. I've also found that some people are quiet no matter what. Audience engagement is a tricky thing.
  6. Thu Nguyen says:
    Yes, besides having visitors come to your site, having something like a poll for them to participate in can be fun and beneficial for you as well. It's something quick and easy for them but worth a lot for you as well. Great article. Thanks! Thu .-= NEW from Thu Nguyen´s last blog ..37signal’s latest … REWORK =-.
  7. Isabel Rodrigues - Pro Blogger Journey says:
    Indeed getting your visitors to communicate with you is so vital. I will get the contact plugin installed. Nice info .-= NEW from Isabel Rodrigues - Pro Blogger Journey´s last blog ..How To Use Checklists To Make Wonderful Blogs =-.
  8. Jason Jumat says:
    Agree with Dennis Edell. I think Polls works better than like surveys. This is much easier for people to interact with, however quizzed won't go that bad. . . But heck! You need to do blogging full time. I don't think people know what a great deal it is now a days to start blogging: The competition keeps getting even more fierce with every day collapsing!
  9. Colleen says:
    We have clients that want to sell their home, however, we have use a database service that 'scrubs' the information to see if the person is giving us accurate information. It's always a strange one when the 'seller' is wanting information on a home that is not their own! .-= NEW from Colleen@Kennewick Realtor´s last blog ..Homes For Sale In The Pasco Washington School District =-.
    • Murlu says:
      That's great that you take the time to verify the information - a lot of people can be fraudulent which could come back to bite you if you don't cover every detail. .-= NEW from Murlu´s last blog ..How To Tame Your Email Inbox To Get More Done =-.
      • Colleen says:
        What nice about the sytem we use, is that the features like make sure the phone number and email are good, are automatic. ;) .-= NEW from Colleen@Kennewick Real Estate´s last blog ..Tri Cities Washington Cold Winter Nights Makes For Abundant Springtime Babies =-.
  10. Dennis Edell says:
    Great tips as always Ann, thank you. A couple thoughts... 1. The WordPress-to-Lead for Salesforce CRM plugin - does it come with it's own form that you have to use, or will it integrate with any form you're already using or want to use? I read the page and it was a little confusing; it kinda reads as either/or, is this true? 2. Quizzes/Surveys - While quizzes may be a good "fun sticky", I see surveys or polls being much better for really getting to know readers inside out. As stated I see the quiz as fun, this is wrong for two reasons: I've never seen one that is the serious nitty gritty Q&A that you need for getting to know them. Plus, many blog readers have a set number of blog, and/or a blog reading schedule.....not usually including "fun". This male sense? .-= NEW from Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Oops I Lied-HAHA =-.
    • Ann Smarty says:
      1. I guess the only option is to create a new form, I never saw an option to integrate the plugin into your existing form. I may be wrong though... 2. This actually depends. In some cases (and niches) you want to entertain, in other, a serious approach is more important. I suggest you try both and then see which one works when. .-= NEW from Ann Smarty´s last blog ..Testing WordPress-to-Lead for Salesforce CRM Plugin =-.
      • Dennis Edell says:
        I'm actually still looking for a form, so this might be the thing. I asked because i was pretty set on downloading a popular one before this came along. .-= NEW from Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..10 Social Share Sites Chosen – Do You Agree? =-.
  11. chandan says:
    A full time blogger can handle such type of analyzing work, but a part time blogger like me can not manage everything. Except posting and making some comment we can not think for other work due to the lack of time. .-= NEW from chandan@work at home blog´s last blog ..Important SEO analyzing factors for better search engine ranking =-.
    • swamykant says:
      True. It is difficult to analyze the audience for part time blogger. Also the participation of visitors in Quiz is very less. Hi Ann Smarty Do have any alternatives for quizzes ?? or any quiz which just requires single click. .-= NEW from swamykant´s last blog ..10 Interesting Tools to Improve Gmail Account =-.
      • Ann Smarty says:
        I think it is hardly possible to create a quiz with only click needed :) ProProfs is very easy to use though... .-= NEW from Ann Smarty´s last blog ..Testing WordPress-to-Lead for Salesforce CRM Plugin =-.
  12. Real Blogging Advice says:
    It's really important to engage people in more personal way. I mean making them just like your offline friends. Your tips about creating a contact list is very good example. Thank you very much for sharing it. Sometimes, I do comments on other blogs sharing like a letter where I use to leave my last greetings and put my name below on it. -Felix Albutra .-= NEW from Real Blogging Advice´s last blog ..What to do When Your Internet Connection Slows Down =-.
  13. Thomas says:
    Surveys are a fantastic tool to learn about your visitors. I saw a fantastic example of this a day or so ago when I found another blogger announce his yearly survey and then a couple of days later he announced the results and the changes he was going to make because of it. .-= NEW from Thomas@SEO Services´s last blog ..Create Niche Products: eBooks =-.
  14. Murlu says:
    Very informative. It's important to build your blogging relationship just as you would a business. This requires you to seek outside connections through Twitter, email and other social media. If you're just doing a 'one-shot' with your readers, you aren't really connecting on a deeper level. As you said, creating a survey can be a great way to gain valuable feedback to deliver relevant content in the future. Even a simple survey to your Twitter followers can help you generate dozens of post ideas that your readers will love because they are so highly focused on the subjects they're asking for. I say: once a month, poll your readers to see how you're doing, how you can improve and what they like about your blog so you can continue to deliver them posts they will enjoy. Hope this helps :) .-= NEW from Murlu´s last blog ..How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Blog =-.
    • Rod Saunders says:
      These are all great ideas that I never considered. Thanks for this input. Kind regards. Rod .-= NEW from Rod Saunders´s last blog ..Internet Marketing Strategies: How To Structure Your Sales Funnel? =-.
  15. Agent Deepak says:
    Nice tip Ann. Will try out your advises soon. Thanks. .-= NEW from Agent Deepak@Blogging, Markting & Success´s last blog ..Blogging is SIMPLE but was NEVER Easy =-.
  16. Kristi Hines says:
    One plugin I used to use that really helped me get to know my blog visitors (the ones who commented at least) was Meet Your Commenters. It doesn't work with the latest versions of WordPress, but it would basically examine the commenters' email address and let you know their Twitter, Facebook, etc. plus other blogs they owned that were linked to their information. It was a great way to connect with them off of the blog and really build community. I would love for them to update this, or know about a similar plugin. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Fetching Friday – Resources, Dofollow Updates & Go Daddy =-.
    • Dennis Edell says:
      It doesn't work now? I never got to install it; bummer. .-= NEW from Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Oops I Lied-HAHA =-.
    • Murlu says:
      That would be really great to have Kristi, shame it doesn't work in current versions. You could however plug in emails into many of the services which will find if they have accounts but it's going to require additional legwork. Hopefully they get it working again soon, I'd love to use it. .-= NEW from Murlu´s last blog ..How To Tame Your Email Inbox To Get More Done =-.
  17. Ryan says:
    Thanks for sharing the helpful tips Ann. The Contacts list is a creative idea. I aim to gain a better understanding of my readership. It's the next goal for my blog. .-= NEW from Ryan´s last blog ..How The People’s Program Cash Gifting Club Helps You To Get Started =-.