Who Reads Sunlit Pages? A Look at the Survey Responses

This post might not interest most of you, but I thought as long as I was looking over and analyzing the data from the recent Sunlit Pages survey, I might as well share it with you. Feel free to skip it if data is not your thing.

But first, can I just give you all a hearty thanks for taking the time to fill out the survey? It meant so much to me. I received 86 responses and, for a small blog like mine, that seems like a good sample size. It was especially fun to hear from those of you who have never commented on the blog before but who are loyal readers. I hope you continue to share your voice!

What follows are the pie charts of the responses I received followed by my thoughts. Feel free to chime in with your own analyses in the comments!

I added this question about two days into the survey, so I apologize to those of you who didn't see it. After the first few responses, I realized it would be helpful to know how long each person had been acquainted with the content on Sunlit Pages. The data was actually encouraging for me to see. Over half of you have been long-time readers (thank you!), but one of the highest responses was "less than six months." I was so happy to see that new people are discovering the blog. (And yes, I realize there's a grammatical mistake in the question above, but some things aren't worth the hassle of fixing.)

Mike looked at this chart and said, "If you want to increase your readership, it looks like you need to make some more friends." While I should probably feel flattered that so many of the people I know in real life take the time to read my blog, it's actually pretty intimidating. I hope I come across as myself in both settings. Also, even though 50% of you know me personally, 50% of you don't (or didn't when you found the blog). I'm so grateful you chose to stick around!

It makes sense that those of you who took the time to take the survey are probably also the ones who are consistent, dedicated readers of the blog. The responses here didn't surprise me, but I'm still happy that so many of you are checking in frequently.

The good news? 72% of you come to Sunlit Pages for the book reviews. Since this is, first and foremost, a book blog, I'm happy to see that one ranking the highest. "Family updates" followed close behind. I'm sure this was due in large part to the findings from the previous question (50% of you know me personally), but still, I'm glad to know that you're not being scared away by the personal stories about our family life. I read a lot of book blogs, and some of them can seem very impersonal. The ones I love the most always share bits and pieces of their real lives along with the books they're reading. I try to do the same on this blog.

I asked this question mainly just so I could see what the most popular ways of following are and hopefully make those ways more easily accessible for future guests.

This was maybe the most important question on the survey to me. One of my goals in the coming year is to encourage a real community of readers here on the blog where we can comment, interact with each other, and ask and answer questions. This is only possible if commenting is fast and simple. And right now, it isn't. Some of you have it figured out (and you have no idea how much I love reading your thoughts), but for others of you, I know it's frustrating because you take the time to write out a big, long comment and then it disappears when you post it. I'm looking into some other forums, but for right now, if you leave a comment (and please do!), always copy it before you post, so you can paste it back in if necessary. If you have any genius solutions to this problem, please share!

I love Instagram, I tolerate Facebook, and I don't like Twitter. It seems like most of you have similar feelings.

And then of course, there were the open-ended questions. Only about a third of you chose to write anything, and that's fine. I debated making these questions mandatory, but I knew that would scare some people off, and I really wanted as much feedback as I could get.

But for those of you who shared something, just know that I really appreciated your feedback. Because of things you said, Mike has agreed to guest post once a month, I may try to record a monthly video (eek!), and I'll try to share regular roundups of what Aaron and Maxwell are reading on their own.

Also, thank you for all your kind and supportive comments. I wish I could reach through the screen and give each of you a big hug. I tried to use my detective skills and figure out your identities, but for the most part, I couldn't do it (a couple of you signed your names, and that was a treat).

And that wraps up the first-ever Sunlit Pages survey! Thanks again for filling it out (can I say thank you any more in this post?!), and please, if you have any other suggestions or ideas, leave a comment or send an email.