My Shocking Survey Results… (and a Contest)
ByThose of you who are a subscriber of mine will know I’ve recently sent out an email asking for your feedback by partaking in a small survey which i put together. I did this in order to find out just what my subscribers want, so i can focus more on delivering content more suited for them.
Needless to say, i was very shocked to find out that the results were completely the opposite to what i expected. Now I’m not the type of guy to do surveys normally, and to be honest i wasn’t even going to bother with one, in fact that was the first survey i have ever done!
Now that i have done one though, I’m so glad that i did, because it was such an eye opener and made me realize that your subscriber base and customers may be in need of something that you completely overlook.
Below are the actual results from the survey followed by a comment of my thoughts beforehand.
1. I’ve got some really cool new stuff I want to share with you …but before I do, I need to make sure you want it 
Which of these is MOST appealing? (Select which ever one you’d benefit from MOST.)
eBay Business Beginner Training 29.3% 80
eBay Business Advanced Training 15.4% 42
List Building Training 31.1% 85
Affiliate Marketing Training 42.1% 115
Info Marketing Training 19.8% 54
Traffic Training 37.7% 103
(In this first question i asked what kind of training would be most appealing, i honestly thought that List Building and eBay training would be one of the top two, as it turns out i was wrong, and Affiliate Marketing and Traffic training were of the top two choices. )
2. Which would you rather have?
“Classroom Style” training where you get a weekly module with live training calls or a webinar. 36.0% 96
Home Study course sent through the mail. 67.4% 180
(Now this was a REAL shocker – i honestly believed that more people preferred training over the Internet via training calls or a webinar, but it turned out more people actually prefer home study courses.)
3. Which do you prefer most?
Audio Training (like CDs and mp3s) 8.5% 23
Video Training (like DVDs and streaming video) 50.0% 136
Printed Manuals (either in physical form or downloadable). 59.9% 163
(Now there was no way i would ever of thought that more people would prefer manuals rather than video or even audio or mp3s – i normally prefer audio because i can listen to it while driving etc)
Indeed these results sparked some interest and If your one of the people that completed the survey then I’d like to know more about WHY you chose your specific answer.
To make this fun, I’m going to choose 3 people with the best explanation of there chosen answer and give you a FREE one on one consulting session with me on Skype, where we’ll go through your online business together to see where it can be improved, or if you don’t have anything going on online we’ll talk about your next step to get you started!
I’ll be choosing the winners this time next week, so next Sat that will be.
So to recap, all you need to do to get that chance to be a winner, is give me your best explanation on why you chose the answers that you did in the survey… that’s all!
I’ll speak to ya soon!
good luck!
Dan
19 Comments
February 6th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Fascinating results. This could even give you an idea of what kind of readers you have. Cool stuff.
Let’s see. The first one I picked list building or traffic training (can’t remember exactly which) but I picked either one because that’s what I’m currently working on for my blog and biz.
The second one I picked home study because it gives me a chance to do things at my own pace. I’m only doing this part for now and a schedule webinar or something like that wouldn’t be flexible enough. I need to be able to go over things when I can get to it. Make sense?
The third one I picked printed manuals simply for one reason. I would rather read then watch a video or listen to audio. I tend to soak it in and enjoy it better that way. That one was more of a personal choice. I do use audio every once in awhile when I can’t read. I prefer reading though.
That about covers it I think. It was fun.
~Chris
February 6th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Hi Dan. Thanks for the opportunity.
Traffic was my first pick. I have built a niche site that has a great google ranking. Anywhere from 1 to 6 depending on the which countries search engine is used. But I’m getting bugger all traffic. Which in turn means sqiddly dot sales. Ah the joy of marketing online.
Definitely an emailed course. Being able to access a link at a time that suits is the way to go. Webinars are a pain in the butt putting aside the exact time to attend. I’m in Australia and they’re more than not at bloody 5am. Which is fine if you’re a sparrow but not an aging Aussie.
I picked videos as I had to choose one. But my actual preference would be videos, (cause watching and listening is by far the easiest way to learn)along with a PDF to follow along with. The benefit of this is recording notes as you go, being able to stop the video and re-read a certain area you didn’t quite get. Or replay a certain area of the video. I don’t quite get it first time quite often.
I have been trying to make money online for 18 months now. I still struggle. I’ve spent way to much money (I’m too embarrassed to say how much) and her indoors is gonna kill me soon. Any help to us strugglers, and there are plenty of us, is most appreciated. Keep up the good work.
Mike.
February 6th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Excellant!
Great reply Chrisopher!
Thanks for the feedback!
Dan
February 6th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Hey Mike!
Is your niche site a blog or not ?
Thanks
Dan
February 6th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Hi Dan
My answers were:
Q1 Affilaite Marketing Training because I have access to a lot of affiliate products but do not have the knowledge to properly promote them. My list is only about 200 at present and building slowly.
Q2. I do like webinars but prefer to be able to watch as a recording so that I can skip parts especially the 10 – 20 minutes at the start where some webinar hosts I have found do a lot of self promotion before getting to the point and thus are a waste of time in my opinion. Also the timing of these even from Hosts in the UK who are running them is more to suit the US market than anywhere else. Again a lot of these are not available as a recording afterwards.
Q3. Written material with video backup is best as I can work at my own pace. I have found that I can read information quicker than most speakers speak and thus need less time than listening or watching an audio or video.
Richard
February 6th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Hi Dan
with the results of your survey, and you want some feedback… regarding Q 2,3 the training manuals, is makes it easy to print out the manual and work with it beside me, re reading it over and over again, i tend to not listen to something that well when concentrating on something else and miss the information trying to be put across, with the Q1, i think all training is good because as soon as you think you know it all you are left behind,Spencer
February 7th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Q1. eBay can be used to market info and affiliate products, build your lists and drive traffic. For those like me who have tried promoting on eBay and not had much success, the eBay Business Beginner Training would be most beneficial since it can tie into all the others.
Q2. A Home Study course is much more flexible than a time-regulated classroom style training. It can be done any time day or night without interfering with current business obligations, such as customer support.
Q3. While Audio Training would benefit some because it can be taken with them anywhere, video training with printed materials to highlight areas and take notes is the best overall option. Printed materials by themselves tend to be read and put on a shelf, whereas video training can be put on the desktop as a reminder to review, without being buried on a shelf or take up desk space. Videos by themselves are nice if they are entertaining to capture attention, but by the time I highlight an area, the screen changes. Getting back to an area I missed can be confusing and take a long time, but by making a note of the time marker, I can skip ahead to that point for quicker reference. A printed guide also lets me write questions that I would use to review the video again for answers.
February 7th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Hey Dan. My site is a wordpress blog, but it isn’t updated regularly other than to post seasonal offers. The aim was to seo the site to get the ranking for the longtail keyword phrase. It gets 2500-3500 searches a month. This is the first serious site I have built and a bit of an experiment. Go take a squizz and see what you think. I would be grateful for any feedback. And before you ask, Kate is a fictitous character.
Mike.
February 7th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Estimado Dan:
1.Como principiante en los negocios de la web, me inclino por la de los afiliados, como lo indique en la encuesta, ya que no se necesitan invertir en muchas cosas, por lo que es mas comodo.
2.En cuanto al material de enseñanza me inclino por el material impreso, ya que puedo disponer de el, en primer lugar: traduciendolo a mi idioma, los videos y el audio,no se pueden traducir y no puedo entenderlos, solamente en la parte visual que detalla las imagenes paso a paso de los procesos que se explica.
3. Los metodos de envio de la formacion son mas directos al correo electronico ya que uno puede acceder a ellos en cualquier momento y en cualquier horario no importando el lugar del mundo en que uno se encuentre. Tambien traducirlos.
Gracias y saludos desde Guatemala
Roderico Garcia
February 7th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Hey Dan,
Thanks for sharing the results with us!
I’m not really replying here to win anything, I kinda already know where I’m going with my business, and what I want to achieve this year. So I’d rather give someone else the chance who needs some help…
But seeing as I took part in your survey, I’d like to share my answers and the reasons why I picked them anyway!
1. I picked eBay advanced training because I already know a fair bit about the other choices, and I’m just getting back into selling on eBay, which I used to do a lot of in the past.
2. I picked classroom style training preferably via live webinar. I chose this because I’ve ordered home study courses before and never end up completing them. But with live webinars you are constantly being notified about them each week, and I’ve completed 2 training courses now that were done via webinar… So definitely more effective for me.
3. I chose printed manuals, this was mainly because I find it more convenient and time saving when I want to find a certain bit of info that I need to refer back to quickly…
With video and audio you have to skip through it trying to find the exact bit you you are looking for… What I would really prefer is video training accessible online for download, and then a PDF transcription of what was said in the video. That would be ideal.
Hope that helps,
Paul
February 9th, 2010 at 6:55 am
Thanks for the comments guys!
All really good feedback
Dan
February 11th, 2010 at 5:35 am
@Mike
Have you had the blog keyword optimized?
Dan
February 11th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Hi Dan.
Thanks for the reply. Well as I said it’s my first serious site, so my skills might be little down, but I did use a core group of around 10 keywords/phrases that according to google were most relevant to my main longtail phrase.
I haven’t had it optimized using software or a service though.
I have submitted articles, made a youtube video and have built backlinks. My ranking is good, my traffic and conversion sucks. Though the adsense does get a few clicks.
Could I also ask if you’ve had any experience promoting CJ products? I’m not really sure if the reports I’m getting from them are accurate. The traffic stats I have via google and awstats don’t align with what CJ are reporting by quite a big margin.
Regards Mike.
February 12th, 2010 at 7:59 am
@Mike
Did you check out the the competing sites in your market before starting that venture?
I have never used CJ to promote anything before so can’t really give advice on that..
Dan
February 13th, 2010 at 12:09 am
Hi Dan. I checked out the competition with PPC Web Spy to see which keywords they were ranking for. Most of the sites were really “buy from” rather than promotional sites like mine.
Anyway I’ll just leave it there for now and build some more sites. Each one is a learning experiemce.
I’m trying to stay away from the “make money online” niche but it does seem lucrative. Perhaps I’ll give the build a list and promote a product generation and see what happens.
Thanks for your time.
Mike.
February 13th, 2010 at 3:32 am
Hi Mike
I see, well just keep at it for now, one thing to remember is that is does not come overnight. Obviously your building a REAL business so that takes some time.
If your into that type of thing i recommend you read Google Sniper, it teach’s how to target one specific keyword and get it ranking.
Me and a friend have a couple of sniper sights and are building them up and they do work.
About the make money niche, it is a good market, but there are a lot of others which are more profitable. Also it depends where your coming in from and where you want to go.
For instance if you want to become the teacher or mentor to others then really you need experience first, so you need at least some success to get into the market, if you want to become the teacher. If your looking to do some affiliate marketing in the niche then that may be fine.
But give yourself a pat on the back for taking action and sticking to it, that’s the one hurdle most people never get over.
Thanks for the comments again!
Dan
February 14th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Hey Dan,
I’m just flying by to check out what’s new and this post caught my eye. I must say I’m rather surprised at the results of your survey.
Especially with question #3 because I’m really into videos. I would have thought that hands down everyone would prefer videos to written material. Now there are different kinds of videos.
There’s the one’s that are just Power Point slides and someone talking which I don’t even consider that to be a video. To me that’s an audio. When I listen to those I usually am doing something else on my computer so I’m not really paying that much attention.
The other type video is the screen capture video where someone is showing you step by step exactly how to do something. Those are the ones that I love and the kind that I like to make myself. I just think there’s so much more value to them.
Then there’s another kind of video that I can’t stand. That’s the one that doesn’t have any controls with it so you can’t pause it. You don’t know how long the video is going to be or anything. It could be the greatest video in the world but if I can’t tell if it’s going to take 5 minutes or 50 minutes of my time I’m just going to delete it.
Time is precious.
Just my two cents. I’m not here to win any contest as I know where it is I’m heading. But I wish those here good luck that are because I know they’ll get their money’s worth from you.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
February 14th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Dan…
Traffic in my opinion is not an unexpected result.
Traffic may come in many flavors (basically paid for vs. free organic) BUT, no matter what the focus in IM someone would have, no matter what they would build, ultimately it would be like a building in the middle of nowhere without traffic.
Traffic is the blood of Internet Marketing so to speak and we, the IM’ers, are only traffic brokers, in the end.
I, for one, prefer to focus my efforts towards natural search (organic) free traffic through SEO efforts and recycled traffic (from list building) but of course, this is a matter of choice and skills.
Steve Lorenzo SEOVirtuoso
February 14th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
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