My thoughts on eHomeUpgrade’s 2007 Readership Survey Results
It was about three months ago when I first posted the announcement of our Readership Survey on eHomeUpgrade. The purpose was to get a pulse on the readers’ interests, recommendations for site changes / additions, and general demographics. Overall, the response was pretty positive. And, as it turns out, eHomeUpgrade is satisfying the majority of readers with the direction of the site. Yes!
I was also pleased with the quality of the readers’ site suggestions, which I’m definitely taking into serious consideration. Thanks to those who took time out to type their thoughts in the survey!
Condensed list of site requests:
- Faster news reporting
- How-to guides (or link to them)
- Reviews (or link to them)
- Staff comments on posted press releases
- A product directory
- In-article product price and availability
Thoughts: Like them all. However, faster news reporting really translates into more news quicker. As anyone who covers a niche space knows, an abundance of new developments and news leads is sometimes hard to come by.
Findings on how readers want their news served:
Do you like the combination of blog-style posts and news releases?
10.68% - No
89.32% - Yes
Should the site stick to blog-style posts exclusively?
78.64% - No
21.36% - Yes
Should the site change format and offer user-generated content similar to digg exclusively?
82.52% - No
17.48% - Yes
Thoughts: Guess I won’t be converting the site to Pligg any time soon. But it’s nice to know that the decision to post press releases in their entirety, as opposed to regurgitating their information, was a good call.
Survey summary:
The average reader has three PCs connected to their home network, their primary OS is Windows (but they’re also interested in learning more about the other platforms), has almost two streaming media devices in use, is definitely considering a central home media server solution, is mildly interested in portable media players/internet tablets, and is extremely uncomfortable (a whopping 80%) with buying DRM-encumbered digital media, though subscriptions services did pique some respondents interest.
| eHomeUpgrade Readership Survey: April - June 2007 | |
| Age | |
| Over 65 | 1.87% |
| 55 - 64 | 7.48% |
| 45 - 54 | 12.15% |
| 35 - 44 | 35.51% |
| 25 - 34 | 37.38% |
| 18 - 24 | 2.80% |
| Under 18 | 2.80% |
| Gender | |
| Female | 2.80% |
| Male | 97.20% |
| Education | |
| Some High School | 3.74% |
| High School Grad | 3.74% |
| Some College | 24.30% |
| College Grad | 35.51% |
| Post-Grad Work | 8.41% |
| Post-Grad Degree | 24.30% |
| Household Income | |
| Over $100k | 46.60% |
| $75k - $99.9k | 24.27% |
| $50k - $74.9k | 15.53% |
| $35k - $49.9k | 6.80% |
| $20k - $34.9k | 2.91% |
| Under $20k | 3.88% |
| Primary PC Operating System | |
| GNU/Linux | 5.61% |
| Macintosh | 6.54% |
| Windows | 87.85% |
| How many PCs do you have connected to your home network? | |
| Average | 2.96% |
| Do you like reading about other platform developments besides your primary one? | |
| No | 17.14% |
| Yes | 82.86% |
| Do you currently have a mixed PC platform home environment (or considering it)? | |
| No | 41.12% |
| Yes | 58.88% |
| How many digital media adapters do you have connected to your home network? | |
| Average | 1.45% |
| Do you prefer to have your network devices work with only one PC platform, or be compatible with all? | |
| With just one | 14.29% |
| With all, if possible | 85.71% |
| How likely are you to use a home media server as your central storage solution? | |
| Very | 60.00% |
| Somewhat | 35.29% |
| Not at all | 4.71% |
| How likely are you to use an Internet tablet, Ultra Mobile PC, or wifi-enabled Portable Media Player in your home? | |
| Somewhat | 48.78% |
| Not at all | 20.73% |
| Are you comfortable with buying (not renting) digital media with DRM restrictions? | |
| No | 80.00% |
| Yes | 20.00% |
| How likely are you to sign-up for a subscription digital download movie or music service? | |
| Very | 16.04% |
| Somewhat | 49.06% |
| Not at all | 34.91% |
| Do you like the combination of blog-style posts and news releases? | |
| No | 10.68% |
| Yes | 89.32% |
| Should the site stick to blog-style posts exclusively? | |
| No | 78.64% |
| Yes | 21.36% |
| Should the site change format and offer user-generated content similar to digg exclusively? | |
| No | 82.52% |
| Yes | 17.48% |
Thoughts: What impressed me most is the readership’s open mindedness to other platforms, their choice to seek cross-platform compatible devices, and their enthusiasm to integrate a media server box into their home setup.
Popularity: 15% [?]
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About
Alexander Grundner is a San Francisco Peninsula based web publisher who spends most of his time tracking down news stories for eHomeUprade, attending technology events, or working on his next big project.
For fun he likes to stay active outdoors, take photographs, shoot video, hack together PHP/Python code, play with Linux, and test new technologies.
