2016 Blog Survey Results + Reflection

First, a word of thanks. Y'all BLEW ME AWAY with your survey responses. I'm so grateful that each of you would take the time to give me some feedback. I can't tell you how encouraged I feel, headed into a new year of blogging. I learned a ton from doing this survey, and am excited to share with y'all the findings & my thoughts. The biggest thing I kept thinking was that I wished I could respond to each person individually. Some of y'all shared small details about yourselves in the responses and it made me REALLY want to be able to learn more about y'all. Stay tuned for more about that at the end of this post. :)

photo by Meredith Teasley 

What do y'all want to see MORE of? 

In short, EVERYTHING. More content in general was highly requested. The thing that blew me away is that by far the most requested thing was more personal life recaps. Each time I share what we did over a holiday or weekend I assume that the post will serve only as a memory marker for me. I'm so glad that y'all enjoy seeing what we're up to and I'll try to mix some more of that into the blog. The next highest scoring category was interior design. I seriously owe y'all some new house updates and now that I'm starting to really feel settled here, I'm planning on starting to share. First space up is our living room. I'm waiting on a few prints for frames to arrive and will photograph it and post as soon as that happens. Originally when I started this blog, a huge focus was interior design and I'm excited to bring that back.

A few people also specifically asked for more marriage content, and to hear more about our story. That's now officially on the calendar, as I've wanted to write out our love story since it happened. Stay tuned for some cheesy cheese. :)

What do y'all want to see LESS of? 

I'll be honest, I take things personally. So I was ready to read the responses to this question and try to have thicker skin than I usually do.. but y'all were great. Almost exactly half of the survey respondents skipped this question. And 15% manually typed in a form of saying you're enjoying it all. I'm so grateful for that, and the other responses to this question taught me something important.. I can't please everyone. When a high percentage of people are asking for more of something, and 4 or 5 people leave me wondering if I should do less of it... well, I didn't know how to actually apply that. The categories that a few people wanted less of were motherhood, food/fitness, and travel. I honestly anticipated some people wanting less motherhood content, specifically because it's new and came in full force, because my whole life is pretty much consumed with this new season. To this I will say, if you aren't a mama, I understand that it isn't interesting to read of the first time Beau ate avocado. Totally get that. :) So I'll be trying to space out these posts better in the future, while still sharing them, because for every 1 person that wanted less, 7 or 8 wanted more. But I'll space better, and I'd love for you to keep in mind that a lot of these things I'm sharing simply for my own records, specifically monthly updates. Gotta have those for baby book reference. The one that tripped me up was personal style. Anyone who mentioned it either LOVES it (majority) but the other few who mentioned it would like less. I've really enjoyed challenging myself to share more style, something I enjoy reading about, so I'm going to stick with the majority, but not make it every post.  Thank y'all so much for sharing your thoughts with me, and for understanding my decisions in guiding the content of this blog. I want what you read on the blog to be similar to what you'd get in a real life conversation with me. The topics I write on are the same things I'm sharing with my friends. I really want it to come across that way, and for y'all to know that YOU are my friend, too!

Ps. My favorite response to this was someone asking "more Beau on INSTA!!!" I laughed out loud and loved that you love seeing my boy! :)

What do you like about my blog? Constructive criticism? 

The positive feedback that was mentioned multiple times:
Y'all are the SWEETEST! 

• honest
• consistency of voice 
• photos 
• layout 
• positive
• Beau :) 
• genuine 
• original content, not piggybacking off of others 

I LOVE that y'all feel like you can trust me in reading this blog. I love that y'all feel like you know what to expect out of me, and feel like I'm real with y'all. Real life friends often say that reading my blog they can almost hear me talking because it's so similar, and that's something I truly strive for. I want y'all to feel like this blog is written with integrity. 

Some Suggestions: 

• better consistency in posting (everyone that mentioned this also mentioned that they understand why I wouldn't be able to post more often.. you kind people!) 
• alluding to things and not following up 
• some typos and grammar/spelling errors
• would like to hear more about the hard parts of my life 

Some disclosure, maybe about four people mentioned consistency, and the other things were just mentioned by individuals. Thank you to the sweet, brave people who gently gave me negative feedback! I fully understand that doing so is a hard thing!! Even though only mentioned by individuals, I think those things mentioned might represent the thoughts and feelings of others, which is why I want to address them here. 

I am fully committed to posting more in the new year. I actually have a post for Monday- Friday planned for January and February already. Some of y'all may be like "pump the brakes girl, that's too much!!!" but I enjoy blogging and figure, if y'all want to read it, I can write it as much as I can. Y'all often mentioned and understand that consistency in posting is hard for me as a new mama, but I'm really hoping to settle into a consistent schedule. It's funny, when Beau was first born I posted a TON because I was often feeding him or pumping and did so at the computer, writing. I remember that so fondly! Honestly, alluding to things kind of goes with this. Many times I planned to share more about something, and then chose time with my family over writing. I know y'all understand this. :) One specific thing I've gotten emails about and answered in the emails was when I shared that we bought a house right before Beau was born. We reached a goal of saving for an investment property, and ultimately decided we didn't want to use my blog as a tool to find renters, so I kept it quiet after initially sharing. We love our current renters and are so grateful for how this has played out. 

Ahhh, typos. I'm not pulling out the MLA handbook nor am I proofreading extensively. My posts are written during nap times or in snippets while life is happening, so I'd love for them to be held to a better grammatical standard, but I just don't feel like it's going to happen at this stage of the game. I promise I'm trying my best here!! Haha! :) 

This last thing kind of stumped me. So many people mentioned loving that I share a well rounded look at my life, and then a few mentioned feeling like I don't share the hard stuff. Here's the thing, I do want to share with y'all when challenges are happening, in hopes that others can learn along with me, but some things are just not socially appropriate for me to put on the blog. I know y'all understand this and I'll continue to strive for a good balance here in 2017. One thing I've gotten a lot of feedback on is people wanting to hear more about the struggles I've encountered as a new mama... so that'll be something you hear about soon. I really did take all of your post suggestions to heart, so never hesitate to shoot me an email if you'd like me to write on something. 

How long have you been reading? How did you find me? What other blogs do you read? 

I don't know if mainly long term readers filled out the survey or what, but so many of y'all have been reading with me for several years. It's humbling and I'm grateful for each and every one of y'all making my blogging dreams come true. In elementary school I brought a cardboard box computer I made to career day to share that I wanted to be a writer. This is sort of different, but is such a great creative outlet for me. 

Many of you found me through various social media channels, some of my blog friends, or through my favorite publication, Southern Weddings. 

The other blogs y'all read that were mentioned consistently: 

This was fun because several of these ladies are sweet friends! I'm in good company.

• Mix and Match Mama 
• Momfessionals 
• Em for Marvelous 
• Something Pretty 
• Nicole Cole 
• Nancy Ray 
• Smidge of This (formerly A.Liz Adventures)
• Emily Ley 
• Sarah Tucker 

And a huge shoutout to the one respondent who only reads my blog!!! HI!!! :) 

So moving forward, what can y'all expect? More content. A variety of content. Honesty from me. I will never fabricate anything for the sake of this blog. You have my word on that. Thank y'all so much for your consistent support. I'm constantly blown away by the encouragement I receive from y'all. I'd love it if you'd keep sharing posts with your friends when you enjoy them, and commenting! I LOVE reading your comments. I'm trying to get better about responding to most of them but even when I don't they mean so, so much to me.

If you'd like to share, I'd love to hear from you in a comment: 

Your name 

A few things about yourself 

Your location 

I've done this before and it was my favorite thing ever! Thanks in advance! XO