If you’re a blogger, who do you write for? Is it for you or your audience? Or a little bit of both?
In a recent post I mentioned one of the blogging analytics tools I use is Quantcast. I like it because it gives me a really good insight into the type of readers I attract, both regular and casual. It has a breakdown of demographics, gender, ethnicity and more.
To give you an example, here are some figures about this blog:
The above chart shows that I have more visitors from the US than anywhere else – which isn’t too surprising considering my location. Combine that with Alexa figures, and I see that my global audience is led by Canada, the UK, India, Australia and Sweden. Quite the mix.
With the information above, I can see how that traffic breaks down (100 index is Internet average). Now I can see that my main audience is made up of middle-aged males of mixed ethnicity, grad-school educated and in both the lower and higher income bracket. So, a little bit of me in there with my readers.
This final chart shows that the majority of visitors to my blog are new, with 16% being regulars. Which, when you break down the traffic over either a weekly or monthly period, pretty much ties in to the subscriber numbers at the top of the blog.
So what does this information offer other than some pretty pictures and figures and why should you care? Simple.
- If you’re writing a niche blog you can see if you’re reaching the right audience.
- If you’re in business and have a corporate blog, you can see where your customer base is coming from (or where it could be coming from).
- If you’re running a PR or marketing campaign for a client, you can gain valuable information about what type of person is attracted to that brand’s blog. This will help you to either strengthen or adapt that campaign.
Far from being just a simple look at who’s reading your blog, you’re suddenly seeing how the world in general is looking at you.
Isn’t that information worth having?
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There are millions of bloggers worldwide writing for a variety of readers and audiences. But are they reaching the right people or can they improve?
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There are millions of bloggers worldwide writing for a variety of readers and audiences. But are they reaching the right people or can they improve?
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Tyvärr fungerar Quantcast illa på svenska bloggar så jag undrar: vem kan eller har något liknande för svenska förhållanden?
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Thank you for illuminating that tool. I think you are right on in how important it is to know who is reading all that you put out there. You can believe that you are targeting a specific market, but knowing the truth will make your efforts that much more efficient and productive.
Deborah Tutnauer,.LCSW
From time to time I am curious about who is reading my blog…but truthfully, I try not to think about it at this ‘early’ stage of blogging. I think that because of the nature of what I write, it would stifle me somewhat to think about the demographic that I am reaching. Anonymity is key. For me, it is far more important to just ‘put it out there’ due to emotional content I produce.
For business, I can see this as being an essential tool.
Great to know that it exists.
Danny, thanks for sharing information about Quantcast. I have not install the code yet because I’m worry about slowing my site. It’s another javascript code, after all. But you’re right, the benefits certainly outweigh the slightly longer loading time.
I’ve been interested in Crowd Science recently. It seems like a good service. Have you tried it yet?
- Hendry. To be honest, I’ve not noticed any slowdown yet – one of my pet peeves over Google Analytics.
I did look at Crowd Science, and it looks an interesting tool. I need to look at it more, since I’m not too sure how the questioning audience aspect would work (too intrusive?). Either way, analytics of some kind are turning into one of the things bloggers should look at to understand their audience.
Hey Danny,
This is a great post. With my blog, ( growing in popularity) I check my analytics fairly often and look at keywords for people coming into my site. I’ve started to tailor my writing to help them and keep them engaged.
I have never looked at it of what individuals are looking for based off of a client’s inbound marketing, in particular their blog.
Stellar post, I always learn something new and valuable whenever I visit and read your updates.
Hey Adam.
I think a lot of agencies tend to forget about their client’s blog – a lot of the times they’re concentrating solely on website analytics and forgetting the one area that could offer the most information. Thankfully they’re beginning to realize what they’re missing out on, but their clients have missed out on some valuable info in the meantime.
Thanks for the compliment as well, appreciate it.
Twitter: timjahn
The answer to this question is very important. While I don’t think one needs to obsess over the numbers, one needs to be aware of who’s visiting and who’s reading. After all, you want people reading your work that will be interested in it.
Exactly, Tim – numbers are all well and good (if that’s your thing) but they’re useless without knowing the why.
Wow, I didn’t realize there were so many ways to analyze your blog traffic. I run a website and blog to promote my fitness and nutrition centers, and one of my main concerns was whether or not I was reaching the right demographic. There’s no point in spending time and energy on something that isn’t working, so this is a huge help. Thanks for sharing this information with the rest of us.
I have never thought about my audience. It totally makes sense though. I should pay more attention to who I am writing to. Thank you so much for this post. It totally opened up my eyes.