Survey says…

So: Thanks to all who answered the survey the other day. The giveaway winner (chosen by counting how many people gave me an address and having E pick a number without knowing why) is C.C., in Butler, PA. You know who you are! I hope. Actually, even if you don’t know who you are, I’m sending the DVD to the address you provided, so watch your mailbox.

All in all it was a pretty interesting exercise, with some surprises. Not surprising of course — in fact it’s inevitable — is contradiction. Notably, several people mentioned liking the Flickr Interludes — and several named them as their least favorite part of the site (or as one respondent put it: “Flickr interlude. WTF?”)

I’m mulling the feedback, and there are a few comments I received that I’ll revisit in the days ahead.

I must say the most salient comment, from my point of view, was: “I wonder how you do this site without $$$ compensation.” This gets directly at the reason for the survey in the first place: I enjoy the site, but I simply can’t justify spending as much time on it as I do.

Also there were several suggestions about adding outside contributors in various ways that I found extremely helpful, and that I’ll revisit in the days ahead after I’ve thought them through.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested, some highlights after the jump. And obviously if you’d like to offer feedback about this feedback, feel free.One of the questions on the brief survey asked which current and former features you enjoy and here are the results rounded off to the nearest percentage:

Consumed links: 67%
Consumed-related updates (“Dept. of Random”): 63%
Flickr Interludes: 57%
Subculture Inc. Q&As: 47%
Murketing Arts Q&As: 43%
Unconsumption-related items: 43%
The International Review of Wine Packaging and Aesthetics: 33%
AntiFriday: 33%
Thingdown: 23%
Just Looking: 23%
Mad Men Musings: 23%

I’m pretty happy about the high results for Consumed & Consumed updates. This site was founded as a companion to Consumed — there was no Consumed RSS feed when I started Murketing.com — and a kind of bridge between the column and Buying In. So it’s pleasing to see people find the Consumed connection relevant.

Other comments of interest:

Most encouraging comment about Murketing.com: “Its focus on issues of consumer society and identity without bludgeoning the reader over the head with a ‘thou shalt’ political agenda.”

Also encouraging: “I  like that you never seem to play favorites and don’t shill for any particular products or brands or businesses.”

More contradiction: “Projects like the 48 hour tshirt are awesome,” and “I quite enjoyed the 48-hour t-shirt project.” But also: “the 48hour t-shirt wasn’t as exciting as anticipated.”

Perplexing dislike: “The (what seems to me) increasing amount of shilling (read: pushing or promoting or marketing) for products.” Yeah? I have no idea what to say about that. Maybe more later.

Other dislike: “Maybe some of the self-referential and self-promoting comments.” This person is referring to the comments section, not Murketing.com itself, and I agree. I don’t know what to do about this. I find it really annoying when people make a comment that is clearly just an attempt to promote whatever their blog or company or whatever is. But I’ve tended to let them through in the name of “transparency.” Maybe I’ll revisit that.

Other suggestion: “Not enough personal content, maybe add some more case studies, your personal observations, or dialogue from readers.” Regarding dialogue from readers, someone else mentioned “reader feedback, forum-style discussions, etc.” Reader feedback and dialogue is pretty much up to the readers, not me.

Other dislike: “When you try to be heavy on design commentary.” Hm.

Fixable problem: “No periods in Delicious anymore.” Mmmkay. Done.

Lament: “I miss AntiFriday.” (Two people said this.) And, well, I do, too, but it was a lot of work, and if you see the results above, I don’t think enough people liked it for me to revive it.

Flickr Interlude complaint: “It isn’t that I dislike the concept altogether, butI read the site for your unique perspective on marketing stories, not to see somewhat random pictures, however interesting they may be.”

Then again: “I think you need more pictures to encourage reading online. The ‘thingdown’ pictures are interesting, but also very typical of what one sees on lots of blogs. The flickr interludes, I like better because they tend to be more documentary in nature rather than flattering ‘product shots’.”

Something I can clarify: “The ‘Product is You’ feature isn’t updated that often, but is definitely one of the most interesting and subversive.” I only update as I find new examples. So it’s a supply-side issue.

Amusing complaint about Murketing.com: “It doesn’t come in orange.”

Amusing request: “A picture of the author.” (Not gonna happen.)

Amusing request followed by serious one: “Ads! Just kidding. Might be interesting to try guest bloggers occasionally.” On the latter … I’ll say more on that in the days ahead.

You may be in luck: “i’d actually like to see stuff taken away. the noise seems to have overtaken the signal.” And: “I’d much prefer that you reduce the amount of posting than get rid of the site altogether.”

Surprising request that I take seriously: “More for the girls. I’m biased, of course, but I’d love to see your takes on marketing/murketing to women.”

Interesting: “Any thoughts on conducting podcasts? I’d listen to interviews with key leaders from consumer products and brand mgmt space.” I’ve definitely thought about a podcast. A lot. But it’s another big potential timesink. And I must admimt that I don’t think those sorts of guests would interest me at all. Maybe more on this later .

Good to hear: “Do what you do best, and i love how approachable you are.”

And finally: “Don’t worry too much about what the readership wants. Just do what interests you and lets you keep going. Blogs change, evolve, gear up, slow down. If you can manage to keep chugging along at all, it’s a huge accomplishment. That said, don’t ever shut it down or there will be hell to pay.” Heh…

Thanks all…