Maximize Online Survey Results

Online Survery Tips from Your Web Hosting Provider

According to a recent survey, 73 percent of respondents like / dislike your new website design. Want more of Type A products and aren't interested in Type B products. Think your newsletter is too short / long / frequent / infrequent / irrelevant.

To obtain useful information from survey results, you need to choose and word your questions carefully and get a lot of people to respond to the survey - web hosting provider explains.

Know your goal

Is your goal to improve your website? If so, specifically what do you want to improve? The design? The content? What type?

Do you want to know if your audience would be interested in specific new products or services? Is your goal to learn more about your users for advertising purposes? Perhaps you want to identify any problems that keep your business, website, or organization from doing better.

If the answer is "All of the above," choose one area. You can run other surveys later.

Know how the data that you compile will help you achieve your goal. And keep your goal in line with what you can achieve. There's no point in finding out if people want custom widgets, for example, if offering them isn't an option at this point.

Plan your timing

Online surveys can be useful at various times:

• Before and after making changes
• After each sale to check satisfaction levels and find out about any problem areas
• When your sales, subscriptions, or other measurements of success could be higher

Avoid emailing survey invitations at the usual busy times: Mondays, Fridays, and the days before and after holidays. Aim for the middle of the day rather than the beginning or end. If you're contacting people in different time zones and cultures, however, the timing can't be made to fit everyone. Timing is less important for audiences that will be reading email during their leisure time.

Simply publishing a survey at your website avoids the above concerns but may require more time to get enough respondents.

Choose your questions carefully

The longer your survey is, the higher the chances that some respondents will abandon it before finishing it. Include no more than about 10 questions, preferably fewer. If you must ask more questions, you can divide them into more than one survey and present different surveys to different respondents or different surveys on alternate days.

Each question needs to be focused on your goal. Let's say that you're planning to improve your newsletter. Start with specific questions about your current format: what they like and don't like, their purpose in reading the newsletter, if the newsletter meets their needs (and if not, why not), and if they'd recommend it to friends or colleagues. These questions will help you decide what to keep and change and will also provide a baseline for a future survey.

Then, you can ask respondents about their levels of interest in the additions or changes you're considering. Again, be specific, and weigh those specifics before including them in your survey; you don't want to find out that everyone wants an option that you decide not to offer.

Be sure that your questions are suitable for your target audience. For example, if that newsletter is for people in a particular industry and only some of those people are business owners, don't ask questions related to business ownership. If you really want to ask business owners questions, create a separate survey only for that particular audience.

Write your questions carefully

To get usable results from your survey, be as careful with your wording as with your choice of questions to ask.

Keep your language simple. Avoid:

• Long questions (including answer choices)
• Complex sentence or grammatical structures
• Acronyms, jargon, and other words that not everyone knows
• More than one question within a question, for example, "Would you like to see articles about A or B in the newsletter?" or "Did the product arrive on time and in good condition?"
• Non-specific terms of frequency such as "often" rather than a percentage or other number
• Questions that your audience doesn't have the background or experience to answer

Use closed-ended questions more than open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions are easier to understand, they allow respondents to finish the survey faster, and they provide data that's easier to analyze. Having a few open-ended questions can also be useful without hindering the survey process.

Use multiple choice questions more than yes/no questions. "Which of the following article types would interest you?" leads to more useful and specific information than "Would you like to see articles about [topic]?"

Keep your language neutral. Avoid letting a hoped-for outcome show if you want useful responses. "Do you think that A is better than B?" shows your bias and can lead to inaccurate data. "Which would you prefer?" multiple choice questions work better.

Choose appropriate intervals for scaled response questions. Was the service excellent, very good, good, bad, or very bad? That question would be impossible to answer accurately for those whose response was somewhere between "good" and "bad."

Avoid overlap in possible answers. If the first answer choices for a question were 0–3 and 3–6, and you wanted to choose "3," which answer would you choose? Some people would abandon the survey out of frustration.

Make your questions and choices specific. "Do you like the current newsletter format?" is too general to be of much use. Instead, ask respondents to rate specific aspects of the current newsletter format.

Maximize the response rate

Get feedback before your survey is published. Ask other people to read your questions to check for clarity, suggest other answer choices to offer, and brainstorm with you how the data will be used. Fine-tune your survey at this point, keeping your goal in mind.

Create a good first impression. You need an informative and catchy subject line for email invitations, a survey name and introduction, and a professional-looking survey page.

Don't get personal. Asking for people's ages, job titles, and other personal information can lead to survey abandonment. If you really need this information, ask respondents to select the ranges or types that apply. Include a privacy statement stating that the information will not be given to third parties.

Don't make questions mandatory. If you do, you'll lose all the filled-in responses for those who can't or choose not to respond to one question. Or some will choose an answer that isn't right for them just to be able to continue. A way around this is to include an "Other" (including a text box to add details), "Not applicable," "Not sure," or "Choose not to answer" option with each question.

Provide incentives. Some people will need a reason to give up their time for you. Offering a discount on their next purchase or entry in a prize draw can significantly increase the number of respondents.

Related blog articles

• How to Research Customer Service Satisfaction
• Identify Your Target Audience
• Build Your Subscriber Lists

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Can You Start an On-Line Business for $100?

You can if you shop for the right web host, get creative and learn a little about the fast-paced, ecommerce marketplace.

Most people think it takes $1000s to build a site and get hooked up to the Internet. The fact is, the world wide web is the last, best chance for the small businessperson to really hit a home run – on a shoestring. You don’t need boxes of cash in cyberspace. Just a really good idea.

The Pushcart Site

Pushcarts were once used by vendors in cities to sell everything from buttons to beefsteaks. They were small, inexpensive and a very effective means of delivering product directly to the consumer. And many of these pushcart businesses grew into brick-and-mortar retailers.

With today’s user-friendly (idiot-proof) digital technology, you can build, manage and grow a pushcart site. Small at first, but a low-cost way to test the next big web thing – that idea you’ve been carrying around. No need for a second mortgage. You can start with some loose change.

The key to a low-cost, but successful, site is to single source your enterprise. Find that one provider who can deliver everything you need to set up a pushcart site. And the best place to look for single sources for your fledging e-dream is web hosting companies – your on-line store’s connection to the rest of the world.

Why Start With Your Web Host?

Web hosting companies have a keen interest in the success of your new site. They want you to succeed. That’s how they succeed – by helping their clients grow to profitability. These hosting companies grow through the retention of loyal, happy customers. (That’s you.)

So, to further the chances of you site’s success, many hosting companies provide the tools you’ll need to get started and start growing. Before you sign on with any web host, make sure they provide all of the following – FREE!

• Site Building software – easy-to-use templates that enable neophytes to design an attractive web site simply by clicking on screen options. Critical for the artistically challenged.

• Check-out software – allows customers to make payment via credit card, Paypal and other electronic means (payment gateways). Buying a license for standard check-out software can set you back $100s so if you can get it free, take it and save.

• SSL certification – needed to accept electronic payments. It allows for the secure transmission of personal information. You should be able to piggyback on your web host’s SSL certification, saving money and headaches. Ask before you sign on the dotted line.

• Metrics software – software packs that help you gather data about the site’s performance so you can tweak as you go along. It should be free.

• 24/7 tech support – essential for first-timers. You want to be able to pick up the phone and get human help, even at 2:00 AM. Check the techs at any web host you consider.

• Learning tools – forums, blogs, informational how-tos, RSS feeds from key ecommerce sites. The faster you learn about the w3 marketplace, the more likely you are to reach your goals.

• Security – a must for any commercial, on-line enterprise. Remember, a web host is your link to your customers and if hackers can crack your host server, you’ve got one big mess on your hands. Look for multiple layers of security. And server site security.

• Reliability – when your server goes down, you go down – in flames! You’re out of business until the server is fixed and operational again. It could be minutes, hours or even days that your site is unplugged from the grid. Ask a potential hosting service about its downtime record. With today’s technology, don’t settle for anything less than 99.9% uptime.

In addition, look for the following from an intended web host:

• Straight-up pricing – no set-up fees, no overage fees, no maintenance fees and absolutely no hidden costs. Sometimes you really have to read the fine print to know what you’re in for. Before you sign a long-term contract with any web host – read the fine print. It’s worth your time.

• Domain registration services – choosing a cool name for your site is always fun. Once you’ve settled on a name and determined that it hasn’t already been taken, your domain name must be registered. Some web hosts will actually register your domain for free. Check out the options and get it for free if you can.

• Low-monthly costs – web hosting is a highly competitive industry. That’s good for start-ups like you. It keeps monthly hosting costs down. Way down.

Most hosting services charge by the amount of space you take up on their servers. The more bells and whistles you have, the more space you’ll need. But, if you start small – say five web pages, enough to sell the merchandise – a reputable, secure host should charge you between $8 and $10 a month.

So add it up. Find that sole source hosting company. Look for a toolbox crammed with free software and everything you need to launch. Security. Tech support lines. You can get started for less than $100 – a lot less – and still have it all.

Shop around. Compare features and prices. Then go with the hosting company that delivers the biggest bang for your hard-earned buck.

Then, build your dream into a virtual reality. We’re all waiting for the next big web thing. Is it you?