Can You Help Us Out? Take Our 2015 Online Business Survey http://ift.tt/1ySuOlH @copyblogger #blogging #AutoTweet

Here at Copyblogger Media, it’s safe to say that we’ve been in your shoes. As freelancers, consultants, content publishers, and small business owners …

It’s in our DNA.

Our founder, Brian Clark, was a recovering attorney in the mid 90s when he discovered the Internet and just knew he could make a living from it.

In less than a decade, he went on to build several businesses before he grew Copyblogger Media into a $10 million a year company — started, mind you, from nothing more than a blog that published two articles a week.

And just about every other employee here has either ran a business or freelanced online. People like Sonia Simone, Brian Gardner, Chris Garrett, Jerod Morris, Robert Bruce, Lauren Mancke, Rafal Tomal, Stefanie Flaxman … and the list goes on and on.

Fact is, probably none of us would have made it without the Internet. It’s the perfect medium for growing an audience (especially for the introverts among us).

But while the Internet has lowered the cost of doing business by providing a bevy of free tools, we also understand there is still a cost.

And that’s what we want to discover. We want to know how much you are spending to run a business online.

Why you should take this survey

We decided it’s high time we surveyed our readers on the specific issue of the “cost of an online business.”

Why? A number of reasons:

• To help us create content that solves your online business problems


• To help us develop new products that better serve your emerging needs


• To help us upgrade our current products based upon those needs

In short, we need this information to serve you better.

But you need it, too.

How else will you be able to accurately evaluate your current strategies and tactics — and their associated costs — if you don’t know what other folks are doing and what’s working for them?

You need to know your options.

And that is the other goal of this survey: to give you information that will make you a more informed and savvy online business owner.

Not to mention you get a gift

And if that’s not enough, just to show our appreciation for you taking the time to fill out this survey and help us, yourself, and your fellow online business owners, we’ll send you a free PDF report once the results are in.

This is a 57-question survey covering the full spectrum of running an online business.

We will close the survey on November 30, 2014, and on January 5, 2015, we will publish the results as an infographic.

In addition, we will deliver a free PDF report to anyone who provides an email address.

Thank you for taking the time to fill out our survey! We appreciate your time.

The 2015 Cost of Doing Business Online Survey

• 1. How would you describe yourself?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Writer
  
  
  • Content publisher (blogger, podcaster)
  
  
  • Web developer
  
  
  • Web designer
  
  
  • Marketing professional
  
  
  • Agency professional
  
  
  • Small business owner
  
  
  • Consultant
  
  
  • CMO
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 2. What's the main purpose of your website?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Build authority through published content
  
  
  • Raise business visibility
  
  
  • Widen customer base beyond local
  
  
  • Support customers
  
  
  • Keep up with competitors
  
  
  • Sell digital products
  
  
  • Basic online business card
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 3. How long have you been running or marketing a business online?
  
  
  

  
  
  • I don’t run a business online
  
  
  • Less than one year
  
  
  • Between one year and five years
  
  
  • Between five years and 10 years
  
  
  • More than 10 years, less than 15
  
  
  • More than 15 years
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 4. How would you rate the success of your online business?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Failing -- I’m shutting it down soon
  
  
  • Barely paying the bills
  
  
  • Living very comfortably
  
  
  • Living like a superstar
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 5. What’s your biggest challenge when running an online business?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Driving traffic to my site
  
  
  • Converting visitors into leads
  
  
  • Converting leads into paying customers
  
  
  • Creating products people want to buy
  
  
  • Finding enough time to publish content
  
  
  • Receiving good reviews on Yelp or Places
  
  
  • Engaging in the social media world
  
  
  • Balancing the management of technology and content creation
  
  
  • Generating consistent cash flow
  
  
  • Protecting my site against hackers and scrapers
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 6. How many hours per day do you invest in your website (from creating content to reviewing analytics)?
  
  
  

  
  
  • I don’t -- Someone else does it for me
  
  
  • About one hour each day
  
  
  • Between two and four hours each day
  
  
  • More than five hours but fewer than eight
  
  
  • More than eight hours each day
  
  
  • I don’t know
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 7. What do you spend most of your time doing on your website each week?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Creating and publishing content
  
  
  • Driving traffic through social media, AdWords, and so on
  
  
  • Updating my design
  
  
  • Building landing pages
  
  
  • Building membership sites (or features for them)
  
  
  • Creating and sending emails
  
  
  • Installing new WordPress updates (including plugins)
  
  
  • Responding to emails and comments
  
  
  • Evaluating analytics
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 8. Is your website code in compliance with HTML5?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Yes
  
  
  • No
  
  
  • I don't know
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 9. What type of content do you publish most on your site?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Articles
  
  
  • Podcasts
  
  
  • Videos
  
  
  • Photographs
  
  
  • Illustrations
  
  
  • eBooks
  
  
  • White papers
  
  
  • Interviews
  
  
  • Landing pages
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 10. Indicate how you create content for your website.
  
  
  

  
  
  • I create it all myself
  
  
  • I split the work between myself and a freelancer or two
  
  
  • I hire a freelancer for special jobs
  
  
  • I have paid staff
  
  
  • I don't know
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 11. Indicate which outreach tactics you use to promote content.
  
  
  

  
  
  • None
  
  
  • Guest posting
  
  
  • Emailing a preferred list of influencers
  
  
  • Commenting on other blogs
  
  
  • Sharing on social media
  
  
  • Link roundups
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 12. Which type of user-generated content do you encourage?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Comments
  
  
  • Forums
  
  
  • Membership site
  
  
  • All of the above
  
  
  • None of the above
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 13. Which research tools do you use when creating content?
  
  
  

  
  
  • None -- I just write
  
  
  • Keyword tools (Scribe, Google)
  
  
  • Social trend tools
  
  
  • Trending topics tools (Google Trends)
  
  
  • Competitive intelligence tools
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 14. Which web analytics tools do you use?
  
  
  

  
  
  • WordPress Stats
  
  
  • Google Analytics
  
  
  • KISSmetrics
  
  
  • ClickTale
  
  
  • Crazy Egg
  
  
  • UserTesting
  
  
  • Chart Beat
  
  
  • Raven Tools
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 15. How much money do you spend each month on web analytics tools?
  
  
  

  
  
  • None
  
  
  • Less than $50
  
  
  • Between $51 and $100
  
  
  • Between $101 and $250
  
  
  • Between $251 and $500
  
  
  • More than $500
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 16. Do you sell products on your website?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Yes -- Digital products like ebooks, audio books, and videos
  
  
  • Yes -- I sell physical products from my site
  
  
  • Yes -- I sell services like conference tickets
  
  
  • No -- But I promote my consulting services
  
  
  • No -- I don’t sell anything on my site
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 17. If you sell products from your site, did you set up the shopping cart?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Yes -- I have the coding chops
  
  
  • No -- A friend with coding chops did it for me
  
  
  • No -- I hired a developer
  
  
  • No -- I bought a third-party service (like a plugin)
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 18. How do you manage your customer leads?
  
  
  

  
  
  • I don’t
  
  
  • Email list
  
  
  • CRM software
  
  
  • Custom database
  
  
  • Rolodex
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 19. Are you building an email marketing list?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Yes
  
  
  • No
  
  
  • I don't know
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 20. Which email marketing provider do you use?
  
  
  

  
  
  • None
  
  
  • AWeber
  
  
  • MailChimp
  
  
  • Constant Contact
  
  
  • Campaign Monitor
  
  
  • Mad Mimi
  
  
  • GetResponse
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 21. How much money do you spend on email marketing each month?
  
  
  

  
  
  • None
  
  
  • Less than $50
  
  
  • Between $51 and $150
  
  
  • Between $151 and $300
  
  
  • More than $300 but less than $500
  
  
  • More than $500
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 22. How much money do you spend on customer relationship management each month?
  
  
  

  
  
  • None
  
  
  • Less than $50
  
  
  • Between $51 and $150
  
  
  • Between $151 and $300
  
  
  • More than $300 but less than $500
  
  
  • More than $500
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 23. Do you run an affiliate marketing program through your website?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Yes -- It is the sole source of income for my business
  
  
  • Yes -- It is one revenue stream, among many
  
  
  • No
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 24. Which of the following affiliate management activities is your highest priority?
  
  
  

  
  
  • I don’t do affiliate marketing
  
  
  • Identifying and recruiting new affiliates
  
  
  • Keeping track of affiliate sales and paying affiliates in a timely manner
  
  
  • Reporting affiliate marketing promotions
  
  
  • Keeping affiliates up-to-date on new products and programs
  
  
  • Continually motivating affiliates to perform
  
  
  • Monitoring and reporting on competitors’ affiliate campaigns and promotions
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 25. Which of the following do you use on your website?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Coupon codes
  
  
  • Digital download manager
  
  
  • Order tracking
  
  
  • Dripped course and marketing content
  
  
  • A/B testing
  
  
  • Membership sites
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 26. Which search engine optimization activities do you perform each month?
  
  
  

  
  
  • None
  
  
  • Keyword research
  
  
  • Addressing technical issues (duplicate content, URL structure)
  
  
  • Internal link structure alignment
  
  
  • On-page optimization of HTML pages
  
  
  • Video and image optimization
  
  
  • Ongoing performance analysis
  
  
  • Digital marketing channel integration
  
  
  • Link-building outreach
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 27. Indicate how you optimize your website for search engines.
  
  
  

  
  
  • Ignore SEO
  
  
  • Do it myself
  
  
  • Ask a friend to do it
  
  
  • Hire an SEO expert
  
  
  • Hire an SEO agency
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 28. How satisfied are you with your results from your SEO efforts?
  
  
  

  
  
  • I don’t care
  
  
  • Extremely satisfied
  
  
  • Somewhat satisfied
  
  
  • Satisfied
  
  
  • Somewhat dissatisfied
  
  
  • Extremely dissatisfied
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 29. Which SEO tools do you use?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Google Analytics
  
  
  • Google Webmaster Tools
  
  
  • Moz
  
  
  • Bing Webmaster Tools
  
  
  • Majestic SEO
  
  
  • SEM Rush
  
  
  • Google Keyword Planner
  
  
  • Scribe
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 30. Which SEO metrics are most important to you?
  
  
  

  
  
  • None
  
  
  • Search engine rank position
  
  
  • Organic traffic sent to site
  
  
  • Traffic sources
  
  
  • Visits referred by specific search engines
  
  
  • Keywords that send traffic
  
  
  • Conversion rate by keywords
  
  
  • Sales
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 31. How much money do you spend on SEO activities each month?
  
  
  

  
  
  • I don’t know
  
  
  • Less than $50
  
  
  • Between $51 and $100
  
  
  • Between $101 and $500
  
  
  • Between $501 and $1000
  
  
  • More than $1000
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 32. How much money do you pay for website hosting each month?
  
  
  

  
  
  • My website hosting is free
  
  
  • Less than $4
  
  
  • Between $5 and $25
  
  
  • Between $26 and $75
  
  
  • Between $76 and $125
  
  
  • More than $125
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 33. Which content management system do you use to manage your website?
  
  
  

  
  
  • A custom system
  
  
  • WordPress
  
  
  • Typepad
  
  
  • Blogger
  
  
  • Tumblr
  
  
  • Squarespace
  
  
  • Ghost
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 34. If you use WordPress, do you use WordPress-specific hosting?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Yes
  
  
  • No
  
  
  • I don't know
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 35. How comfortable are you with using WordPress?
  
  
  

  
  
  • I’m new to WordPress and it’s confusing as hell
  
  
  • I’ve been using WordPress for a number of years -- it’s not confusing anymore
  
  
  • As soon as I started using WordPress, it wasn’t confusing at all
  
  
  • I’ve been using WordPress for years, and I still don’t get it
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 36. What is the page-load speed of your home page? (http://ift.tt/vKAZ91)
  
  
  

  
  
  • Less than 1.5 seconds
  
  
  • Between 1.5 and 3.5 seconds
  
  
  • More than 3.5 seconds
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 37. Do you pay for a content delivery network?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Yes
  
  
  • No
  
  
  • I don't know
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 38. How often is your website down due to hosting issues?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Never
  
  
  • Once a month
  
  
  • At least once a year
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 39. Indicate how you typically discover your website is down.
  
  
  

  
  
  • My site never goes down
  
  
  • Email from my hosting company
  
  
  • Mention from a visitor through social media
  
  
  • Screen goes white when I’m working on it
  
  
  • Phone call
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 40. In the past two years, how many times have you been hacked or infected with malware?
  
  
  

  
  
  • 0
  
  
  • 1
  
  
  • 2
  
  
  • 3
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 41. How much money do you spend on prevention and cleanup each year?
  
  
  

  
  
  • None
  
  
  • Less than $50
  
  
  • More than $51 but less than $500
  
  
  • More than $501
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 42. Do you have a plan of action in the case of an infection?
  
  
  

  
  
  • No
  
  
  • Yes -- Work on it myself
  
  
  • Yes -- Call my developer
  
  
  • Yes -- Hire an agency
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 43. If you don’t have a plan of action in place, why not?
  
  
  

  
  
  • I’m new to website security
  
  
  • I feel like it really won’t happen to me
  
  
  • I can’t afford to hire a developer
  
  
  • Somebody else makes these decisions
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 44. How much money have you spent over the last two years on web design?
  
  
  

  
  
  • None -- I use a free theme
  
  
  • Less than $49
  
  
  • Between $50 and $99
  
  
  • More than $100 but less than $399
  
  
  • It depends, since it is custom
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 45. Is your website mobile responsive?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Yes
  
  
  • No
  
  
  • I don't know
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 46. How often do you change the design theme of your website?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Never
  
  
  • Once each year
  
  
  • Once every two years
  
  
  • When I feel like it
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 47. How do you create landing pages?
  
  
  

  
  
  • I don’t
  
  
  • Native CMS feature
  
  
  • Plugin
  
  
  • Third-party app like LeadPages
  
  
  • Pay a developer
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 48. What’s the average price you’ve paid for a landing page?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Nothing -- I build them myself
  
  
  • Less than $100
  
  
  • Between $101 and $500
  
  
  • Between $501 and $1,000
  
  
  • Between $1,001 and $5,000
  
  
  • More than $5,000
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 49. Do you publish a podcast on your website?
  
  
  

  
  
  • No -- I don’t podcast.
  
  
  • No -- I publish it on a third party app
  
  
  • Yes -- I edit and publish it myself
  
  
  • Yes -- I pay someone else to edit and publish it
  
  
  • I want to, but I don't know how to do it myself -- it seems complicated
  
  
  • I don’t know
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 50. Do you pay extra for audio storage and bandwidth?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Yes
  
  
  • No
  
  
  • I don't know
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 51. If so, how much?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Less than $2 each month
  
  
  • Between $3 and $10
  
  
  • Between $11 and $25
  
  
  • More than $26
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 52. Can you manage your podcast (including upload files) from your WordPress dashboard?
  
  
  

  
  
  • Yes
  
  
  • No
  
  
  • I don't know
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 53. How much money do you spend on job-related education each year?
  
  
  

  
  
  • None
  
  
  • Less than $100
  
  
  • Between $101 and $500
  
  
  • Between $501 and $1,000
  
  
  • Between $1,000 and $5,000
  
  
  • More than $5,000
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 54. Indicate which type(s) of job-related education you invest in each year.
  
  
  

  
  
  • Buy books
  
  
  • Hire a coach
  
  
  • Attend conferences and workshops
  
  
  • Continuing education classes
  
  
  • Attend college
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 55. Indicate your reasons for investing in job-related education.
  
  
  

  
  
  • Improve my craft
  
  
  • Teach others
  
  
  • Learn how to do a task (instead of hiring someone)
  
  
  • Enjoy learning
  
  
  • Network with leaders, teachers, and other students
  
  
  • Fulfill a job requirement
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 56. Indicate your gender.
  
  
  

  
  
  • Male
  
  
  • Female
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 57. Indicate your age.
  
  
  

  
  
  • Younger than 16
  
  
  • Between 16 and 20
  
  
  • Between 21 and 30
  
  
  • Between 31 and 40
  
  
  • Between 41 and 50
  
  
  • Between 51 and 60
  
  
  • Older than 61
  
  

  
  
  
  


• Get your FREE report ...
  
  
  
  Enter your email address in the space above to receive your free PDF report once the survey is complete and results are tallied.
  
  

About the author

Demian Farnworth

Demian Farnworth is Copyblogger Media's Chief Copywriter. Follow him on Twitter or Google+.

The post Can You Help Us Out? Take Our 2015 Online Business Survey appeared first on Copyblogger.

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