I finally got enough results from my survey to be able to make an overview of what readers think of the site.  I was hoping that I would get at least 30-40 people to take it but fell short on that.  If you still would like to take the survey, click here before reading the rest.  Then you can see the results after you vote.  If I get enough responses I’ll make a follow-up post for it.

Statistical Info & Facts:

• 21 people took the survey
• 15/21 that took the survey are from the USA, the rest are mostly from Europe and Ecuador
• No one said they would stop reading the website if I added advertising banners on it
• I started this blog on 02 Jun 2009

From 02Jun09-02Feb10 I had a total of 3,538 hits with 10,505 page views.  That’s 8 months of being on the web and not that great.  I started out at first just to post about things I seen but quickly realized like many that I could build traffic if I worked at it.  The last 3 months I have been writing for another travel website, called www.GoBackpacking.com, and since then I have seen my numbers increase monthly (see chart above)

• Average Visits Per-Month: 442
• Average Page Views Per-Month: 1,313

As you can see above my email feed subscribers has steadily increased over the last 8 months, with a total of 47 subscribers.  Not much I know but am working harder on trying to promote it more.  It seems most of my family/friends can’t even figure out how to do it.  I have one friend who has signed up for it 4x but never verifies the email from Feedburner, which means she will never get my updates by email until she does this.  A lot of the reason is because the verification email will go to their Spam folder and they never check it.  If you would like to sign up for email updates, click here (and be sure to go to your inbox and verify the email from Feedburner ASAP!).  My goal is to get 100 subscribers before the first year is up… so be a cool person and help a blogger’s dream come true!

The chart above shows the stats of who visits my site and the Top 5 ways they get there.  USA is without a doubt my largest readership with Ecuador second because I have so many fans on facebook from there.  Direct and google searches have been the top two ways people find my site and Facebook used to be #3 but is now being taken over by GoBackpacking.com.  I rarely see high traffic from Twitter but have been using it more than ever the last 3 months to promote my site and hope it will become a significant source of traffic someday.

I’m also starting to use StumbleUpon.com to generate more traffic and have seen a slight increase from it.  If you don’t know what it is, give it a try as you can find some really good stuff there that other people have already rated.  If you do, be sure to add me as a friend and I will try and stumble your stuff as well.

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SURVEY RESULTS

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Most people get to my site directly or from my email updates.  Although a lot come from Facebook, as I post updates there as well on the fan page.  I was surprised that 3 people said they read my articles from Twitter updates, which shows me at least a few people are using it to track my site.  This didn’t surprise me much but think it would be a truer representation if more people took the survey.

I wasn’t expecting people to visit my website everyday but was glad when I seen that people came to it whenever I posted something new.  These people are almost guaranteed to be email subscribers as it’s the easiest way to know when a new post has been made.  The other 1/2 of the group visits normally once per week and this I think is typical for most travel blogs.

I was a little leery on asking this question because it could have easily lowered my self esteem but people were pretty approving of the quality of photos I take.  I don’t agree that they are good enough for National Geographic (family must have voted that several times! lol) but I do pride myself on taking better quality photos than you see on most travel blogs.  I also try and display them as large as possible and think this separates me from the pack more.  That being said I will only post about 5-6 large photos per-post because of this, otherwise the load time starts to get bogged down.  So this is why you guys see a lot of Part I, Part II and Part III series on my website.  Plus I almost always have 20-30 good pictures that are worth showing about a subject but it’s hard to narrow them down.

Most people wanted a photo gallery more than anything else and have been working on it.  There are several ways of going about this and not sure still which way I want to do it.  I’ve tried to do a few onsite galleries but been having problems with it and can’t seem to figure out how it works.  I also thought about hosting my photos at SmugMug.com and just linking to them from my site but haven’t done it yet (this service isn’t free and costs a yearly fee).  Rest assure though I will be adding something to it soon as I want to display my Top 30 favorite shots somewhere directly on the site.

A lot of people also wanted to see a better map.  To be honest though, I’ve not actually been doing an official around-the-world travel yet, so a map would only highlight where I’ve been and want to go.  I’d like to make something more interactive with Flash media but this is way over my head but will look into a better map for you readers.

Comments From Readers:

• Slide show for each “journey” ~ I am working on adding slideshows to some of the posts, as I think this feature would look good.  Is one reason why I might end up going with SmugMug.com because they offer this addition.
• “More of you and the adventures you are having around the world” & “More stories of experiences and lessons learned” ~ This is a good comment and yes I know I need to work on this more.  I’ve not been consistent on the site about my own personal travels and will strive to make it more so.

The highest voted category was the articles I write which received 12 “Love it!” responses.  I was happy to see this as I know my posts are always chopped full of type-o’s but the content is good for the most part and am glad the readers feel the same way too.  The areas that need work according to the survey are the layout and logo design.

Logo Design: I actually had this costumed made in Thailand, as my original logo design was ugly!  There were a lot of mixed reviews about the logo but over all I’m going to stick with my guns on this and keep it as it is.  One reasons is because all logos suck until you make a name for it.  I mean look at Apple’s or Nike’s logos and you wouldn’t even look at them except that now you know what they represent as they have made a name for themselves.  To see what my original logo looked like, click here.

Comments About the Logo:

• “I like it, it’s obviously well designed and don’t let my following comments take away from the first comment, which is, I like it. An observation though is that, from the logo, this looks like it could be a corporate site, or something less personal than your journey. Also, the word “odyssey” is not well set off from the earth – hard to read at that size you have above, but fine on the site’s header image- just doesnt work well small.”
• “Like it! Maybe even better if it would be in another font style. Something more like Calibri?”
• “I really like it. The “Oddyssey” around the world is the best part.”
• “Like it … but doesn’t tell me much about you.”
• “It is not as stunning as your photos are.”

The first comment was one of the best ones I thought and he/she made a good observation about it.  I did choose it to be the way it was (like a corporate logo in a way) because I hope one day to make this site more than “What T-roy has been doing” and into something where other travelers can add content.  I used to even write “Forget Obligation Go Global… it’s my odyssey!” but have been changing it to “Forget Obligation Go Global… it’s your odyssey!” instead.  Make sense?

Layout Design: I love my simple layout for this theme but I know it’s not practical for building readership or placing advertising on it.  It’s artistic but limited because so.  I have gotten great compliments because I don’t have a lot of crap on my site but at the same time this has limited me in many ways.  I plan on changing the theme to the site soon this year with something more user friendly.  I hate to see it go but it will be a must.  This theme was a great one if I was just showing off photo galleries and promoting a photography business but in the case of blogging it’s not.

Final Thoughts and Comments From Readers

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“I like the idea to be able to buy photos. I bought two photos this year from other photographers. I paid $25 for one that was an 8×10 digital print and $45 for another that was matted but unframed. So I think your photos are certainly worth that if not more. But I think your interviews make the photos most compelling and set you apart from most other photo only sites.”

• If I go with the SmugMug.com approach you will be able to buy prints directly from them, any size you want.  It’s one reason why I’m leaning towards them as I know a few friends and family would like to do the same and if any random reader bought something then it would be a bonus for me.  Thanks for your comment on this!

“Photos are really great and convined with the stories behind each one of them makes it very interesting.  At the beginning “Faces” was cool but now is kind of boring.. dont keep my attention anymore.. And about the logo i think its cool but if you wanna make some changes you should post them to see what is the coolest.”

• I know what you mean about the Faces Series and trying to think of a way to mix it up a little without changing the format of what I have started.  I think at the start of it I was posting too much about it on a weekly bases and people got a little tone death to it.  This is why I’m only going to post one per-week from now on.  This will help spread it out a little and keep reader’s attention.  If I do change the logo at all posting it first would be a great idea, thanks for that comment.

“It’s not the easiest website to navigate through, however the content is really good.”

• You are correct about that and what I was talking about above in the layout.  It’s a great blog theme for the weekly reader but not for someone who wants to search around and find certain things.  Dully noted and expect some changes on this soon.

“I like reading about the places that you visit better than the faces section. Although there are some funny clips and interesting stuff in the faces as well. It is the adventure stories and the tidbits about the culture of the place that I enjoy most though. A picture really is worth a thousand words though, so the number one part of the blog to me are the photos.”

• I will strive to do more adventurous stories about places I have seen and been.  I need to connect more with you readers on a personal note more than ever if I want to keep loyal readers.  Anyone can make a Top 10 list about something but that doesn’t keep the reader coming back for more like a good old fashion “Would you believe what I got myself into…”

“I don’t visit your website every week, but sometimes when there’s a new post. Maybe it’s better to do less updates: one per item. Like NYE, I received several e-mails regarding this item. I would like it better if you stick to one post per week or two and then more pics at the same time.”

• This is a good point that I have thought about as well.  At first I was trying to write something everyday, as my logic was that it would bring more people to the site that way.  I’m now spreading my posts out to 3-4 per week and I think this is a better approach .  As far as the New Years Post… well that came down to having 50 awesome pictures and only being able to display 5-6 of them at a time per post.  I strung that one out a little longer than I should but it was something different and wanted to show all that I seen that night (which was a crazy night).  This is where a slide show would be handy and needed.

What’s In The Immediate Future?

Weekly Panoramic Photo:  I’m going to try and start posting one new pano-photo per week to break things up a bit.  Everyone loves panoramic photos, so I look forward to seeing comments on these and hope to improve my photography skills on it as well.

Weekly Before & After Photo:  Have you ever looked at a photo and wondered what it looked like before it was edited?  Well that’s what I want to start showing you my reader.  I’ll post once a week a before and after edited shot and show you how I edited.  This will hopefully be a visual and learning experience for the readers, as well as give encouragement to them to do better in their photography skills.

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