This poll should help me understand readers' needs better, figure out where to focus my attention when writing blog posts, and just get some sort of an added handle on things.
You are more than welcome to check off as many boxes as you see fit. Many of you will respond to more than one, I'm sure. We've actually already had 5 people vote already! So please keep those votes rolling in. The more, the merrier!
SUMMARY:
Why do you read this blog?? (Please choose more than 1 if needed)...
POLL LOCATED IN RIGHT SIDEBAR. SUMMARY OF OPTIONS TO VOTE ON BELOW...
Do you read this blog for...
Endo info?
MCS (multiple chemcal sensitivity) info?
Infertility info?
Fibro info?
Interstitial cystitis info?
Support (general)?
Tips: coping/relaxation?
Chronic pain/illness?
IBS info?
Vulvodynia info?
Alternative med info?
To read comments of others to posts?
To find blogs of interest?
Environmental issues?
Other?
THANK YOU very much, in advance, for voting on this poll (and your feedback in the comments field here would be the icing on the cake)!!! I would love it if you could post any feedback about this poll here (i.e. What might you have changed about the poll? What details were you not able to specify since "other" didn't have a "fill in the blank", etc.)
This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.
18 comments:
You bet!!
I voted: endo; ibs; support; alternative meds; chronic pain; other blogs'; comments. I also find the infertility info informative but as it is not a part of my life so far I don't come here specifically to read it so I didn't click it - but I do find it interesting to know as it makes me more aware of what others are going through - same with the rest of the ones I didn't click too I guess you could say!
Thanks for popping by my blog and for the great comments - I hope my reply email got through to you saying thanks!
Take care
Amanda
Amanda,
Thank you for your detailed comment! I appreciate your vote. I'm hoping to get as many votes possible because it'll help me better meet the needs of readers here.
Many of the categories you picked are unsurprising due the the fact that they are overlapping/co-existing conditions for so many.
What I found particularly interesting was that you picked "reading other readers' comments".
I added this category as an afterthought when creating the poll.
I did so because I enjoy reading others' comments when I read people's blogs!
So I was curious as to whether readers here do the same thing. Apparently some of them (like you) do this too! :)
I agree with you it's often informative to read about conditions that we don't have ourselves in an effort to develop greater empathy and understanding.
I have learned so very much about infertility by reading people's stories.
In addition to reading MANY infertility blogs, I have met LOTS of infertile women (and some men) through my work as a local endo (in-person) support group leader since I started a group in 2001.
After hearing so many heartbreaking stories; after comforting fellow endo patients through the tears, frustrations, and sorrow; and after observing the anguish and devastation infertility causes... I have spent a fair amount of time on this blog doing my best to support and inform regarding infertility.
I have learned lots from my friend Alicia (aka Yaya) who writes the blog Yayastuff:
http://www.yayastuff.blogspot.com/
After 6 years of infertility & multiple miscarriages, Alicia presses on valiantly in her quest to become a mom. Her courage and determination inspire me. Her persistence is amazing.
I met Alicia through my local endo support group.
She is an amazing woman and her blog helps so many infertile patients, miscarriage patients... and now parents investigating adoption.
She inspires many. (You may have noticed many references to Alicia on my blog).
I agree that reading others' stories, such as people's infertility journeys, creates better understanding and awareness.
It was my pleasure to pop by your blog.
I hope my comments didn't overstep any bounds. I was just really concerned after reading your post that referenced depression. I've been there and it can be quite scary.
I did see your blog comment:
"having read Jeanne's comments in particular I realised just how crucial taking the time to be kind to myself is and how very rarely I do this. I always feel so time pressured and try to do everything in as little time as possible. Right now I work 37.5 hours per week, but due to buses am actually out of the house 5 days a week between 7.40 and 6.30 and in the summer this changes to 4 full days and 2 half days to fit the rota of 7 days of service to the public. We have to move the whole of our office in the midst of the summer season (our busiest time) and I need to have enough energy left to enjoy our trip to Rome and hopefully cope with the tour guide training come September. I can't do that whilst trying to fit in foreign language practise and revision, keeping up with friends on here and the two forums I visit as well as running a whole other blog/website. I feel the need to prioritise for my health so that I do not get as ill as I have previously - that means cutting things I may love for my own sanity".
I really appreciated the "shout out". :)
In regard to your comment about missing the "reading for pleasure" time, do you ever use your time commuting on the bus to/from work to just read & relax?
I used to take a subway to/from work and I just read and read.
It was so much better than the days I was running late and ended up having to drive into the city, then paying to park, and plus missing out on my precious reading time! Plus using mass transit was better for the environment! :)
I realize you may use that time to read work-related materials (or even catch a catnap... which I did on the subway too). :)
I went through a period where I NEVER read for pleasure. I love to read and one day I realized that all of my reading was either work-related or heavy-duty medical stuff.
Then I discovered Harry Potter! This was life-changing for me. I just LOVE the Happy Potter series! I had a surgery where my recovery was long (last January). (The surgery did NOT go well. Let's put it that way).
Anyhow, I read ALL of the Harry Potter books straight through. Yes, I read ALL of them back to back! Lots of pages!!
I have to tell you that Harry Potter was so engrossing for me that I literally couldn't put the books down.
It took me from an extended period of no reading for pleasure... to reading the whole series just for fun and LOVING it!
Harry Potter was the perfect coping mechanism I needed to get through a dark, painful, frustrating period of my life. (Did you know J.K. Rowling suffered depression herself and she drew on this when writing HP?)
Did it take lots of time to read the books? Yes. Was it worth every second? YES.
I was sad when I finished the series. I didn't want it to end. J.K. Rowling is an utter genius. I never understood the hype around Harry Potter before I read the books.
A dear friend of mine urged me to read HP. She was sure I'd love it as much as she did.
She was right!
Making time for yourself for pleasure reading is a great example of how you can de-stress and recapture the joy you used to feel when pleasure reading. :)
I didn't get an email from you. Did you mean an actual email or the comments you posted back on your blog?
My email address (written out in that funny way that slows down the "robots" that scan blogs and result in spam) is:
Primary email --
endendo [at] frontiernet [dot] net
The first time I saw an email written out this way, I didn't "get it".
After getting much spam myself, I figured out the purpose of writing it this way.
(Just replace the [at] with the @ symbol and replace the [dot] with a period).
Feel free to email me if you like... or just keep posting on my blog.
I honestly am quicker at responding to comments posted due to that fact that my inbox is scary-big. :)
However, if there is something that would be more appropriate to email me about, feel free.
Anyway, I have been trying to encourage comments because it's quicker for me to reply to them than wade through my email inbox. (I have thousands of unread emails despite anti-spam software, deleting like crazy, and sorting email into folders like crazy. I cannot keep up).
Anyway, there is no need for thanks. I'm just happy that you are taking some time for yourself. Self-care is crucial.
It sounds like your workweek jumps from 37.5 hrs/week to 42.5 hrs/week when you include the commute time.
With your health problems and many other activities added in, it's no wonder you are feeling "burned out"!
The "limiting online time" to a certain amount per day is a smart idea. I may have to implement that one myself! :)
Thank you for stopping by here!!
I'm happy for you that you've incorporated endo into your blogging topics.
I think you'll find it therapeutic/cathartic just to write it.
Plus it's a great way to get connected with people who 'get it'.
Take care,
Jeanne
Jeanne,
Great poll!!!
I'm way behind on my emails....had our first adoption class tonight, so we're a bit overwhelmed, etc.
Talk to ya soon.
Alicia,
===================================
Heads up:
I don't expect you to be able to read this whole thing -- because it's a long reply! I'm inserting this little warning because I just got to the end & see how very long this comment back to you is!
===================================
Thank you!!! I'm glad you like the poll. :)
I'm ramping up for when I resdesign my blog.
I'm wondering if "Jeanne's Endo Blog" is a misnomer considering this is no longer an "endo blog" alone!
Hopefully the votes will keep rolling in the way they have been! :)
This will help me figure out what's working, what's not, what people are reading about, what topics are less read, etc.
I have to determine whether people are reading most about endo and infertility simply because that is what I'm blogging most about... OR whether that's just what they really WANT to read.
In other words, my votes for the topic of MCS are lower than endo/infertility -- but the posts I've done on MCS were some of my best-received (number of comments-wise and offline comments).
I would expect endo/infertility to get the most votes simply because I have blogged the most about them. The thing is that my endo/infertility posts don't get anywhere near as many comments (generally) as my less-frequent MCS posts.
So I have to either interpret what people want based on this poll, hope people will comment here on what they picked and specifically why (as Amanda did), or create follow-up polls and posts to gauge what people really want to read about the most.
People are obviously going to be less likely to vote for reading about MCS if I haven't blogged about it anywhere near as much. So do I pay attention to number of comments, poll votes, or a combo? I’m thinking a combo. The trick is… what is the right combination to make the most readers the happiest? Oh… and the traffic searches on FEEDjit don’t necessarily match up to the poll numbers or the number of comments per post!
So I have to somehow figure out what I want to write about, how often, what topics to target more or less, what people want more of, what people want less of, etc.
I have a feeling I'll be doing some follow-up polling after watching the interesting results already unfolding here. :)
I want to get organized for when I redesign my blog. This redesign won't just be cosmetic like last time.
I'm seriously considering renaming it. Clearly to be able to rename it, I have to figure out what I'm planning to write about most so I don't wind up with another misnomer! :)
Time will tell. Once I figure out what to write about more/less, a new name will come to me if it's meant to. In the meantime, it'll be called "Jeanne's Endo Blog".
I have had so many problems with Blogger lately that I am itching to transfer to Wordpress.
Heck, yesterday a bunch of pictures just disappeared from my sidebar (including my headshot, for example). That looked pretty strange.
Then there is my "follow" tool that rarely works. People email me saying they want to follow me but it won't let them (like had happened when you first tried to follow me, remember?)
Anyway, the poll is part of me preparing to make the switch from Blogger to Wordpress.
I'm just tired of the bottom 70% of my sidebar disappearing for no reason for 2 days on end and then magically reappearing on its own. (I have Googled this problem and I am not the only Blogger blogger who has had this happen).
So there you have it... I'm getting ready for the big move. :)
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* Congratulations on starting your adoption classes!!! That's awesome!! :)
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I hear you about the email... I just hit 4007 unread emails. That's despite deleting and sorting constantly!
It's a losing battle. I had it down from nearly 7,000 unread to about 2,400 about 2 weeks ago. The decrease from almost 7,000 to about 2,400 occurred one day when I spent about 7-8 hours solely on cleaning up my email folders and system of sorting PLUS unsubscribing to all of my feeds. That was one of those days I didn’t post on my blog so it looked like I was “taking a day off” when really I was in the email dungeon!
Anyway, it jumped back up from about 2,400 to 3,600 within a week (with me deleting & sorting email daily & frequently and without my unsubscribed feeds.
So if it jumped up 1,200 or so within a week when I was diligently deleting and sorting it daily, you can imagine what a mess I came back to when I dared go out of town for three days a week and a half ago!
It's impossible to ever get caught up with my email -- unless I just delete EVERYTHING and hope people will resend the stuff I deleted if it's important enough. (I'm not quite desperate enough to resort to that just yet. That would really upset me because I'd be afraid I was offending someone by looking like I was ignoring them, etc).
I really don't want to pull my email address down from this blog because there are times when people legitimately want to contact me offline about something they feel is too private to post as a blog comment.
However, I’ve been trying to strongly encourage people to post comments when at all possible -- rather than email me offline. That way everyone can benefit from reading the exchange of info plus it's WAY faster for me to whip through my email!
I hate to say it (because I don't want to have to give it up) but a big part of my email problem is from being on Facebook! Every Facebook comment that generates an email to me just adds to the pile -- when the email pile was way too large before Facebook. That's why I was very reluctant to start using Facebook. I knew it would worsen my inbox problem. I just didn’t comprehend quite how much it would do so.
So I actually have been trying to force myself to use twitter the last couple of days -- because it forces me to be concise simply to be able to fit within the character count limit (clearly challenging for me but a big time-saver if I can do it)!
I sent a bunch of tweets yesterday (with quick tweets back) and I really think it was faster than if I sent my usual long-winded emails with unlimited character space and got email back (vs. quick tweets back).
So I'm going to experiment with using twitter more -- and using email and Facebook less.
That way I have more time to write this blog, respond to comments here, read others' blogs, comment on others' blogs and... well, you know, have a life offline too!! :)
Talk to you soon!
Jeanne
I voted and am a better person for it. :)
I hear you about using Twitter instead of emails.
I still have to visit my friends and leave comments. It is my way of saying thank you for a great post.
Mckay k,
Thank you for voting!! :)
Using twitter instead of emails and Facebook (when possible) is just a little experiment I'm doing.
I'm just trying to get some semblance of control over my inbox.
I appreciate your comments on my blog more than you will ever know!! The more the merrier!! Heck, send your friends to see me. :)
You have nothing to thank me for... (it's vice-versa).
Oh... I didn't mean to imply that I view the automated comments that roll in to my email for comments moderation (from comments like yours) as a negative in any way, shape, or form!
As you know from blogging using Blogger, the blog comments are very distinctive and stand out from the pack in the inbox. (At least they do on my email software). :)
Also, comments can always be moderated from the dashboard if needed.
So... please, please, please don't ever feel discouraged from commenting here.
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@ The more comments the better! @
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Not only does it help me know how readers are receiving/perceiving the blog but it generates great dialogue between the various commenters.
Please don't ever feel discouraged to comment here.
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I LOVE COMMENTS!!
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Thank you, Mckay k!!
Jeanne
Hope things are going well! I voted today! ;)
My Endo Journey,
Hi!! Thank you so much!
I am thrilled with the response the poll is getting.
I'm planning to revamp my site & the feedback will help me to best meet people's needs.
:)
Jeanne
I voted! And I want to tell you I voted "other" because I did initially stumble upon this blog by accident on Blogger and mentioned I had suffered endo and infertility, but now I find myself primarily coming here because I really like you and I consider you a friend. And I admire you.
I hope that's an okay reason to visit?
Jannie,
Oh my dear, sweet Jannie! Thank goodness you found my blog by accident! Or did you? Some people say there are no accidents. :)
Maybe you were supposed to find my blog all along. :)
Seriously, I am SOOOOOO glad you did find my blog because you are, well, just totally awesome!!
As you know, I consider you a friend too! I like you a A LOT and I also admire you!
What can I say? I'm not too original with my wording at 2 am --but "great minds do think alike" and I mean every word sincerely!!
You are are breath of fresh air, you Funster you!! Fun, fun, fun, I say!
I'm revamping my blogroll and YOU are the "fun" category! :)
Seriously, I am so glad you found my blog!!
Your own serious battle with endo and infertility gives you a keen insight into what I write about here and what readers here comment about.
But, golly gee, it is DEFINITELY OK to visit here just because you like me, consider me a friend, and admire me. (Man, you are laying it on thick tonight! Are you trying to butter me up for some reason)? Ha ha. :)
You can visit here for ANY reason you want, my dear bloggy buddy!!!!!
Seriously, you are one of my favorite people on the whole, big, fat, world-wide Internet! How's THAT for a compliment????
Love you Jannie!!! :)
Jeanne
xo
P.S. Don't forget to email me re: your Tracee Sioux prize. (I never did find time to post my article today telling about all of the blog giveaway prizes I won from The Girl Revolution)!!!
Hopefully tomorrow! Anyway, you always brighten my day and make me laugh. What better gift is there in life than that? Not many, Funster!!!
Wow I cannot believe just HOW MANY emails you receive - I honestly get nowhere near that amount so automatically email people thinking it will be easier for them to pick up lol - guess I had it all wrong hehe
The email I mentioned was a real email but it wasn't important - it was a long ramble actually lol I occasionally do that - your comment on my blog had inspired me to let it all out lol
I shall remember in future to reply to you in the comments box - especially as I chose "to read others' comments" as one of my reasons to come here - can't read comments if people don't comment back, eh?! ;o)
I also use the comments to find new blogs to check out and will certainly have to pop by Alicia's!
You didn't overstep any mark with your comment - I've never received such an in depth comment on my blog but I truly appreciated it!
No worries about the "shout-back" I meant to link your name on my post to your blog and must go back and do that!
As for reading for pleasure - I used to read all the time (right from being a child) but when I got to uni and spent so much time with my nose in academic books and even the novels I read had to be analysed and written about I found I couldn't read for pleasure anymore as my mind just automatically started pulling it all apart in an analytical way. When I had to commute for my first job I started reading on the bus but then I started walking to work and didn't get the chance. Now when I read it's usually for work (there is SO much more I have to learn because although I know the main tourist attractions and can answer the usual questions and look up any odd ones because I am an information assistant in a city that I have only lived in for a couple of years and which is steeped in history people expect you to know everything... and by everything I mean really random stuff lol cracks me up sometimes what they think we should know!!)
I am planning on buying some new books just for pleasure though - I might even start re-reading some of my favs like Harry Potter, Tamora Pierce books and even childhood favs from Enid Blyton - anything nice and comforting would be good for the soul!
I'm so glad I started blogging about endo - it really is cathartic! I feel a bit bad for my old readers who suddenly are being bombarded by posts they may not really get but I just didn't want to have to start a whole new blog when the endo is a part of my life and my blog is supposed to be about my life...
Anyway - good luck with the poll and possibly redressing your blog's name and especially with that inbox of yours!!
Amanda x
Hi Jeanne,
just letting you know I have left you an award on my blog :o)
My dear Jeanne,
My "laying it on thick," was all from the heart. No "laying" what-so-ever :)
And was it 2 or 3 weeks ago today we first spoke on teh phone? Or was it first on a Wednesday?
xo
Jannie... "the Funster"!
If it has taken me 10 days to post this comment & reply, you know I'm a mess!
Thank you for your kind words, as always!
You are amazing. Your strength is inspirational and your ability to focus on the fun, positive things despite having had your share of adversity is admirable.
You're awesome, Jannie!
No clue how long ago that call was but it was nice to connect with you!
Where's my wood delivery? (Ha ha)...
Jeanne
xo
Amanda,
Thanks for the award! I finally posted it.
Jeanne
Amanda,
I'm incredibly sorry for the delay in posting your comment and replying!!
I have been off-kilter with that "blogging break" I took the weekend they tried to send me to the emergency room and I have been handling things all out of order... which stresses me out but is just the way it has been lately with getting so behind on everything.
Yeah... way too much email. My biggest problem is that I am not concise. Whether it's writing my blog posts, writing comments back to people on my blog, handling email, writing comments on others' blogs... I am, let's face it, long-winded. :) (At least I know my weaknesses, right?)
Anyway, I strive to answer every single blog comment and every email individually. Since I have such trouble getting to the point, things get long. Since I like to stay on top of my email and write back to people ASAP, I usually handle my email in reverse chronological order. From that, generally, blog comments are one of the first categories I manage.
Since my email address is posted on my blog, I tend to get a fair number of emails from people who contact me directly rather than posting on my blog. Many of these are issues that could be handled on my blog... not just because there are no privacy issues requiring contacting me directly but because the conversation back and forth between me and the commenter could benefit others in similar situations if it's posted on blog comments.
Between notification emails for Facebook, MyBlogLog, icarecafe, twitter (friend requests and such), etc. and direct emails from fellow bloggers plus the automatic emails that pop in for blog comments plus my local endo support group members plus personal email... it has just gotten out of control!
I cancelled all of my RSS feeds to cut out all of those emails.
As much email as I get, I can normally always find what I'm looking for if I know what to search for. That's what puzzled me about your email. I search my inbox on your name and can't find it. Part of why I have so darn much email is that I'm a little too careful not to delete things by accident. So I don't know what the heck happened to your email. Sorry about that! It's strange. I looked and can't find it.
Clearly you don't need to worry about a "long ramble" if you're talking to me! :) :)
I'm glad my comment on your blog inspired you to "let it all out". :)
Thank you for your patience & understanding! So you're one of the voters for "read others' comments", huh? :) It's funny. When I was writing up that poll, I stuck that in there because I know I like to read others' comments when I read people's blogs. I guess I'm not the only one. :)
I use comments to find other blogs too. :) Yes, Alicia's blog is awesome. She talks about a whole slew of things. You'll see when you get there. :)
Like you, I read for pleasure like crazy until school turned reading into "homework and studying". As a kid, I read constantly. The further along I got in school, the less I read for pleasure because my poor, tired eyes were reserved for reading school-related stuff.
Once I was in college, I started to get annoyed with the mountains of reading I had to do... which is really sad since I love to read so much.
Thankfully, a close friend urged me to read Harry Potter. (By this time all of the books were in print).
So, after one of my laparoscopies when I was recovering... I read ALL of them straight through. It was awesome! I'd get down to about 250 pages remaining and I'd say to my husband, "can you please go to the library and get me the next Harry Potter book"?
Thankfully the library is right down the street because I whipped through those Harry Potter books. :)
I was diagnosed with endo at age 23 and with other chronic illnesses after that.
So my college reading was replaced with mountains of medical books... endo or otherwise.
I know what you mean... My brain was so used to reading medical books only. On top of that, I didn't have time to read for pleasure because I was reading so, so much medical stuff.
Then I went through a period where I split my reading time between medical stuff and work stuff. Poor pleasure reading just fell by the wayside.
I can't imagine the amount of reading you must need to do to work with tourists in Europe!
I have an idea of what you mean by people expecting you to know random stuff that's, well, obscure. I once worked at an art gallery and people truly expected every employee there to know every imaginable thing they could ask!
So I see you like Harry Potter too, huh? J. K. Rowling is a genius!!
I'm so glad you started blogging about endo too! I know what you mean about it being cathartic! It's also a great way to "meet" fellow patients.
Your "old readers" will be OK. Endometriosis is a part of your life. You write about it very passionately. I'm betting the vast majority of your existing "pre-endo blogging" readers will accept the "turn in the road" your blog has taken and get used to it.
Look at it like this... your pre-existing readers will learn about endo from you, a person they know and trust. What a great way for them to learn about it. Also, since endo is so prevalent (89 million patients worldwide), some of them will probably know someone who has endo and maybe they'll direct them to your site.
If they don't "get" endo at first, they'll get it a lot more before long because you write very well about it. Your blog will increase awareness and understanding of endo for those who read it. :)
Like you said, endo is a part of your life. Besides, starting another blog would be a lot of work (!) when you're already feeling overwhelmed.
Thank you for your help with the poll! I have been following the votes as they come in. Some were just as I expected but others weren't. Intriguing!
Yes, I do plan to switch my blog over to Wordpress. I'm pretty sure what domain name I'm going to use. I'm still trying to figure out the whole blog name thing. We'll see.
Jeanne
x
Hi Jeanne,
I am just writing to say I have finally refound this post and your comments (it seems so long ago when I was last able to check blogs I loved the break from the internet but I did miss so much!)
Don't worry about the email it obviously wasn't meant to be other than allowing me to get whatever it was I wrote out of my system and into the ethers somewhere!
I found a lot of my pre-existing readers wrote that they knew someone with endo which was pretty cool and one infertile reader who told me she knew loads of people through infertility blogs who had it, I just never really thought about it that way!
I've been thinking about my blog because I have several interests and read many different types of blogs and how to fit it all in and whether it needs a change - I still don't know but for now I hope it works as a sort of mish-mash of things hehe
Anyway - glad you're feeling better now - I've got so much to catch up on!
Take care and have a lovely week!
Amanda
Amanda,
It has been awhile since I was last able to check blogs I follow too (with a few rare exceptions). I've been too busy with my own blog and Endometriosis Awareness Month to keep up on everything (or anything close to it).
I'm not surprised that many of your pre-existing readers wrote you that they knew someone with endo because 89 million women and girls have it.
Yes, often readers will follow a large number of endo blogs or a large number of infertility blogs, such as the reader you described.
I wouldn't worry about having a mixture of topics on your blog. I know I do when it's not March! :)
Take care,
Jeanne
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