Audience Survey – Results And What They Mean

A big thankyou to everybody who filled out my audience survey. I spent all of 2014 evolving, and tweaking, and changing HumanProofDesigns to a path that I thought everybody wanted me to take, and producing services that I hoped everybody would benefit from and want to use.

All that thinking and guessing can only get us all so far. It's the answers I received in the survey that will really give invaluable insights (for both me and you!), and I only wish I'd thought of it earlier.

I had some really fantastic answers, and in this post I'm going to collate the results and summarize the common problems most people said they had.

At the end of the post, I'll also be announcing new services or changes that HPD will be rolling out as a result.

I also promised a bonus PDF guide for everybody who filled out the survey, and I've not forgotten. The final draft was finished earlier, but I decided I wanted to be able to refer users to this post at the same time as I emailed them their bonuses, so I'll be reaching out and getting in touch soon.

Let's get started.

Question 1: What's Your Understanding Of What HumanProofDesigns Is?

Well this was a question that received some pretty good answers. I think the one that hit the nail on the head for what I want HPD to represent was this one from Jane:

Design ready niche sites for people to purchase and provide article writing services

Yeah that sums up HPD pretty well, but over the course of the year I've also been adding a lot of training and case studies to the blog, so that those who don't want to (or can't afford to) pay for my services can still get immense value out of the blog. Another answer I received was this one from Tony:

Offer a superb marketing educational blog platform and excellent pre-built turnkey websites for sale.

That's what I'm aiming for. I'm glad people get it.

The whole concept behind the “Human Proof” name is that there are a lot of ready-made websites out of there made from low quality, spun content, that won't really rank in the search engines, and if they do, they won't make any money.

By making our websites “Human Proof”, it means that humans, REAL PEOPLE, will see the sites and think “Oh, nice site here”.

I remember when I first mentioned the name to my girlfriend, she said “Waterproof means…water can't go in…so…Humanproof means…people can't go in? Isn't that the opposite of what you want?”

I'm glad the rest of you seem to get the idea at least!

Question 2: How Likely Are You To Buy A Site?

The options were “Not likely” “Maybe” “Quite likely” and “Almost Definitely”.

I know that people's opinions change over time, and that people might not want to hurt my feelings etc, so I won't take these results too literally. I was more interested to see people's overall opinion on the sites.

Here is a breakdown of the results.

So as you can see, the biggest group is the “Maybe” group, which is what I expected. People see the value, but aren't sure yet if they want to make a purchase.

That's perfectly fine with me. I need to work more on demonstrating their value. Plus I think if most people are asked outright “Do you want to buy this?” they will say maybe.

I'm pleased at the size of the “Quite likely” group as well, a little bit bigger than the “Not likely”, but when combined with the “Almost definitely” answers, it's a large chunk of my audience. Thanks for your faith!

Edit: After I made this chart I received one last-minute submission with an “Almost definitely” answer, so imagine the purple part a little bigger 🙂

Question 3: Why/Why Not?

This question was designed to shed more light on the answers above.

For the “Not likely” answers, people cited a mixture of wanting to learn on their own, not having enough income, or preferring to build their own sites. Only 1 person out of the whole survey replied “I'm not interested”, which was great!

This service isn't for everybody, and it's great to see that those who won't buy a site have legitimate reasons. If they said “I think your sites suck”, then I might be more concerned.

For those who said “Maybe”, it was a mixture of reasons. Mostly, people are still researching, still waiting to see if the sites offer value, or are simply shopping around. I can live with that.

The “Quite likely's” and the “Almost definitely”‘s were really insightful. Everybody in these two groups seems to get what the sites are about.

I received answers like this:

“I need to get a head start”

“I need to improve my sales”

“Your sites are very well made”

“I'm working on an idea!”

And similar things to that.

The whole logic behind getting a head-start with a ready made site is that:

I can produce a high quality one for you and get you started properly. You'll have the niche research done, the site built correctly (no errors or bad SEO), and will have content written to get you started.

I never claim to get these sites making money for you automatically, there are no false promises that you won't have to do any work. I just try to say “Look, you want to get started? Here's how I can help” and I'm really thrilled that so many people understood.

Question 4: What Could We Do To Improve Our Services?

This was a question that I was really interested to see the answers for. How can I help you better? What do you struggle with? Let's put our heads together.

Almost every person gave a different answer, which was interesting! A lot of you said for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is great. It's nice to receive validation.

There were also suggestions at making clear proof that the methods work, and also for explaining the methods better.

I'll be working on both in the new year, although if you want to see the niche site process, you can check out this 10,000 word guide I made.

Honestly it's hard to give clear proof that things work, but I'll be striving to be more transparent in the future. I *could* just put up a bunch of testimonials, but for one, I think that's a kind of spammy sales tactic, and for two, they still wouldn't necessarily be proof. I could have faked them after all.

Instead, I'll be blogging more about my niche sites, growing them, and sharing any testimonials from customers who are willing to be shared as well.

I think if I show you more and more of my own successes, you'll be more inclined to recreate them.

Stay tuned for this part, because the end of the post has a pretty cool development.

Question 5: What Service Could We Add That You'd Be Interested In?

This question is similar to the previous one, but obviously it's about new services that you could benefit from. There were definitely some unique answers here, great to see how people think.

The three most promising ideas were:

• Traffic tutorials (I'm planning to do this more anyway)
• Management (Helping you run your sites)
• Traffic + Keyword Packages

I don't believe in “traffic packages” unless you're talking about PPC or other paid services, but I DO believe in keyword packages and have already penciled them in as something new to offer. Fantastic to see that people are already asking for them.

I also have been interested in adding some outreach-related services, such as Expert Roundup posts. This could work as a “traffic” package of sorts.

Question 6: We're Thinking Of Adding New Site Packages. Which, If Any, Of These Packs Interests You The Most?

The new packages are a mixture of just giving you the research and letting you go off and build the site yourself, and a more hands on “We'll do the product reviews for you too” approach. Package C is the current offer, so A, B, and D are new.

a) Keyword pack + niche research

b) Keyword pack + niche research + site construction

c) Keyword pack + niche research + site construction + niche articles

d) Keyword pack + niche research + site construction + niche articles + product reviews

Here's how people voted. Some people voted for more than one package.

So Pack A and Pack D are the most popular. This makes sense in hindsight, but makes me laugh since Pack C was the one I currently have on offer, and Pack B was the one I was thinking of introducing next. Oops!

Actually though it makes sense. Pack A is for people with a small budget, or the tinkerers who like to build their own sites, but for those who want me to give them a head start, Pack D is the best because it includes the most.

This is great, I'll be offering Pack D and C in the future for the custom sites, and when it's obvious which one is more popular in practice, I'll make all the ready-made sites to that model as well. 

I'll also be rolling out Pack A as soon as possible. This will be a kind of “keyword/niche” pack where I provide you with say 10-20 killer keywords for a niche, and the other useful information along with it, such as niche information, products you can promote, rival sites and so on.

Question 7 – How Much Would You Pay For The Packages You Selected?

This was really the question with the biggest variety of answers. Some people selected Pack D but said they'd only pay $50-100 for one, while others selected Pack A and said they'd pay $200+ for one.

Realistically Pack A will be the cheaper option, and there's no way I can sell Pack D that cheaply, it costs ME more than $100 to produce them. That's the price of quality 🙂

Below is the average price people selected for each package. This doesn't necessarily reflect what the final price will be.

Pack A: $50 – 100 

Some people said they'd pay more, but I think $50-100 sounds about right.

Pack B: $50-100

Again some people said they'd pay more, but I think the $50-100 or even $150 range is about right.

Given that Pack B didn't seem very popular, I'm not going to worry about pricing for this.

Pack C: $101-400 (combined answers).

I wish I could sell Pack C as cheaply as $100, but the cost of paying writers, and having somebody help me build the sites means it's impossible. The value you're getting for these sites well exceeds $100 anyway.

Pack D: $301-400 

This was the most picked price. Of course there were those who wanted much lower, and those who were willing to go higher.

In my mind I was thinking this was the price range I wanted to charge, so I'm happy that you guys agree.

Question 7: What Would Make That Price Higher?

This was simply me thinking “What more value do you need? What can I give you to help you feel the price should be higher?”

Here are the results:

Overwhelming victory for “Proof of results”, which makes sense.

Everybody wants to see more proof and evidence, and that's the number one thing I'll be working on in 2015.

I'm not sure why I put the “more value” option in there. Of course if something is “more value” you'll pay more.

Question 8: Would You Rather Pay Monthly Or Lump Sum?

This was something I was discussing with a few people and the majority went for lump sum. This is a much more practical way of handling things anyway, so I'm glad the majority of you agree.

Question 9: In General, What Do You Struggle With Most About Making Money Online?

This was a really insightful question (aren't they all though?). It's really good to see where you all are in terms of what is holding you back.

Maybe you can look around here and see that others are in a similar boat to you.

The most common theme was procrastination, motivation, and following a process that really works.

One person summed it up well when they said this:

Truthfully, information overload and confusion as you have one person saying to do something with proof and then another person saying to do the opposite with proof. It gets confusion quite often.

I totally agree with you there. You'll find everybody teaches different methods online, and that's largely because there are many different ways to succeed. I've tried many different ones, and ultimately I like to use a mixture. Sometimes one thing doesn't work for a site, so I'll try something different.

That's the concept behind my dual site case study, where I'm attempting to succeed with two sites at the same time.

I'm also working on a video course for my site buyers, which I may open up to the public at one point. The course is planned, I just need to record the videos.

The idea is to construct a “path” for you all, combined with my case studies, that will lead you to success. There WILL still be trial and error though.

Question 10: What Would Benefit You Most?

There was such a variety of answers here, ranging from basic WordPress help (I'll do some training for you!) to information about getting started with keywords, and traffic.

The more case studies I do, the more training I do, and the more I grow the site out, the less of a problem this will be. So stick around.

Question 11: Would You Prefer To Learn How To Succeed By Yourself, Be Taught How To Do It, Or Pay Someone To Do Some Of It For You?

This was another very important question to me. I can introduce different ways of teaching you, but unless I really know what you prefer, it's hard to do.

Here are the answers:

This is as I expected, although I didn't realize so many of you would like to learn 1 on 1. I have been trialing teaching people 1 on 1 and it's been a learning curve for me too.

In the future I will definitely be introducing some sort of tutoring/mentoring service, once I'm happy that I can deliver.

Also learning by yourself and learning in a group was good to see. I learned in a mixture of self-learning and group-learning environments, so I can see the benefits.

I've decided to re-open my free private Facebook Group for people to join (just request to join here). This will not strictly be a learning group as Facebook means posts will go missing, but it's a great place to join in and ask questions and get a discussion going, so anyone who wants to interact with me and the community, hop over and say hello.

Question 12: What Things Would You Like To See Talked About On The Blog?

The vast majority of you told me to keep doing what I was doing and close to 50% mentioned the case studies specifically. This is clear evidence to me that you are loving the studies, and I'll strive to do even more in future.

In fact, the next post is going to be an announcement about me joining a very limited group of people in a challenge to build a 6-figure website over the course of 2015. I'll be blogging heavily about this project, as well as continuing the current studies.

Rock on 2015!

Conclusion

I had some fantastic results here and am loving the time you all took to give me your answers. It means so much to see that I put myself out there, and you responded.

It's clear to me now what I need to tweak in 2015 and what you want me to continue with, and here's a summary of everything below:

1.) I will introduce “Keyword/Niche Research Packs” very soon.

2.) I have re-opened my Facebook group for everybody to join and participate in discussions with. Try not to get distracted by cat pics though.

3.) I will be improving the ready-made sites that I do and soon Pack D will be the norm.

4.) I'll keep doing the case studies and blog even more. Additionally, I will give you some basic WordPress resources and point you to places to find more.

5.) I will be introducing a mentoring program, but this will probably not be public until Mid-2015. I'll reach out to those who mentioned that they were interested first though.

I'll be sending out some personal emails (if I've not already done so) to those who responded. Thanks once again!

Did I say thanks yet?

Your Thoughts

It would be great to hear your thoughts/suggestions/comments/gossip about all of this as well, so please do leave a comment below. Hopefully, see you in the FB group too.