SURVEY BASED UPON 449 RESPONSES

WRITTEN BYDEMIAN FARNWORTH (CHIEF COPYWRITER)

JEROD MORRIS (VP OF MARKETING)

STEFANIE FLAXMAN (MANAGER OF EDITORIAL STANDARDS)

DESIGNED BYLAUREN MANCKE

If you’d like to share information in this report, please link to our corresponding blog post: http://copyblogger.com/2015-online-business-report/

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

More than a quarter of respondents identified as a Small Business Owner.

• Writer and Content Publisher tied for second, each with 18% of the responses.

• Marketing Professional finished with 12%, Consultant 8%, and, not to be forgotten, your token Goat Keeper (the most amusing of the write-in responses).

Identification as an authority is still an important objective for online business owners and marketers.

• With 45% of the responses, “building authority through published content” emerged as the dominant reason for the purpose of a business website.

• Selling digital products came in a distant second with 12%.

• Other important activities included “widen customer base beyond local,” “raise business visibility,” and “support customers.”

Website owners are struggling to make a living online ...

• Nearly half of the respondents (48%) said they were “barely

paying the bills,” and another 3% said they were “failing” and would close the doors soon.

• Those “living very comfortably” amounted to 23% of the population, with less than 1% “living like a superstar.”

… Yet more and more people are choosing to enter the online business realm.

• 24% had been in business for less than one year, while 36% had been in business between one and five years.

• 7% had been in business for more than 15 years.

Generating traffic is the biggest challenge of running an online business (26%).

• “Converting visitors into leads” is the third biggest challenge with 13% of the responses, nudged out of second by “finding enough time to publish content” (14%).

• Not far behind is “Converting leads into paying customers” (12%).

• No surprise, having positive “cash flow” is another challenge (10%).

INTRODUCTION

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 run 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 not an insignificant one.

That’s what we wanted to discover. We wanted to know how much you spend to run an online business.

HOW YOU CAN USE THIS REPORT

We decided it’s high time we surveyed our readers on the specific issue of the “cost of doing business online” for 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 needed this information to serve you better.

But we think 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 as you read through this report, it’s possible you’ll see many opportunities you or your business can take advantage of.

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

METHODOLOGY

On Wednesday, November 19, 2014, we published our 57-question survey on our blog. We kept this survey open for two weeks, closing it on November 30, 2014.

During that two-week window, we shared this survey over our social networks, driving traffic to the survey from platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

We generated a total of 449 responses over the 11-day period the survey was open. To provide some context for that number, our “2014 State of Native Advertising Survey” collected over 2,100 responses — but that survey was only 12 questions. So, because the “2015 Cost of Doing Business Online” survey was 57 questions, we set our expectations at 250 responses. Needless to say, we were more than pleased with 449.

In addition, because of the length of the survey, we also expected to see people drop out. We did, but not as dramatic as you would expect. Over the course of 57 questions, we had an average of 401 responses

on each question. There were several questions that excluded a number of people from responding, which accounts for the dramatic dips you see in this chart:

0

100

200

300

400

500

Remove those, and you get an average of 417 responses per question. Not too shabby.

ONLINE BUSINESS BASICS

H O W W O U L D Y O UD E S C R I B E Y O U R S E L F ?

WRITER

CONTENT PUBLISHER (BLOGGER, PODCASTER)

WEB DEVELOPER

WEB DESIGNER

MARKETING PROFESSIONAL

AGENCY PROFESSIONAL

SMALL BUSINESS OWNER

CONSULTANT

CMO

OTHER

GOAT KEEPER

18%

18%

3%

2%

12%

2%

26%

1%

10%

< 0.01%

8%

The largest segment of response came from people who identified as a “Small Business Owner,” and looking at Question 16 (What do you sell on your website?), the top two responses are “promote my consulting services” with 31% and “digital products” with 21% .

So, people are taking advantage of the commercial value of the Internet. Whether they are successful is another story, as you’ll see in the response to Question 4.

“Writer” and “Content Publisher” tied for second, each with 18% of the responses. “Marketing Professional” finished with 12%, Consultant 8%, and, not to be forgotten, the token “Goat Keeper.”

A few stray responses:• Professor that’s an aspiring online business owner • Communications head for a non-profit music school• Direct response copywriter• Photographer• Student

2

W H A T ’ S T H E M A I N P U R P O S EO F Y O U R W E B S I T E ?

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

LEAD GENERATION

SELL PHYSICAL PRODUCTS

OTHER

45%

5%

2%

2%

< 1%

12%

6%

< 1%

< 1%

26%

People listen to people with authority. And that’s equally true online, especially with websites. Not only is it important to elevate your reputation as someone people know, like, and trust, but your website URL itself must have authority. According to these results, that message seems to be understood.

But you won’t build authority by copying another writer, even a very good one. You can, however, improve your influence by following some proven practices:

• Why Your Site’s Search Rank May Be Falling (And 4 Simple Ways to Fix It)• 10 Ways to Build Authority as an Online Writer

I DON’T RUNAN ONLINEBUSINESS

< 1 YEAR 1 - 5 YEARS 5 - 10 YEARS 10 - 15 YEARS 15+ YEARS

3

H O W L O N G H A V E Y O U B E E N R U N N I N G O RM A R K E T I N G A N O N L I N E B U S I N E S S ?

Keeping a business afloat is difficult work. Conventional wisdom says that most businesses shut their doors before two years. But if you make it through those two years, your success rate increases. So it was encouraging to see 36% of businesses have been around between one and five years.

However, 24% had been in business for less than one year. And as we examine the next question, we’ll see the outlook may not be good. More and more people are looking to make a living from their websites, so finding sustainable and scalable business models is more important than ever.

Listen to this 35-minute interview with successful podcaster David Siteman Garland about the profitability of online courses:

• David Siteman Garland on the Infinite Scalability of Online Courses

3%FAILING, SHUTTING

DOWN SOON

48%BARELY PAYING

THE BILLS

23%LIVING VERY

COMFORTABLY

0.9%LIVING LIKE

A SUPERSTAR

25%OTHER

4

H O W W O U L D Y O U R AT E T H E S U C C E S SO F Y O U R O N L I N E B U S I N E S S ?

My favorite write-in response to this question was: “Driving a new $70,000 Mercedes at the age of 22, so pick whichever bullet point I fit into, really don’t know.” Job well done, but I think most of us would simply love to pay the bills.

Or, as another respondent said, “Does well. It’s not my full-time job, but an extra $25-35k each year is really nice.” But as you can see, almost half of those in online business are barely paying those bills, which can be summed up with this two-word comment: “Still thrashing.” Looking deeper at Questions 3 and 4, we find the following:

• Of the 79 people who have been running their online business between five and 10 years, 44% say they are “barely paying the bills” while 35% say they are “living very comfortably.” This is a bit surprising since you might expect those who have been in business between five and 10 years to claim a higher level of sustained success.

• Of the 157 people who have been running their online business for between one and five years, 57% say they are “barely paying the bills” while 21% say they are “living very comfortably.” When contrasted with the above figures, this makes sense: you are more likely to achieve sustained online success the longer you stick with it. (The key, of course, is having a smart plan and executing it over time.)

Back in 2009, Sonia Simone wrote a great article called “Why You Can’t Make Money Blogging.” She uncovers the key to making money here:

• Why You Can’t Make Money Blogging

GENERATING 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

GETTING GOOD REVIEWS ON YELP OR PLACES

ENGAGING IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

BALANCING THE MANAGEMENT OFTECHNOLOGY AND CONTENT CREATION

CASH FLOW

OTHER

W H A T ’ S Y O U R B I G G E S T C H A L L E N G E O FR U N N I N G A N O N L I N E B U S I N E S S ?

5

26%

13%

12%

14%

8%

0%

1%

6%

10%

10%

After sorting through the data for the first four questions, it’s no surprise that three of the top four challenges online business owners face have to do with traffic, leads, and converting those leads into customers. Cash flow is the lifeblood of a business, and it begins with traffic.

The third top challenge is finding enough time to produce content. This concern, of course, is connected to the fact that content draws traffic. With that in mind, here are a few articles to help you drive traffic and produce more content:

• A Simple Plan for Writing One Powerful Piece of Online Content per Week • The Top 10 Ways to Get the Traffic You Crave

6. HOW MANY HOURS PER DAY DO YOU INVEST IN YOUR WEBSITE (FROM CREATING CONTENT TO REVIEWING ANALYTICS)?

ABOUT ONE HOUR EACH DAY. 36%

BETWEEN TWO AND FOUR HOURS EACH DAY. 29%

MORE THAN FIVE HOURS BUT LESS THAN EIGHT HOURS. 13%

I DON’T KNOW. 11%

MORE THAN EIGHT HOURS EACH DAY. 6%

I DON’T. SOMEONE ELSE DOES IT FOR ME. 5%

Generally, online marketers spend anywhere from one hour to four hours each day working on their website. In the next question, we’ll see exactly what they’re doing on their website.

Looking deeper at Question 6, we find the following:

• Of the 157 people who said they spend “about one hour each day” on their website, 54% said they are “barely paying the bills,” while 22% said they are “living very comfortably.”

• Of the 125 people who said they spend “between two and four hours each day” on their website, 50% said they are “barely paying the bills,” while 27% said they are “living very comfortably.

• Of the 74 people who said they spend more than five hours each day on their website (combining two response sets), 45% said they are “barely paying the bills,” while 27% said they are “living very comfortably.”

• This data suggests what we might expect: that more time spent working on your website equates to a higher chance of success.

7. WHAT DO YOU SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME DOING ON YOUR WEBSITE EACH WEEK?

CREATING AND PUBLISHING CONTENT 58%

DRIVING TRAFFIC THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA, ADWORDS, AND SO ON 9%

RESPONDING TO EMAILS AND COMMENTS 6%

UPDATING MY DESIGN 5%

CREATING AND SENDING EMAILS 4%

BUILDING LANDING PAGES 2%

BUILDING MEMBERSHIP SITES (OR FEATURES FOR THEM) 2%

EVALUATING ANALYTICS 2%

INSTALLING NEW WORDPRESS UPDATES (INCLUDING PLUGINS) 1%

OTHER 11%

The largest demand on a website owner is “creating and publishing content” — nearly 60%, which is consistent with everything we’ve seen up to this point: building authority and driving traffic to your site starts with great content.

Only one person admitted in the comments that procrastination is a problem, but I think it’s something most of us struggle with. So, here are some tips on how to overcome procrastination, and more tips on creating great content:

• The Nasty Four-Letter Word That Keeps You From Writing • The Prepared Writer’s Process for Creating Excellent Content Every Day• 35 Blogging Tips to Woo Readers and Win Business

8. IS YOUR WEBSITE CODE IN COMPLIANCE WITH HTML5?

YES 58%

I DON’T KNOW 35%

NO 7%

It seems most respondents realize that adapting your website to support HTML5 is a great way to future-proof your website. For anyone who needs to learn more, you can start here:

• Introducing Genesis 2.0: The Smart Evolution of Your WordPress Website

9. WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT DO YOU PUBLISH MOST ON YOUR SITE?

ARTICLES 69%

LANDING PAGES 4%

VIDEOS 4%

PHOTOGRAPHS 3%

EBOOKS 2%

PODCASTS 1%

ILLUSTRATIONS 1%

WHITE PAPERS 1%

INTERVIEWS 1%

OTHER 14%

Articles remain the dominant type of content for driving traffic and building authority because of the simplicity of typing and publishing. We see videos, landing pages, and photos make up a small minority. For podcasting, I expect in the next year, as technology improves (making podcasting easier), we’ll see that number move upward.

CREATING AND PROMOTING CONTENT

10. INDICATE HOW YOU CREATE CONTENT FOR YOUR WEBSITE.

I CREATE IT ALL MYSELF. 77%

I SPLIT THE WORK BETWEEN MYSELF AND A FREELANCER OR TWO. 10%

I HAVE PAID STAFF. 5%

I HIRE A FREELANCER FOR SPECIAL JOBS. 2%

I DON’T KNOW. < 1%

OTHER 6%

DIYers are all about rolling up your sleeves and getting the work done yourself. In the future, I’d like to learn why. My hunch is these small business owners are frugal, but also simply enjoy the challenge — like to get their hands dirty and look with pride upon their work.

11. INDICATE WHICH OUTREACH TACTICS YOU USE TO PROMOTE CONTENT.

SHARING ON SOCIAL MEDIA 52%

GUEST POSTING 18%

EMAILING A PREFERRED LIST OF INFLUENCERS 9%

COMMENTING ON OTHER BLOGS 6%

LINK ROUNDUPS < 1%

ALL OF THE ABOVE < 1%

OTHER 13%

Social media is the workhorse when it comes to getting your content out into the public. How effective it is at getting the job done is debatable, but with 52% of the responses it suggests people find it working. Or they don’t know of any other alternatives.

Guest posting is hard work since it’s content you have to create on top of content for your own blog, which I think is the reason this number is so low.

• Master This Copywriting Formula to Dominate Any Social Media Platform• 10 Proven Steps to Snag a Guest Post on an A-List Blog

12. WHAT TYPE OF USER-GENERATED CONTENT DO YOU ENCOURAGE?

COMMENTS 56%

NONE 29%

MEMBERSHIP SITE 8%

COMMENTS, MEMBERSHIP SITE, AND FORUMS 5%

FORUMS 2%

Comments provide a number of advantages to the website owner. They build and foster community, become a source of content ideas, and offer some SEO benefits.

13

W H I C H R E S E A R C H T O O L S D O Y O U U S EW H E N C R E A T I N G C O N T E N T ?

OTHERNONE.I JUST WRITE.

KEYWORD TOOLS(SCRIBE, GOOGLE)

SOCIALTREND TOOLS

TRENDINGTOPICS TOOLS(GOOGLE TRENDS)

COMPETITIVEINTELLIGENCE

TOOLS

41%

35%

6% 5%2%

11%

It looks like content producers approach research in one of two ways: ignoring the research process or using a keyword research tool to help drive the topic. The high number of those who don’t do anything suggests they are either subject matter experts, lazy, or don’t know there are tools available.

In looking deeper, we found no statistically significant different between the “keyword tools” or “None, I just write” groups in how they responded to Question 5 about the biggest challenges they face. We thought the “keyword tools” group might have said “finding enough time to publish content” was more difficult than the “None, I just write” group, while “driving traffic” was less of a concern. This was not the case.

• A 6-Step Content Marketing Research Process• Keyword Research for Web Writers and Content Producers

WEBSITE ANALYTICS

14. WHICH WEB ANALYTICS TOOLS DO YOU USE?

GOOGLE ANALYTICS 72%

WORDPRESS STATS 14%

NONE 3%

CLICKY 1%

KISSMETRICS < 1%

CLICKTALE < 1%

USERTESTING < 1%

RAVEN TOOLS < 1%

RAINMAKER PLATFORM < 1%

OTHER 9%

Google Analytics is a free service and it offers a lot. The other tools indicate a unique and narrow web metric, like UserTesting for testing user experience.

15. HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU SPEND EACH MONTH ON WEB ANALYTICS TOOLS?

NONE 72%

LESS THAN $50 16%

BETWEEN $51 AND $100 6%

BETWEEN $101 AND $250 3%

BETWEEN $251 AND $500 < 1%

MORE THAN $500 < 1%

Naturally, most people appear satisfied with the free Google Analytics service and don’t spend additional money on web metrics tools (almost all of the boutique tools cost money).

INCOME SOURCES

16

D O Y O U S E L L P R O D U C T SO N Y O U R S I T E ?

YES. DIGITAL PRODUCTS LIKE EBOOKS,AUDIO BOOKS, VIDEO LEARNING.

YES. I SELL PHYSICAL PRODUCTS ON 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.

OTHER

21%

8%

4%

31%

18%

18%

Most online business owners are in the consulting business. This means the dominant function of their website is to brand themselves and drive traffic. The question is: are they collecting leads with an email newsletter? That gets answered in a few questions.

The next largest segment of online business owners sells digital products. I think it would be safe to say that this group does both: sell digital products and promote consulting services (since consulting work is not scalable).

A deeper look at the data shows that of the 76 people who said they “don’t sell anything,” 39 (51%) also responded that they are “barely paying the bills” or “failing,” while only 10 (13%) also responded that they are “living comfortably.”

The moral here is, of course: don’t be afraid to sell on your website.

• Michael Hyatt on Building a Media Platform and Becoming a 10-Year Overnight Success

17. IF YOU SELL PRODUCTS ON YOUR SITE, DID YOU SET UP THE SHOPPING CART?

NO. I BOUGHT A THIRD-PARTY SERVICE (LIKE A PLUGIN). 32%

YES. I HAVE THE CODING CHOPS. 11%

NO. I HIRED A DEVELOPER. 8%

NO. A FRIEND WITH CODING CHOPS DID IT FOR ME. 5%

I USED THE RAINMAKER PLATFORM. 1%

OTHER 43%

DIYers have their limits. While 11% have the chops to code a shopping cart, 32% bought a plugin or some other third-party service. The 43% who chose “Other” use services like PayPal and Amazon (according to comments).

18. HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR CUSTOMER LEADS?

EMAIL LIST 50%

I DON’T 19%

CRM SOFTWARE 15%

CUSTOM DATABASE 8%

ROLODEX 1%

OTHER 7%

Most online business owners understand the importance of building an email list. It becomes an easy way to manage customer leads. This is confirmed by the following results.

EMAIL MARKETING

82%YES

19

A R E Y O U B U I L D I N GA N E M A I L - M A R K E T I N G L I S T ?

4%I DON’T KNOW

14%NO

20. WHICH EMAIL MARKETING PROVIDER DO YOU USE?

MAILCHIMP 45%

NONE 16%

AWEBER 13%

CONSTANT CONTACT 4%

GETRESPONSE 3%

CAMPAIGN MONITOR 2%

MAD MIMI 2%

INFUSIONSOFT 2%

OTHER 13%

21. HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU SPEND ON EMAIL MARKETING EACH MONTH?

NONE 47%

LESS THAN $50 32%

BETWEEN $51 AND $150 12%

BETWEEN $151 AND $300 3%

MORE THAN $500 3%

MORE THAN $300 BUT LESS THAN $500 1%

I DON’T KNOW 1%

This is where it gets interesting. If 82% of online business owners and marketers are building an email list, and the email-marketing providers above cost money, then how are they getting away with spending nothing?

My guess is since MailChimp allows you to run an account for free with less than 2,000 email addresses, then most of these online business owners and marketers have less than 2,000 names on their lists.

Is that intentional or not? Most people would prefer more names, so here are some tips on how to get more email subscribers:

• Email Marketing: How to Push Send and Grow Your Business• 5 Subtle Writing Strategies That Drive Email Signups• Focus on These 4 Steps to Harness the Addictive Power of Email

(And Turn Your Traffic Into Business)

CUSTOMER AND AFFILIATE MANAGEMENT

22. HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU SPEND ON CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT EACH MONTH?

NONE 69%

LESS THAN $50 16%

BETWEEN $51 AND $150 8%

BETWEEN $151 AND $300 4%

MORE THAN $500 3%

MORE THAN $300 BUT LESS THAN $500 < 1%

Again, not a lot of money spent here. This could just be a carryover from the last question — that is, since many people use an email newsletter to manage their leads, and most of those lists are managed for free, customer relationship management would remain free, too.

23. DO YOU RUN AN AFFILIATE MARKETING PROGRAM THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE?

NO 87%

YES, IT IS ONE REVENUE STREAM, AMONG MANY. 10%

YES, IT IS THE SOLE SOURCE OF INCOME FOR MY BUSINESS. 3%

For the small group of online business owners who run affiliate programs on their sites, they’re one revenue stream among many, which is a wise decision. They don’t have all their eggs in one basket.

• 5 Tips for Affiliate Marketing Beginners

24. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING AFFILIATE MANAGEMENTACTIVITIES IS YOUR HIGHEST PRIORITY?

I DON’T DO AFFILIATE MARKETING. 83%

IDENTIFYING AND RECRUITING NEW AFFILIATES 5%

KEEPING TRACK OF AFFILIATE SALES AND PAYING AFFILIATES IN A TIMELY

MANNER 3%

CONTINUALLY MOTIVATING AFFILIATES TO PERFORM 2%

KEEPING AFFILIATES UP-TO-DATE ON NEW PRODUCTS AND ANY PROGRAM 1%

MONITORING AND REPORTING ON COMPETITORS’ AFFILIATE CAMPAIGNS

AND PROMOTIONS 1%

OTHER 5%

25. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING DO YOU USE ON YOUR WEBSITE?

DRIPPED COURSE AND MARKETING CONTENT 26%

MEMBERSHIP SITES 22%

A/B TESTING 18%

COUPON CODES 12%

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD MANAGER 12%

ORDER TRACKING 7%

OTHER 3%

Some of the most successful tactics for online business owners are reflected in these findings: giving away digital products to attract traffic and capture leads, dripped courses for passive income, and setting up a membership site for additional revenue and community nurturing.

In regard to these three tactics, we’re asked one question a lot: how do I know what to sell and what to give away for free? Our Chief Digital Officer, Chris Garrett, has the answer:

• How to Decide Which Content to Sell and What to Give Away for Free

SEO

26. WHICH SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ACTIVITIESDO YOU PERFORM EACH MONTH?

NONE 28%

KEYWORD RESEARCH 28%

ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION OF HTML PAGES

11%

ONGOING PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS 8%

LINK-BUILDING OUTREACH 4%

ADDRESSING TECHNICAL ISSUES (DUPLICATE CONTENT, URL

STRUCTURE)

4%

INTERNAL LINK STRUCTURE ALIGNMENT

2%

VIDEO AND IMAGE OPTIMIZATION 2%

DIGITAL MARKETING CHANNEL INTEGRATION

1%

OTHER 12%

Keyword research is the most performed SEO activity among online business owners. But just as many online business owners do absolutely nothing when it comes to SEO. This is not entirely surprising given the strong push from Google (Panda and Penguin, for example) to reward original, in-depth, and consistent content.

And since we saw in Question 11 that social media is the most common outreach tactic, it makes sense that it’s utilized to drive website traffic.

27. INDICATE HOW YOU OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE FOR SEARCH ENGINES.

DO IT MYSELF 76%

IGNORE SEO 13%

HIRE AN SEO EXPERT 4%

ASK A FRIEND TO DO IT < 1%

OTHER 6%

76% of online business owners and marketers optimize their sites for search engines by themselves. We would expect this, given the strong DIY ethic among our readers.

H O W S A T I S F I E D A R E Y O U W I T H Y O U RR E S U LT S F R O M Y O U R S E O E F F O R T S ?

EXTREMELYUNSATISFIED

I DON’TCARE

EXTREMELYSATISFIED

SOMEWHATSATISFIED

SATISFIED SOMEWHATUNSATISFIED

28

According to these results, it’s safe to assume that at least half of the DIYers are satisfied with their SEO efforts. 26% are “somewhat unsatisfied,” which means there’s room for improvement, while just 10% are not the least bit happy with their SEO results.

29. WHICH SEO TOOLS DO YOU USE?

GOOGLE ANALYTICS 49%

GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS 17%

GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER 9%

SCRIBE 5%

NONE 3%

MOZ 2%

SEM RUSH 2%

YOAST 2%

OTHER 11%

30. WHICH SEO METRICS ARE MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU?

ORGANIC TRAFFIC SENT TO SITE 37%

KEYWORDS THAT SEND TRAFFIC 13%

TRAFFIC SOURCES 12%

NONE 10%

SEARCH ENGINE RANK POSITION 10%

CONVERSION RATE BY KEYWORDS 6%

SALES 6%

VISITS REFERRED BY SPECIFIC SEARCH ENGINES 1%

I DON’T KNOW < 1%

OTHER 4%

31. HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU SPEND ON SEO ACTIVITIES EACH MONTH?

LESS THAN $50 64%

NONE 24%

BETWEEN $51 AND $100 5%

BETWEEN $101 AND $500 3%

BETWEEN $501 AND $1000 2%

MORE THAN $1000 1%

HOSTING

32. HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU PAY FOR WEBSITE HOSTING EACH MONTH?

BETWEEN $5 AND $25 44%

BETWEEN $26 AND $75 18%

LESS THAN $4 13%

BETWEEN $76 AND $125 10%

NONE, IT’S FREE. 9%

MORE THAN $125 5%

This is interesting. 66% of the respondents pay $25 or less each month for web hosting — with nearly 10% stating that it’s free.

Since we’re unsure why it’s free, the obvious question is: Are these business owners trusting the performance of their sites to shared hosting? Are these sites prepared for growth?

33. WHICH CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DO YOU USE TO MANAGE YOUR WEBSITE?

WORDPRESS 73%

A CUSTOM SYSTEM 8%

BLOGGER 3%

RAINMAKER PLATFORM 2%

TUMBLR 1%

SQUARESPACE 1%

OTHER 12%

34. IF YOU USE WORDPRESS, DO YOU USE WORDPRESS-SPECIFIC HOSTING?

NO 54%

YES 31%

I DON’T KNOW 15%

35. HOW COMFORTABLE ARE YOU WITH USING WORDPRESS?

I’VE BEEN USING WORDPRESS FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS. IT’S NOT

CONFUSING ANYMORE. 46%

AS SOON AS I STARTED USING WORDPRESS, IT WASN’T CONFUSING AT

ALL. 28%

I’M NEW TO WORDPRESS AND IT’S CONFUSING AS HELL. 18%

I’VE BEEN USING WORDPRESS FOR YEARS — AND I STILL DON’T GET IT. 7%

We’ve been hearing this for years: WordPress changed the publishing world, but it’s pretty darn difficult to use.

While it’s robust and a lot of fun for the adventurous DIYers among us,

it would be nice if the user experience was simplified. And, of course, since setting up a site with WordPress is still confusing, consultants can still charge fees to set up a site with WordPress.

36. WHAT IS THE PAGE-LOAD SPEED OF YOUR HOME PAGE? (TEST)

BETWEEN 1.5 AND 3.5 SECONDS 44%

LESS THAN 1.5 SECONDS 31%

MORE THAN 3.5 SECONDS 16%

I DON’T KNOW 4%

OTHER 5%

This is good news. 75% of home pages load in less than 3.5 seconds. Pages should not take more than 3.5 seconds to load, and page load speeds of 1.5 seconds or less are recommended and ideal.

Looking deeper at the data, we found what we expected. There is a direct relationship between the amount of money spent each month on hosting and website performance:

• Of the 123 people who responded that their websites load with the recommended speed of less than 1.5 seconds, 42% said they pay at least $26 each month for hosting. (76% pay at least $5 each month for hosting.)

• Of the 178 people who responded that their websites load between 1.5 and 3.5 seconds, only 34% said they pay at least $26 each month for hosting.

• Of the 63 people who responded that their websites take more than 3.5 seconds to load, just 17% said they pay at least $26 each month for hosting.

The lesson here? Paying for hosting pays off with better page load speeds — which deliver you a host of benefits, as our Chief Copywriter, Demian Farnworth, explains here:

• Why You Need a Seriously Fast Website

37. DO YOU PAY FOR A CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK?

NO 79%

I DON’T KNOW 12%

YES 9%

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) allow you to increase site speed by distributing files over a network of servers versus having them all sit on one, and then bog down under heavy traffic. When files are spread over different servers, load speed remains consistent when the files are pulled. CDNs are expensive and ideal for large publications. But, there are less expensive alternatives.

Jerod Morris, Copyblogger Media’s VP of Marketing, explains:

• How to Make WordPress Sites Load 72.7% Faster

38. HOW OFTEN IS YOUR WEBSITE DOWNDUE TO HOSTING ISSUES?

NEVER 60%

AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR 21%

I DON’T KNOW 11%

ONCE A MONTH 8%

I’m surprised by the “never” and “once a month” responses.

60% for “never” seems high since there are a number of reasons a site could go down, particularly in regard to maintenance. Perhaps these website owners aren’t aware when their sites are down? Scary.

And even 8% seems high for “once a month.” Why would a site go down once a month? Unless that’s for maintenance, I’d get a new hosting company.

It certainly seems site owners get what they pay for: of the 32 people who responded that their site goes down “once a month,” the majority pay less than $25 each month for hosting.

I expected “at least once a year” to have the most responses because whether it’s for maintenance or a hack, every site goes down occasionally — unless they are on superior servers.

39. INDICATE HOW YOU TYPICALLY DISCOVER YOUR WEBSITE IS DOWN.

MY SITE NEVER GOES DOWN 42%

EMAIL FROM MY HOSTING COMPANY 18%

ALERT FROM A MONITORING SERVICE 10%

SCREEN GOES WHITE WHEN I’MWORKING ON IT 9%

MENTION FROM A VISITOR THROUGHSOCIAL MEDIA 8%

PHONE CALL 1%

OTHER 12%

SECURITY

40. IN THE PAST TWO YEARS, HOW MANY TIMES HAS YOUR SITE BEEN HACKED OR INFECTED WITH MALWARE?

0 74%

1 14%

2 5%

3 3%

OTHER 4%

Perhaps the reason so many sites have not been targeted for malware or a hack is their lack of visibility. High-traffic sites are usually targeted. Or, perhaps they have been targeted but just were capable of fending off the malware or hack.

41. HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU SPEND ON PREVENTIONAND CLEANUP EACH YEAR?

NONE 63%

LESS THAN $50 18%

MORE THAN $51 BUT LESS THAN $500 17%

MORE THAN $501 2%

42. DO YOU HAVE A PLAN OF ACTION IN THE CASE OF AN INFECTION?

NO. 34%

YES. WORK ON IT MYSELF. 31%

YES. CALL MY DEVELOPER. 23%

YES. HIRE AN AGENCY. 3%

CONTACT HOSTING COMPANY 2%

OTHER 7%

34% of us are not prepared with a plan because we just don’t get enough traffic to worry about an attack. 31% will simply work on the problem themselves — consistent with the DIY ethic. 23% will hire a developer.

43. IF YOU DON'’T HAVE A PLAN OF ACTION IN PLACE, WHY NOT?

I’M NEW TO WEBSITE SECURITY. 47%

I CAN’T AFFORD TO HIRE A DEVELOPER. 18%

I FEEL LIKE IT REALLY WON’T HAPPEN TO ME. 17%

SOMEBODY ELSE MAKES THESE DECISIONS. 9%

OTHER 9%

Another consistent theme through the results is the lack of experience among online business owners (indicated by the number of years in business — 24% in business for less than a year). That probably means these folks are learning the ropes, with website security low on the to-do list, since content publishing and monetizing traffic takes priority.

DESIGN

44. HOW MUCH MONEY HAVE YOU SPENT OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS ON WEB DESIGN?

NONE. I USE A FREE THEME. 19%

LESS THAN $49 9%

BETWEEN $50 AND $99 16%

MORE THAN $100 BUT LESS THAN $399 29%

DEPENDS, SINCE IT IS CUSTOM 27%

45. IS YOUR WEBSITE MOBILE RESPONSIVE?

YES 78%

NO 13%

I DON’T KNOW 9%

No surprise here, since most out-of-the-box themes are mobile responsive these days. What’s surprising is the 9% who don’t know. Perhaps they take for granted that their sites are mobile responsive, so they don’t recognize that they have mobile responsive designs.

How a website looks is typically the most important feature when choosing a theme. For anyone who’d like to learn more about mobile responsive design, check out this series of articles:

• Mobile Responsive Design 101• Three Reasons a “Mobile First” Philosophy is Critical to Achieving

Your Business Goals• Three Ways a Mobile Responsive Website Beats Using a Separate

Mobile Site

46

H O W O F T E N D O Y O U C H A N G E Y O U RW E B S I T E ’ S D E S I G N T H E M E ?

OTHERNEVER ONCE A YEAR EVERY TWOYEARS

WHEN I FEELLIKE IT

21%

31%

9%

23%

16%

LANDING PAGES

47. HOW DO YOU CREATE LANDING PAGES?

I DON’T. 27%

NATIVE CMS FEATURE 26%

PLUGIN 11%

THIRD-PARTY APP LIKE LEADPAGES 11%

PAY A DEVELOPER 7%

RAINMAKER PLATFORM 3%

DO IT MYSELF 1%

OTHER 14%

Landing pages are a key part of the content strategy of an online business owner. Landing pages are designed to turn traffic into subscribers and money. It’s a page on a website where traffic is sent specifically to prompt a certain action or result.

Perhaps the 27% who say they don’t create landing pages don’t know that. Or maybe there’s another reason, like they aren’t trying to generate some kind of action. Or they think landing pages are too expensive to create.

Check out these resources to learn more about landing pages:

• Landing Pages: Turn Traffic into Money• The 5 Stages of Writing Irresistible Landing Page Copy

48

W H A T ’ S T H E A V E R A G E P R I C E Y O U ’ V EP A I D F O R A L A N D I N G P A G E ?

NOTHING (I BUILT THEM MYSELF)

LESS THAN $100

BETWEEN $101 AND $500

BETWEEN $501 AND $1,000

BETWEEN $1,001 AND $5,000

MORE THAN $5,000

78%

13%

6%

1%

1%

< 1%

PODCASTS

49

D O Y O U P U B L I S H A P O D C A S TO N Y O U R W E B S I T E ?

I WANT TO, BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TODO IT MYSELF - IT SEEMS COMPLICATED

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.

OTHER

10%

76%

< 1%

6%

< 1%

6%

76% of respondents don’t podcast. I expect that number to be lower next year as podcasting gains steam, and the tools to record and publish become cheaper and easier to use.

50. DO YOU PAY EXTRA FOR AUDIO STORAGE AND BANDWIDTH?

NO 80%

I DON’T KNOW 13%

YES 7%

51. IF SO, HOW MUCH?

LESS THAN $2 EACH MONTH 67%

BETWEEN $3 AND $10 15%

BETWEEN $11 AND $25 11%

MORE THAN $26 6%

52. CAN YOU MANAGE YOUR PODCAST (INCLUDING UPLOAD FILES) FROM YOUR WORDPRESS DASHBOARD?

I DON’T KNOW 57%

NO 23%

YES 20%

EDUCATION

H O W M U C H M O N E Y D O Y O U S P E N D O NJ O B - R E L A T E D E D U C A T I O N E A C H Y E A R ?

53

$5,000 +NONE < $100 $101 - $500 $501 - $1,000 $1,001 - $5,000

12%

16%

33%

19%

16%

4%

We anticipated that most online business owners would have a budget for job-related education. DIYers are incorrigible students. Always learning, always challenging themselves, always wishing to grow, never satisfied with the mediocre.

And to see books top the list (see Question 54’s responses) is no surprise either, as DIYers are usually relentless readers — not to mention, books are cheap.

54. INDICATE WHICH TYPE OF JOB-RELATED EDUCATION YOU INVEST IN EACH YEAR.

BUY BOOKS 31%

ATTEND CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS 29%

CONTINUING EDUCATION CLASSES 11%

ONLINE TRAINING 4%

HIRE A COACH 3%

ATTEND COLLEGE 2%

OTHER 20%

Speaking of books, here is a list of articles about the best books for online business owners:

• Copywriting Books You Should Buy• 38 Critical Books Every Blogger Needs to Read• 10 Surprising Books That Will Transform Your Writing• How to Read

55. INDICATE YOUR REASON FOR INVESTING IN JOB-RELATED EDUCATION.

IMPROVE MY CRAFT 46%

ENJOY LEARNING 15%

LEARN HOW TO DO A TASK (INSTEAD OF HIRING SOMEONE) 14%

NETWORK WITH LEADERS, TEACHERS, AND OTHER STUDENTS 8%

TEACH OTHERS 3%

FULFILL A JOB REQUIREMENT 1%

OTHER 13%

As we mentioned earlier, the number one reason DIYers like to invest in job-related education is to improve their craft.

GENDER & AGE

56. INDICATE YOUR GENDER.

FEMALE 45%

MALE 55%

Our audience has almost an equal presence of women and men.

57. INDICATE YOUR AGE.

BETWEEN 31 AND 40 26%

BETWEEN 41 AND 50 23%

BETWEEN 51 AND 60 22%

BETWEEN 21 AND 30 16%

OLDER THAN 61 11%

BETWEEN 16 AND 20 1%

The age of online business owners and marketers creates a nice little bell curve. And with 82% of all respondents 31 years old or older,

millennials make up a minority of the online marketing population.

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ABOUT COPYBLOGGER MEDIA

Since January 2006, Copyblogger has been teaching people how to create killer online content. Not bland corporate crap created to fill up a company webpage. Valuable information that attracts attention, drives traffic, and builds your business.

And our mission has never changed. We’ll help you create the kind of audience-focused content that helps you reach your business goals.

Visit http://copyblogger.com/ to learn more.