And the survey says ...

Thanks for all who filled out Grits' site survey yesterday - I reached the max responses on the free SurveyMonkey tool I used, so thought I'd share the topline results with readers:

Most of those who answered the survey are regulars - 57% visit Grits daily, and another 30% visit several times per week. Thanks for coming!

A lot of you visit because of work - 53% visit for "profesisonal" reasons, while 21% chose "personal/family member" as their main reason for reading.

Nearly half of Grits readers found the site through another blog. Another quarter found it via search engine. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to learn that despite the faddish popularity of RSS readers and "personalized" Google and Yahoo pages, 65% of respondents get to Grits through their browser's bookmarks. So bookmark this page, if you haven't!

Since a blog's best marketing is via word of mouth, I was encouraged to learn that two-thirds of survey respondents have forwarded a blog post to someone else. (For those who weren't aware, you can do that easily by clicking on the envelope icon at the bottom right of every post.)

I was equally glad to see that 31% of readers have contacted an elected official because of something they read on Grits - 25% said they'd done so more than once. One reader declared on that score, "I would like more coverage of the legislature, particularly bad bills that need a good killing."

A whopping two out of five survey respondents (38.5%) work for a government agency at some level, but not all in the criminal justice field. One person wrote, "I'm a history professor at UNLV writing a book about the history of juvenile justice and corrections in Texas. Grits has been invaluable as a clearing house for news on the TYC scandal, plus the comments from TYC staff are helpful."

Indeed, a number of readers identified themselves as Texas Youth Commission employees or parents (perhaps accounting for my recent jump in traffic): "I work for TYC," wrote one. "Grits and Dallas Morning News provide me with more information about what's going on in my agency than my agency does."

About half of respondents left suggestions of things they wanted more or less of, and several good ideas emerged that may result in Grits posts down the line.

Thanks to everyone who responded to the survey, and to everyone who reads this blog. Your participation makes this blog better, and I appreciate the input.