What is response bias and how does one avoid it?

1. Response bias is bias that leads respondents to answer a question inaccurately
2. In order to avoid this the following must be done:
   • Choose your words carefully
   • Frame your questions appropriately
   • Provide more options for answers
   • Properly arrange your questions

 

Even with the best WordPress survey plugins installed, surveyors may still get inaccurate data. This could happen even with the most researched and thought-out questions because they may not be worded or arranged properly. Such a fault in structure and communication can cause the respondents to react and answer with bias. This is called response bias.

Definition and Example of Response Bias

Response bias – which is also known as survey bias – is defined as the bias of a person, when answering a survey that leads him to answer the questions untruthfully or misleadingly.

A good example would be is if a person feels like his desired answer is truthful yet socially unacceptable and he chooses to give another answer. Unbeknownst to the respondent, he is already answering the question in a way that was not intended by the researchers of the survey. Because of this, baffling and inaccurate data will reach them and the survey will prove to be useless.

However, it is not the fault of the respondents. As mentioned above, poorly constructed questions lead respondents to have response bias. It will be discussed below how surveyors and their researchers can avoid having these faulty questions in their surveys.

How do you Lessen the Problem?

Just to be clear, elimination of response bias is impossible. This is because to avoid bias in a single person, the question must be worded in a way that he likes. However, the goal is to survey a large group of people and catering to all their preferences is mostly implausible.

Even if respondents are asked to answer because they have a common interest – such as sports, music, fashion, etc. – attitudes can still be completely different between two people in the same buyer persona.

With this in mind, the goal of avoiding response bias is to minimize it in a way that it won’t matter to the purpose of the survey. In order to do this, the tips below must be followed when structuring your questions:

1. Choose your words carefully

When creating a survey, one must know his target audience well enough to know the language most of them speak. This is so that they can comprehend the survey no matter how technical it may be. Especially for tech companies, they must be able to explain their questions without using jargons that cannot be understood by their consumers.

Terms that are overly-technical may lead respondents to assume what the terms mean. This is especially true for online surveys, where they cannot ask the surveyor directly what certain words mean.

Pre-testing surveys on a sample audience is a good way to make sure that it can connect with them. It’s like getting feedback for the feedback tool. 

2. Frame your questions appropriately

While the previous tip was about using understandable words, this tip is about arranging them in order to create a relatable question. In other words, one must base the question around the answer he wants to get; this is commonly referred to as framing the question

A behavioral researcher named Dan Ariely made a study and a presentation about how different question designs affect the respondents’ answers. He and his fellow researchers wanted to know why countries have different organ donation rates. They found out that countries with an opt-out system had higher donation rates than those with opt-in systems. The simple change in question led to the donation rates being close to 100%; this is coming from a 4-10% rate.

Being aware of the situation and attitudes of buyer personas is the key to be able to word and frame questions properly and get the desired output. 

3. Provide more options for answers

As for the answers that respondents can give, surveyors must consider giving open options. Examples of these include “I don’t know,” “does not apply to me,” or “other,” which is particularly useful when respondents are allowed to specify what this “other” is. Doing this will prevent them from giving an inaccurate answer just because they weren’t able to opt to give one that applies to them.

However, surveyors must also be careful and minimize open ended questions in order to get the best data and avoid survey fatigue. 

4. Properly arrange your questions

Once the words, questions, and answers are done properly, the questions must then be arranged in a way that avoids response bias. This must be done, especially for long surveys, where survey fatigue is more likely to set in.

Everyone has experienced it; answering a long questionnaire and becoming lazy by the end of it. The easiest way to avoid this is to randomize the questions and answers. This will keep the respondents on their toes and minimize “shotgun” answers.

 Key Takeaway

Giving a survey that yields desired results – whether positive or negative – is all about speaking the language of the respondents and countering any negative reactions they may have. Failure to do so could lead them to just give the most convenient answer instead of the most accurate one.

What are the best incentives I can give for my online survey?

1. Monetary: Either in electronic cash, check, or gift card form.
2. Samples: A free sample of any new product or service.
3. Coupons: A significant discount on products and/or services.
4. Donations: A certain amount donated to a charity with every completed survey
5. Raffle: An entry in a raffle to win an item – usually expensive gadgets.

 

So you’ve installed your survey plugin on WordPress and you’re ready to see the data pouring in so you know the next steps to take in your online business.  However, this is easier said than done because most people have survey fatigue causing them to lose the motivation to take yours.

Fortunately, there is a way to combat this. All you have to do is make it worth their while. In other words, give them something in exchange. If you have trouble thinking of what you can offer, then you can refer to this list of the top 5 incentives you can give to your survey respondents:

1. Monetary

The most common and successful type of incentive is the monetary kind. After all, paying for accurate data makes sense. Often, the completion rate is higher in surveys that offer money as incentives. This is because a monetary reward is useful for people. It’s almost like providing money as a gift to your friend or loved one, when you have no idea what to give them. For business, when the buyer personas are yet to be fully established, such an incentive is useful.

In order to find the right amount of money to offer for your survey, the survey length must first be taken into consideration. Of course, the longer it is then the bigger the amount must be given. If you are simply asking college students to give 5 minutes of their time to answer, then a few dollars should be enough. But if you are giving the survey to a group of professionals, who have the expertise to give you the data you need and if it will take a long time to answer, then the monetary reward should be significantly higher.

2. The Sample

If you are doing your surveys right, then the target respondents for it should also be your target market in order to get useful data. With this in mind, offering them a sample of your product or service in exchange for their answer is a great way to reel them in. Knowing that they are also the market of people that regularly consume your types of products and services, this type of incentive will be attractive to them.

Imagine you own a sports drink business and you have a new flavor that you feel is the next big thing. But in order to be sure, you need to have people test it and see how they react to it. The best people to ask are those already consuming your products since they are the ones familiar with your available flavors. Maybe they are even starting to grow sick of the old ones and are yearning for something new. So why not make a survey that asks them how you can improve your products, while at the same time, offering them a taste of your new innovative flavor as a reward for sharing their thoughts? It’s a great way to get customer feedback to your old and new products.

3. The Coupon

The coupon incentive is the type of reward that businesses give to their customers in order to get discounts on their favorite products. The businesses that do this have shown to be successful in getting customers to answer their survey.

It is smarter than giving cash incentives because it costs your business less funds. In fact, it gives the company more money because people become more motivated to buy. This is even more effective when done the moment they visit your online store. People will be browsing and will be in the mood to buy products. The moment you hit them with the offer of a discount in exchange for some answers that will cost them nothing, then there is a high chance for them to take your survey for sure.

4. The Donation

This one is tricky because you have to know your audience or market well enough in order to know what charity they wish to help out. Once you know that, let them know that you will donate a certain amount to that charity in exchange for their answers and feedback.

If you get the charity right, then the content of your survey will become secondary to the desire of your customers to help those they feel are in dire need. Both you and your customers will feel good with every completed questionnaire. It is also a great PR move for the business and it will make you look good and reliable to your market. Just make sure that you deliver your end of the bargain.

5. The Raffle

The raffle incentive is simple. When customers answer your survey, they get their names entered in a raffle where they can win something of value, if they are picked.

The prizes usually include iPads, Smartphones, cars, etc. As with the rest of the incentive types on this list, do your research about your audience and see what they would like to win in a raffle. Anything within your marketing budget can be a prize.

Key Takeaway

Getting accurate data is all about giving respondents a good reason to take the time off of their day to give you accurate answers. Giving incentives is the best way to do this. This is because surveys are more efficient, when it is beneficial to both parties; it’s a give and take action that you must master in order to evolve your business.

What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

1. WordPress.org – referred to as the “real WordPress” and it has unlimited customization options, which range from payment, shipping, and membership options to the use of plugins, ads, and themes.
2. WordPress.com – geared more towards casual and less-techie users since it has better storage and automatic backups and updates a website.

 

A big mistake beginners do on website hosting service is choosing the wrong WordPress survey tool. However, there is a much bigger mistake and this is not knowing the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. This mistake often leads to first timers making the wrong choices, when deciding between the two. When this happens, such users would often have to start the whole process of starting a blog again because of how different the two websites are. They may even find themselves paying too much because they did not know that this certain service is being offered for free on the other one.

Because of this, one may ask: “which one is better?” And to answer this question, a comparison must be made between the two.

What is WordPress.org?

This is often referred to as “the real WordPress” because more often it is being used by more websites today. This is particularly because it offers multiple customization options and it is an open source hosting service that is 100% free to use. Users would only need web hosting and a domain name, which shouldn’t already be taken by anyone else.

With the .org website, users enjoy full control. They are free to customize to their heart and mind’s desire. Because of this, it has become the go-to choice for the experienced WordPress user.

To know more about it, below are the following features it holds:

• It is user-friendly.
• Users have ownership of the website and all the data it has. The site will be completely theirs and cannot be turned off/deleted even when they break the terms of service – given that nothing illegal was done.
• There is an option to add custom, free, or paid plugins to the website.
• Custom, free, or paid themes may also be applied.
• Ads may be placed on the website, which allows a user to generate some income.
• Powerful tools such as Google Analytics can be used on WordPress.org websites. This tool allows users to track website activity and create custom analytics.
• It is often used to create online stores for users to sell digital and physical goods. This is because a WordPress.org website allows for shipping and payment to be made directly on the site with their integrated systems.
• Membership sites can also be created so that users can sell members premium content and products while creating an online community within the site.

On the other hand, there are also some cons you need to be aware of when using WordPress.org. Here are some of them: 

• Users will need web hosting (as with all websites). This is because website files need a place to be stored within the internet and a web hosting service does exactly that. Availing of such service costs users $3-10 per month. The price varies because the need for more memory increases, when the traffic in a certain website also increases.
• It does not update automatically. Users will need to do it themselves, but this is just a one-click update so it’s not much of a burden to do.
• It also doesn’t backup data for users, which is why it is recommended for them to use a WordPress backup plugin.

 

What is WordPress.com?

This is a hosting service found by WordPress’ co-founder, Matt Mullenweg. Because it is by the same founder, this is often confused with the original .org version of WordPress.

In the .com site, 5 hosting service plans are being offered:

1. Free: $0.00 (but the site is very limited)
2. Personal: $36 per year
3. Premium: $99 per year
4. Business: $299 per year
5. VIP: $5000 per year and above

Though it may seem that the .com site is a lesser version of the .org one, it has its own benefits that are not offered on the original site. In general, the WordPress.com is great for those who look to use it for casual purposes, such as blogging about your hobbies. These are its following benefits: 

• The site has 3GB of free space, which allows them to avoid needing to avail of web hosting services.
• com updates and backs up the website for users.

Of course, WordPress.com also has its fair share of disadvantages – especially when you avail its Free, Personal, or Premium plans. Here are a few of them:

• All free websites will have ads, but the users will not get any money from them. In order to get rid of the ads, users will have to upgrade to at least a Personal plan.
• Users are only allowed to use ads from the WordPress’ advertising program called WordAds. For those with Personal plans, they must first get high traffic before being offered this. Those with Premium and Business plans have this feature available immediately.
• Users cannot upload their own plugins. Free users can use JetPack while Business plan users can select from a list of plugins. Only VIP users get the whole range of WordPress’ plugins.
• The same goes for themes, wherein users cannot upload their own custom themes. Free users can choose from a limited set of themes while premium themes are available to Premium and Business plan users. Customization of these themes is available, but it is limited for Free users, while Premium and Business can use CSS.
• Google Analytics can only be used by Business users and above while the rest are restricted to using the “Stats” function of the site.
• If a user violates the Terms of Service, then their site may be deleted.
• The websites will display a link saying “Powered by WordPress.com.” This will only be removed, when users upgrade to a Business or VIP plan.
• There are no ecommerce features or integrated payment systems.
• Membership websites cannot be created.

 Key Takeaway

Basically, WordPress.org is better for the more serious users, while WordPress.com offers great free packages for the casual users. Depending on what purpose users would need, they can choose which website to use with the information above.

How to earn from blogging in 5 easy steps?

1. Start a blog and set it up properly; choose your platform and domain intelligently.

2. Create content that is useful and relevant to your target market.

3. Promote the content on the social media platforms and forums, where your target market is active.

4. Build good relationships with your loyal visitors to turn them into promoters.

5. Once you have a steady flow of visitors that trust you, you can sell them products and services that you offer.

 

Everyone can create a blog, but only a few understand how to utilize it into a moneymaking tool. Website surveys, social media monitoring, use of plugins, and other techniques can help you turn your passion blog into a reliable source of income. Here are the 5 steps you need to know:

1. Start A Blog

If you still have not started a blog, then perhaps this is the right time you should start one. However, you cannot expect to earn from your writing, if you do not optimize it – something that a lot of bloggers fail to do today.

This process is actually pretty easy; you just need to learn how to do it. Here’s how:

• Choose Your Platform: This is your writing tool. You must remember that different platforms offer different specialties when creating content. You should pick one that is right for you and your vision for your blog.
• Choose Your Domain: This is your blog’s address or URL. Make sure it is readable, unique, and not copyrighted by any other blog (or company). Also, it would be so much better for your blog if you incorporate the presence of good keywords into it. In order to learn the best keywords for your page, you must do a lot of research.
• Configure Your Blog and Design It: Add the necessary plugins and tags to your blog to make sure that your content is easily searchable on your blog’s platform.
• Create Content: Start writing.

The final item of these steps is usually the initial reason as to why one would start blogging. However, to make money from it, it’s important to understand that you must create content that is useful for your target market.

2. Create Useful Content

In order for your content to earn you money, you need to be able to create content that people will value. The key to doing this is to make it as useful as possible. With technology at the fingertips of the people, they are always searching for solutions to their problems; offer this solution with your content. Provide this on a consistent basis and people will begin to know, like, and trust you. Essentially, doing this is an important prerequisite to a later step in this process.

3. Find Readers

Getting addicted to creating blog posts is a high risk that you have to avoid. This is because you may end up ignoring an important step in the moneymaking process of blogging, which is marketing. In order for your content to get readers and consumers, you must promote it efficiently.

You must keep in mind that traffic is good, but not all people coming from this traffic become readers. In order to convert them, you must know their personas. A persona is a fictional but an intelligent representation of your ideal reader. This would include what they like and their preferences. A good way to gather data on these demographics is by conducting surveys.

By knowing the persona(s) of your ideal reader(s), you will find out which social media websites they thrive in. They may frequently be consuming certain blogs, forums, podcasts, or social networks. You can gain some idea for your content by taking note of the accounts they follow on various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Once you know what they like, you can begin to develop your presence on these platforms yourself. You can do this by leaving a valuable comment, making guest posts for other blogs, or by simply being helpful through answering questions on forums. The goal is to become credible and trustworthy to your ideal visitors. Once you achieve that, you could attract them to read your blog.

4. Nurture Relationships

If you’ve done the previous step successfully, then you will notice that you will get more engagements into your blog. When this happens, don’t start relaxing and don’t leave them be.

This step is much like when you have visitors at home, you would want to welcome them warmly and be a good host. The same practice should be exercised when you have visitors online. You can do this by responding to comments and chatting with them personally. They may raise a concern or give you hints on future content you can write. Deliver this content and make necessary revisions based on their feedback.

The aim of doing this is to achieve visitor satisfaction. When visitors are satisfied they can become buyers and promoters. They will spread word that you have a great blog and it will attract new traffic, which effectively allows you to start the conversion process again.

5. Earn Money

With satisfied visitors, you have the potential market to convert into buyers. These are the people that trust you to add value in their lives. Because they have this trust with you, they have a high probability of availing a product that you offer or promote (given that this product is of significance to them).

This loyalty will, then, become the foundation you need to turn your blog into a business. Readers that have loyalty will do one or some of the following:

• Buy a product or service that you offer.
• Avail of your premium content.
• Visit your offline business.
• Donate money for you to use.
• Click on the advertisements that you host on your blog.
• Attend promoted events.

If your readers do any of the actions listed above, then you have successfully turned them into buyers. Either they buy directly from you by purchasing a product that you offer or they purchase it from an advertiser, wherein you will get paid with commission.

Key Takeaway

To recap, you need to create a stable blog with useful content that you promote efficiently to get readers. Make sure that you satisfy these readers with quality content and service so that you can engage them to buy from you or the companies that you promote. Repeat the process to grow your audience to unlimited number.

What are the 6 Modules of the WordPress Dashboard?

1. At A Glance: A quick glance of a WP website information and recent interactions.

2. Quick Draft: A pop up window where users can store ideas for content that will be saved as a draft.

3. Activity: A quick way to interact with visitors’ comments.

4. Your Stuff: This provides a quick access to the activity of a user’s comments on other’s WP sites and the creation and editing interface of posts.

5. What’s Hot: The latest news and trending content on WP.

6. Stats: This shows the performance of user content; one can see which content is performing better than the rest.

 

The Dashboard is the very first screen that you see when you log onto WordPress. Survey plugins, comments, quick buttons, and other functions can be found here. In order for you to manage your WordPress (WP) page properly, you must understand how the 6 modules of the Dashboard work.

What are the 6 Modules?

There are 6 Modules on WordPress that you need to familiarize yourself with. They are the following:

 At A Glance

The ‘At A Glance’ module is named aptly because it allows you to have a quick glance of your site’s information and recent interactions. This will show you how many pages and posts you have, the new comments made by visitors, the theme that you are using, and any spam that is received and/or blocked.

This module may not be useful at first when there is not much traffic for your site, but as you gain more visitors, the module’s ability to provide quick and concise information will be the key to managing it.

Quick Draft

This is a module that you can use to quickly create content that’s itching to get out of your head. You don’t even have to worry about publishing it too quickly for it can be saved into a draft. It’s a simple feature that lets you share an article title or “What’s On Your Mind?”

Using this is a great way to prepare future posts by saving your ideas and using features such as categories and planned postings. You can also use this module to access recent drafts so you can continue working on them.

However, this module lacks in features since it was made to be an idea capturing tool. You have to remember that in order to create content, it should still be done on the main writing area before posting.

Activity

The interface of this module allows a user to quickly and efficiently interact with visitors’ comments. Hovering the pointer over any of the listed comments that appear here brings out the following options:

• Approve/Unapprove
• Reply
• Edit
• See History
• Mark as Spam
• Trash

 Basically anything that happens on your website will appear here. Use this as a jumping point from the Dashboard to your pages to quickly act on anything.

Your Stuff

While the previous modules track what the visitors do on your site, this module tracks what you do on your own and other’s sites. It does this by displaying links to your recent activity. These include:

• Creating a new post
• Editing an old post
• Commenting on another’s post

What’s Hot

The ‘What’s Hot’ module acts as news delivery for WP. It shows links to the latest posts, top blogs/posts, and news from WP.

Stats

This is the most important module on your Dashboard. With this, you can see how many people visit your site and which content is performing better than the rest via the use of graphs. But this is more than just a visual presentation. It gives you further information by clicking on any point on the graph.

 

How do you Customize and Add Modules?

It is possible to hide and rearrange modules according to your needs. This is especially useful for some installed themes and plugins can add modules on your Dashboard. Examples of these are the Yoast SEO plugin, which adds an overview of your post SEO scores, and the BackUpBuddy, which shows how many edits were made on a post since the last backup. While these extra functions are great, it could clutter your Dashboard.

To hide modules, click ‘Screen Options’ on the upper right of the Dashboard to reveal a checklist of your modules. Removing the check on the undesired module will remove it from sight. To rearrange the modules, simply click and drag the modules to your desired spot. You can use this to position your most important modules at the top so you don’t need to scroll down to access them and miss vital information. These changes will then be saved the next time you log onto WP.

Key Takeaway

As the name implies, the Dashboard is what you use to make sure that everything is running properly on your website. You can use it to boost your reach or fix problems. But you can only do this if your 6 basic modules work together. If you feel the need to download more modules, then feel free to do so.

To recap:

• The Stats give you data.
• You can be kept updated with the latest trends by knowing What’s Hot.
• Activity monitors your website visitors.
• Keeping an eye on Your Stuff means keeping a history of what you do.
• You can write down ideas on Quick Draft.
• A quick overview of all the information is available At A Glance.

Remember these in order to make sure you manage your site well before your blog becomes busy and the data will become overflowing. With the right practice, you’ll be prepared once that day comes.