How to Design and Carry Out a Survey: Part 1

Carrying out a survey can be a time consuming task. First you need to design your survey, then you need to find and gain access to your target audience, you need to carry out the survey and finally you need to collate and analyse the results. You don’t want to go through that whole process and find that the results you got were inaccurate, incomplete or non-reflective of your target audience. Over the nezt few posts I will go through all the basics and a few advanced tips too

Step 1 Be Clear About What Information You Require

Begin by making a note of the information you require. The more specific you can be at this stage the easier it will be to design your survey and gather the information you need.

I will start by just scribbling a few paragraphs about my end goal:

“I really want to write an eBook about teaching parrots to speak. I know it sounds mad but I think there’s quite a big demand for this. I’ve had a look at some figures and there are a lot of parrot enthusiasts that I think would buy this. I have quite in-depth knowledge on teaching parrots to speak but I’d need to make sure I cover everything they need. I think I could sell this online via my website and maybe on Amazon too. I’m not sure how much I could charge but I think this would be a great additional income stream for me alongside my parrot food business on eBay.”

Once my overall goals are clear I can begin picking apart the paragraph to find the pieces of information I need.

1. Can I teach people to teach their parrot to talk via an eBook? Do parrot enthusiasts like eBook or do they prefer other methods of training such as video
2. What is the demand? How many parrot enthusiasts would buy an eBook? I need a rough percentage to see if this is viable
3. Would parrot enthusiasts buy an eBook on teaching parrots to speak?
4. What do parrot enthusiasts want to know about teaching parrots to speak? What problems do they face?
5. Would parrot enthusiasts most likely buy from my website, eBay, Amazon or some
other channel?
6. How much would a parrot enthusiast be willing to pay for an eBook on teaching parrots to talk?

I now have a list of questions that I know fit with the information I require.

The next part of this series will cover finding the right sample