I want to thank each of you who participated in my homeschool blogger poll, 59 of you in all.  It is now officially closed.  It has been fun to meet so many new bloggers! Remember my nifty prize drawing of a box of Oregon products?  Boy 2 has carefully been chosen to draw the name from the bowl. 

And the winner is…… Janne!  Congratulations! 

I sure hope you like Oregon.  Here is what Janne has won: A book about Oregon written for children, a crate of huckleberry bon bons, a bag of pancake mix, a bottle of marionberry syrup, a bag of chocolate covered hazelnuts, and a beautiful myrtle wood treasure box. 

Now on to the results.  I will post each question and then the tallied answers I received.  In the next few days I will post some interesting thoughts, and things I learned from doing this poll, so please be sure to stop back by and see what I have to share with all of you.  Although 59 people answered the below questions, they did give more than one answer in some categories.  I have chosen to include them all.  Here we go!

1. Why did you start your blog?

Thought it would be fun – 11

Saw another blog – 2

Friend or family member told me about it – 13

To journal my thoughts – 15

To spend time on the computer wisely – 2

Connect to friends and family – 8

To keep a school record – 3

A place to write homeschooling thoughts – 5

To look around and leave comments – 1

To get encouragement – 5

To give encouragement – 3

To encourage my children in their writing – 2

2. What did/do you hope to accomplish with your blogging?

This question at first may sound just like the first one.  Although some of the answers were the same as those in question 1.  you will see some different  answers as well as the total who responded with that answer.

To encourage others – 27

To get encouragement – 13

Like to write/ want to see if I can write – 10

To put down thoughts – 17

To glorify Christ – 2

To keep a school record – 2

Meet new friends – 12

To communicate with others (homeschoolers, Christians, family, friends) – 3

To learn/share new ideas - 5

3. Have you found that you don’t post as much as you did when you started?

Those that answered yes – 25

Those that answered no – 34

4. If yes, why not?

Not enough time – 13

Want to spend less time on the computer – 5

Had nothing to say/post – 5

Received no/very little comments – 1

Started over – 1

Forgot password – 1

5. How important are comments to you?

Don’t care about comments – 2

Like comments – 18

Love comments – 39

Here are the reasons why they like/love comments:

Comments are encouraging – 19

It is connection to others – 7

It tells me that someone is reading what I write – 15

It tells me when people like what I wrote – 7

Makes me feel like I have friends – 2

6. Do you ever find yourself wishing people would not leave comments that always agree with you?

Those that answered no – 55

Those that answered yes – 4

Many of the people that said no did say that they hoped people would be honest in their comments.

7. Do you comment on other people’s blogs a lot, sometimes, very little?

Those that felt they comment a lot – 11

Those that felt they comment sometimes – 37

Those that felt they comment very little – 11

8. What determines why don’t post a comment on someone else’s blog?

Have nothing to say – 40

Others said the same thing I would have said – 4

Totally disagreed with the post – 7

Have no time – 21

Don’t know why – 2

Don’t know the person – 3

To scared to comment – 2

9. What determines why do post a comment on someone else’s blog?

The post touched them – 23

The post made you laugh – 7

The post made you angry – 1

The blogger asked for advice – 5

Could relate to the blogger/post – 18

Wanted to encouage the blogger – 18

The post made you think – 3

Just like too – 3

So the blogger will know someone read their post – 10

To inform or give advice to the blogger – 3

Feel lead to – 2

Commenter has a question for the blogger – 3

Commenter knows the blogger - 1

10. Do you have more than one blog?  Where?

Those that answered no – 32

Those that answered yes – 27

So where are their blogs?

Homestead Blogger – 11

Homeschool Forms – 1 (could this be forums?)

Xanga – 2

Yahoo – 3

Homeschool Blogger – 12

Blogspot – 4

Blogger – 2

Writing Up – 1

Political Ideologies - 1

11. Do you read random blogs off of either friends’ lists or random blogger?

Those that answered yes – 55

Those that answered no – 4

How do they look for new bloggers?

By using a Friends list – 41

By using the Random Blogger button – 35

By looking over the Last 100 list – 13

By clicking on linked names in someone else’s blog – 2

By clicking on the list of new bloggers – 1

By looking at blogs of those who left comments – 3

I do hope you will come back and read the posts I will be putting up in the next few days.  Some of those that left comments for the poll had some really great things to say, and I hope the tallies have made you curious to one extent or another why they answered the way they did!