At the end of 2011, I did a quick survey of both the DocumentSnap blog readers and readers of the weekly DocumentSnap newsletter.
I did this at the end of 2010 too, and I found it was an incredibly helpful way to find out how I can help you in the year ahead.
This year, I want to do something different and share the key results with you. I want to do this for two reasons:
- If you going to share information with me, it’s only fair that you get to see the results.
- Sometimes when you are stuck in the weeds of going paperless, or any life change, it can be helpful to know that you’re not alone.
In the surveys, I asked three key questions:
- What is the biggest problem that you have right now with going paperless?
- What would you like to see more of on the blog or newsletter?
- What would you like to see less of on the blog or newsletter?
Let’s go through the results.
The Blog
What Is The Biggest Problem?
I have to admit, I found this result quite surprising.
By far I get the most questions about document organization (which is why I created the Paperless Document Organization Guide), so I was quite surprised that “finding the time to scan and process” was an equal concern.
Another common question I get, which is represented here, is convincing others that going paperless is a good idea. It can definitely be hard when everyone at home or in the office is not on the same page.
What Would You Like To See More Of?
I hear you. You want to see more stories and examples of people who have gone paperless and how they did it.
In 2011 I started the popular DocumentSnap Reader Stories series, but in 2012 I will try to reach out more and get some more workflow examples for you.
What Would You Like To See Less Of?
For the most part, I received comments like “some posts don’t apply to me, but I know they help other people so I just ignore them and move on to the next one.”
Not surprisingly, some Mac users would like to see less Windows posts and some Windows users would like to see less Mac posts. I do my best to keep it as balanced as possible, but if you think I sway too far one way or the other, just let me know.
The Newsletter
If you don’t know, I share an entirely different set of going-paperless tips each week in the Paper Cuts Newsletter. Also, when I have a new product or service coming out, I usually let readers there know about it first with some specials.
I asked a similar set of questions to the newsletter readers, and here is what they had to say.
What Is The Biggest Problem?
The results here are similar to the blog, but I found it interesting that general comfort-with-going-digital and tackling the backlog scored higher.
It’s pretty clear that in 2012, I need to focus more on some way to help with helping you find the time to do paperless processing.
What Would You Like To See More Of?
Case studies and organization are the biggies here.
It looks like Mac users are highly represented in newsletter respondents, as they want to see more discussion of Mac software. I do try to keep it balanced, but another theme I have seen is that readers want more help with software selection. Maybe I can do more there.
What Would You Like To See Less Of?
The usual suspects are here, but I did receive a few interesting comments that they’d like to see less of a North American focus.
Being from Canada, I know how annoying it can be when things are too United States-centric, so I will see what I can do to highlight more international tips, products, and services.
If you are from outside North America would like to help contribute in that regard, just let me know.
So there you go, you can see what I will try to focus on in the year ahead. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to leave a comment or hit me up any time. Have a great 2012!
Join the forum discussion on this post
The top 10 physical products for 2011 are:
The top 10 eBooks are:
2011 was the first year that I created some of my own products and courses. In case you are curious, here are the most popular ones:
This is Day 7 in a 12 Day series: 
