In a recent poll I asked if Tax Research needed a mobile phone app. The answer was was follows:
The answer seemed to be an uncertain ‘no'.
However, those voting were those for whom the current situation works: by definition they had voted because they were reading the blog on a browser.
Having done some more research I have discovered how unusual it is to read material on a browser now. That is especially true when most people read on their phones and most (80%, plus) will only read from apps on their phones. This trend of reading apps on phones is most marked amongst the young, which is, I suspect, the audience this blog is least good at reaching.
Then it occurred to me that I have no real clue who the Tax Research audience is, at least in terms of age. Gender matters less on this issue as it does not seem to alter where people read online data very much.
So, this is the first ever audience survey I have done, almost seventeen years after starting this blog. The answers will help me decide whether to commit funds to an app, most especially if I need to reach a younger audience.
Thanks for answering, if you do. Answers, like all polls here, are anonymous.
Might I ask a few questions about you and this blog?
- Are you 66 or more? (27%, 307 Votes)
- Do you mostly read this blog on a computer? (23%, 268 Votes)
- Are you 46 to 65? (19%, 219 Votes)
- Do you mostly read this blog on a phone? (17%, 199 Votes)
- Do you mostly read this blog on an iPad or equivalent? (10%, 110 Votes)
- Are you 26 to 45? (4%, 50 Votes)
- Are you under 25 years of age? (0%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 588
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Just us old fogeys up early on a Sunday morning! Perhaps the youngsters are out at church.
I use a desktop PC about half the time and phone about half the time, so I’ve not voted for either. Anything longer than a few short sentences (like this comment) I find it much easier to write on the PC.
I agree
But young people have functioning thumbs and I do not
They may have functioning thumbs now, but I dread to think what their metacarpal (thumb) joints will be like in years to come!
🙂
I mainly read it on a PC but sometimes on a tablet. However, if it was available as an app, then I would use it.
It all depends on where I am and what I’m doing.
Craig
Thanks
For me, the critical factor is not actually what device I read blog posts on, it is the restrictions that come with any particular platform, device or software ecosytem that deter me from using many.
I must be able to type a reply, else I will be deterred from replying, hence will not use technology that restricts this.
I prefer to be able to bookmark links for reference later, otherwise my time spent reading is somewhat wasted if I cannot later easily reference the article. (i.e. apps can make this a difficulty between devices)
In general the ‘walled garded’ ecosystems tend to fail these requirements for me.
As an experienced software engineer am fully aware of the appallingly low state of security and lack of maintenance to most apps which are often cobbled together and then ‘thrown over the wall’ to the unsuspecting public rather than continuously maintained, as they need to be.
In general I must see an extremely high possibility of benefit before I will even consider installing some randomly sourced app onto any of my devices.
For all these reasons, I would urge you to seriously consider to steer people toward your content via a well maintained feed reader – like the 3 discussed recently in the RSS thread.
For me the one of the greatest features of your blog Richard is the readership and their thoughtful comments so I would be mindful to not steer people towards apps where they can seemingly easily ‘consume’ content but are impeded from ‘creating’ replies.
How about this for a simple Minimum Viable Product suggestion:
Add a top menu item or some sort of immediately visible and linkable sticky post
with simple instructions for each of the major ‘target markets’ i.e. Apple IOS, Android, other
then point people to them and observe how much effect this has on takeup.
Most of the information required for this has already been provided in comments on the 3 previous threads, but new visitors / new users will not see that.
Good Luck!
I do not understand your pre-penultimate paragraph
And RSS feeders are definitely fir over 50s now, however useful they are
I see that I could have been clearer there.
The concept of a Minimum Viable Product has been around for a while now
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product
Instead of devoting substantial resources to a complicated project that may not provide the hoped for return, find a simple quick way to implement only the essential parts of your idea and learn from the experience.
The concept itself is the more important idea rather than any particular suggestion as to possible implementation solutions.
In this case the suggestion is for you to use the resources that you already have in a different way and see what the results are. The suggestion should be quick to implement and little to no cost.
You already have a blog, the wordpress hosting already provides RSS feeds, and feed reader apps are already available.
Provide obvious and easy signposting to new users.
Provide instructions and links to existing resources.
In this case that would be apps that other parties are providing and supporting. e.g. the feedly.com app, fdroid ‘feeder’ app, feeder.co etc.
If there was some way to provide ‘one click’ installation that would minimize friction for new users.
That is the ‘instant appeal’ for apps on devices.
Unfortunately the drop off in usage rate for mobile apps is staggeringly bad.
From memory, less than 10% of app installs will be in use after 7 days
and less than 3% of mobile app installs will be in use after 30 days.
So spending money on mobile app development can often lead to a flurry of ‘new’ installs but almost no new users.
google finds some recent data:
” Global Android app retention rate Q3 2022
Published by L. Ceci, Nov 29, 2022
During the third quarter of 2022, the retention rate for Android apps after 30 days from install was at roughly 2.6 percent. Retention for Android apps was set at 22.6 after one day from download, while retention after seven days from the download was set at to 6.5 percent. ”
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1245570/android-app-retention-rate/
I hope that is clear.
Thanks
Noted
Hi Richard.
I wrote a fully reply this morning but it has not appeared.
Did you see it?
Not fussed about it being ‘published’ or not – the point of me writing it was for you to read what I put in it!
It did have 2 links in it so maybe it went to junk mail or whatever.
Hi
I posted on at 11.31 from you
Was that it?
No, it was a follow up to your 11:51 a.m.
It got to spam
I have no idea how
I will read it now
Apologies
Completely agree. Recommend your suggestions.
I have problems with spelling and writing. When replying with anything other than a quick few words I usually use a word processor and then cut and paste into the comments box. Big text helps too, reading/replying on a phone leads to too many miztaces.
I’ve certainly read more words on here over the last decade and a half than I have done voluntarily over 50+ years. A propensity to miss words or even paragraphs can be quite ‘interesting’.
I type on my phone with one finger faster than I now used to touch type. It corrects my spelling and the more common mistakes automatically and the more I use it the more it gets better at predicting what I was trying to type. I use Apple with the predictive turned off but the autocorrect on. It works really well for me.
I do everything in my phone and I’m 63
Interesting
My wife also uses her pogoing for everything and yiu are not far apart in age
Just to let you know I come to you blog via the The Independence Hub app on my phone, in which this blog is one of ‘the feeds’ I follow. I guess therefore I’m reading it via an app as you say in the post (never thought about it before now).
That said I would not use a Tax Research standalone app – my phone is full of apps I never look at. I would say being in as many different ‘feeds’ as possible – each with their own different reader demographic – would be a better use of your resources (but I’m 54 so I wouldn’t exactly say I had my finger on the pulse of the kids 😉
Thanks
An interesting insight
I wonder how common that is now?
I use a lappy exclusively as I only have an ancient old thick phone, which lasts 4 days on a charge, ha!
For what it’s worth,
On my travels though I do find youngsters almost always communicate through smart phones, and am dismayed at how disengaged they are from politics in general. A very few youngsters are very well informed and active to a degree, but it seems most have the “they’re all the same opinion” and feel their vote is useless. These are the people we need to engage.
Thanks.
I cannot be sure an app will reach younger people
But I have a 230,000 Twitter platform to market it to
It has to be worth a try
If they are seeing your tweets in twitter, they are already reading your writing.
It would be interesting to see how many of them are clicking through to your website. If they are doing that then they are already reading your content in an app, and you have a free “delivery mechanism” that you didn’t pay to develop.
If you do spend the time to develop an app then I wish you every success as your writing deserves to be read by a larger audience. However the lack of apps from independent authors suggests that it’s not an efficient way to publish your writing
But if it added 1,000 reads a day
Wouldn’t that be worth it?
Yes most people use apps to consume content, but these apps are mostly “content federators” like Facebook, twitter, or social content creation apps like FB, IG or TikTok.
The only content creators that have a successful app are also federating content from multiple journalists. I’m thinking the guardian or the economist for example. George Monbiot doesn’t have an app for example but publishes his content elsewhere than his blog.
I don’t know of many small content creators who have their own app, and this is probably a sign that it’s not an efficient way to get your content to your audience. I consume most of my content in my phone but I have zero apps from small content creators. I find their content from the above sources – and Feedly for my curated content list.
It probably makes more sense to concentrate on getting your content into those apps where people are spending their time (which I know you already do on Twitter for example), rather than spending effort developing an app that people may not use, and as I think people have already said, will probably not get approved by apple App Store.
Noted
I use a computer to read due to the lack of an app – I would likely switch if one existed.
Noted
Thanks
I read via Reeder, an app on my phone and desktop (as it happens, I read this post on my phone). I suspect this sort of thing – there are lots of decent feed readers – is more common than you might think for regular readers. It means I never miss a post.
Thanks
Richard
I am in the 26-45yrs range (just about).
I definitely think you need to reach out a lot more to the younger crew. The issues, subjects and topics you discuss and opine on undoubtedly impact the younger generation (and their offspring) directly much more than your older audience. Yet it appears from the latest results of the survey that this generation is not represented in your audience figures. A large majority of the young already (or will in the future) face the hardships and are (or will) experience the difficulties arising from decisions/choices that are currently being or already have been made by the people in positions of authority and power. Their futures and that of their offspring will be shaped by current policy, events, economic thinking and choices that have imposed upon them and they will have to put up with the consequences throughout their whole lifetime. So they must be informed, told and educated about what is going on and they need to understand how the choices made by a select few individuals in authority and those in power and leadership positions, will cause misery, despair and untold amounts of suffering – all of which is unnecessary and can be avoided. There is an alternative and you have something to offer the younger generation in this regard.
In my view an app will help you do that. Not saying that an app will suddenly attract the young overnight to the blog but I think it will appeal to the younger generation and give you a platform to exchange your ideas, analysis and opinion which could help to inspire, awaken and ignite and bring about the change that is so desperately needed.
I will be discussing app options this week
I am hoping an a pop will reduce the average readership age
But I am not excepting miracles
It will be quite expensive
“I definitely think you need to reach out a lot more to the younger crew.”
I think this is to do with the “angle” chosen for blog topics. Economics per se is perceived as boring, less so our goals and aspirations.
Interest rates: dull. The cost of chocolate (inflation) is more relevant to us.
Thanks Ian
I read this on my phone but am responding on my laptop.
One thing I have noticed, although you think it does not matter, is that it’s mainly men who comment.
I am never sure of the genders of those who comment
We know there is a problem with women getting abuse on social media
That’s is one reason why I moderate every comment on here
One or two regular commentators who have appeared to be mail have had female names in their email addresses
It is not my policy to question that, or why
I accept a comment if it is fair
I am not sure how I can overcome the massive gender bias in social media generally though, single-handedly
Although I mainly read the blog on a PC, I also read it on a mobile. I get an email notification of a new comment (in gmail and as a notification), click the link and the blog post appears in a browser on my smartphone. I don’t get notifications of new blog posts, and I can’t remember whether the blog has “Web Push Notifications” available which would solve that problem.
I will check whether we can add that option
“How do Web Push Notifications Work on Mobile Devices?”
https://onesignal.com/blog/does-web-push-work-on-mobile-devices/
And then the question is, what can an App do, that access to the website on a smartphone can’t do?
“RSS feeders are definitely fir over 50s now, however useful they are”
Ouch, I’m only 27 and I use an RSS reader 🙂
I hate reading on my phone – I do it occasionally, and if I do it too much it gives me migraines. Plus, typing comments on my phone is frustrating, I’m always making typos.
Appification bothers me on a technical and ideological level, though I absolutely recognise your point that for many, “using an app” is now synonymous with browsing the web. Recently, I saw someone browse to a website, only to install the website’s app to do something they could have just done within the website.
Have you considered a “progressive web app” (PWA)? Not to get too technical, but that could be a way you could turn the existing website into an “app” that one can “install” without having to expend lots of resources building a full blown app.
I will look at that
I look at this via a Browser on phone.
I used to be UX (user experience) designer for services and I designed apps or I specified apps for other people to design (I now do landscape design/ ecology). You don’t seem to provide content/ a service that requires an app.
Apps are generally either aggregates with some kind of user interaction which means either the user can personalise a feed to make sense of too much content, or users generate and share content. Sometimes apps such as the BBC, Channel 4 , ITV, are appropriate not only because of supplying a vast amount of content, but they standardise the content delivery eg streaming film or audio they can ensure a (hopefully) better user experience. Apps also help companies restrict access to content (a fee, content only available in certain places) and help those companies include advertising. Apps help companies track user behaviour, and include advertising. They can provide enhanced security to users for specific services that require security.
None of these seem applicable to you.
If you are trying to encourage young people to consume your content you probably just need to be putting more content on platforms young people use in a format they find appealing. You likely need to present the content differently because, patronising as it may sound, in its current form it may not be something that appeals to a youth audience!
Noted!
Thanks
I agree with Amy re content marketing. I am not doing any at the moment but this may help. There was also a service a few years ago, can’t remember name of it but may have begun with T (!) which provides ares in common platforms where your content is dropped in.
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-content-marketing
Thanks
I will take a look
I put this question to my mid-twenties son (who, incidently, works at Apple, Meadowhall, Sheffield and might be helpful if you are an Apple user) and he considered that the work and expense of app development and maintenance was unlikely to be worthwhile for a single content. He leaned towards vlogging ….
Interesting
I may be barking up the wrong tree here
I resist, but my director of marketing never stops trying to convince me that vlogging is the best choice for reach.
My son sys the same…..
I mostly read your blog using the Firefox browser on my desktop computer, but quite often using the Chrome browser on my Android tablet. I’m in the 46-65 age bracket.
I find both options equally good for reading, but prefer to write replies from the desktop computer so I can sit at my desk with a physical keyboard. That said, I have been known to write short replies on the tablet on rare occasions.
Speaking as a software engineer, I’ve always been a bit baffled by the sheer number of site-specific apps out there when most sites work perfectly well on a browser app.
I I were running a website, I would only consider a dedicated app if I wanted a function that was difficult or impossible to implement on a web page. Keeping an app maintained and up to date on both iOS and Android can be a significant ongoing expense, whereas a web page can make use of a web browser that someone else with considerably more resources is maintaining and keeping up to date for you.
You might get more bang for the buck creating content on services that younger people already use (I’m not sure which ones – Instagram? TikTok?) and pointing them here with a link “for the full story”.
Thanks
There is a pattern emerging here
I am 58. I discovered your site on the browser on my phone and I still read it almost exclusively in my phone browser.
I have more than enough apps on my phone already, and only install new ones for specific purposes that can’t be achieved in a browser. This is because they occupy precious storage space, and require different access permissions and updates, which uses up time better spent doing something else.
Thanks
As I’m over 50 I obviously use an RSS reader… I have Feedly on my iPad and iPhone, and use Feedly.com on the Mac. I voted iPad but I have genuinely no idea on the proportions. I suspect a roughly equal split of Mac and mobile. I am genuinely unconvinced that any shortage of younger readers will be remedied by the existence of an app.
Thanks
Richard,
For what it’s worth, I mostly read on an iPad, but comment on a proper computer.
I’m of an age where a smartphone is not really an option due to failing eyesight.
I never read n my phone unless I really have to
I would steer away from an app personally, mobile operating systems change so regularly I think you would end up spending all your resources on keeping the apps up-to date. Also remember that there are 2 major app platforms, you can either develop 2 separate apps or build an app that will work on both but won’t take advantage of the unique User Interface features of either.
Noted
On my phone in a browser with a cup of tea works fine for me. I can’t really see what an app would add to the experience.
Thanks
I think the issue is about choice Richard.
As an ex-programmer I have always been amazed by the amount and degree of self-serving Bullshit that the IT industry has been able to foist on the unwilling and poorly informed.
Now with the money interest and corrupt politicians fully onboard it is almost unstoppable.
Cash appears to be disappearing from our society without debate.
Public services constantly tell people that if they want a decent service, there is this or that Application that they should download. Private companies try and achieve the same thing by the piecemeal withdrawal of services.
Social media is a bottomless well poisoning the young and manipulating everybody.
The list is endless and nothing is ever seriously discussed.
What are the advantages and disadvantages for the consumer?
Where is the evidence?
Has this ever been publicly debated?
Who voted for it?
What choices do we have?
The consumption of food was still a sign of wealth and privilege a hundred years ago and being at least plump was still quite fashionable. Now the reverse is true.
Less than fifty years after the invention of the PC the ability to live a life free from the excessive consumption of IT is already starting to be a fashionable sign of wealth and privilege.
Hi,
I’m 71/F.
I use a mix of small android phone, small android tablet and a 24′ screen desktop PC, depending on where I am at the time.
I follow you on Mastodon. I have different Mastodon apps on my phone and tablet. And I use the website version on my PC.
In each case if I link through to an article on your website it then comes up in my browser (Firefox).
Some posters shoehorn their articles into multiple noots (but usually also provide a link). I find this clutters up my feed and can also be hard to read as they don’t always arrive in order.
Ensuring your website scales to different devices is important.
Putting short summaries and a link onto multiple popular news feeds will help with getting the message out. Obviously you will have to hold your nose if you are posting to Meta apps or the birdsite.
Thanks
Appreciated
The bord site has my most followers – but is not the biggest source of reads
Richard, on a less serious note, if you wish to engage with the younger generation, the following idea may gain traction:
-create a new platform called Taxtok and create content employing singing, dance, video and other media formats. The kids would love it.
But seriously, I am 75, access your content on iPhone. It works fine for me.
Brilliant
I am certain TaxTok would create legal action in minutes, but a nice idea
I won’t be singing or dancing but other media have to be part of the answer
If it’s not too late to join in this debate, I’d say that a progressive web app is the best option and I assume wouldn’t be much more expensive that what you use already. It should provide the best of both worlds without entangling you in the App Store or Google Play. It’s actually a website masquerading as an “app”.
Progressive web app is a dreadful name that should be changed. But I also suspect that “Tax Research” puts many potential readers off. I think you need a completely fresh name that is eye catching and reflects the content better. Ask your readership for suggestions.
Personally (aged 72), mobile devices and RSS feeds have been my primary way of reading current news and comments for approaching 20 years, first with Palm PDAs then smartphones. I much prefer them to computers or newspapers/books – but that’s a peculiarity of my eyesight as much as anything I guess.
Having found reading matter via RSS (I use the excellent Feedr for Android) or via Twitter, I then save it to Pocket for reading as and when. If I leave off half way through an article, when I go back I’m returned to the same point. The articles build up and many of them drop down the list and don’t actually get read, but I find it an excellent way to deal with reading matter.
So whatever you do, keep the RSS feed. More tweets with pictures, as you’ve started to do, and try using the same approach on Instagram. I’m far too old to see the point of Instagram, but that’s my problem.
Anyway, please keep up the good work.
Basil
PS Lose the name “blog” too, hopelessly outdated
The last time I asked about changing the name people recoiled in horror
But it’s true it is not about tax any more – although once upon a time it was, almost entirely
I will muse on that
And thanks
Technically you could retain your web address, taxresearch.org.uk, and consider just a rebrand of the site title (Tax Research) to something more appropriate and catchy.
I could
Suggestions?
I think you need to ask in a separate post so that it gets more visibility. There’s some very clever and inventive people out there
Tomorrow
An update.
I have abandoned the idea of an app.
Other projects are being looked at instead.
Just been watching a talk by Michael Marmot and he was asked to give a slogan in three words to encompass his ideas on equity in healthcare. He couldn’t. The closest he got was
“Put equity of health and wellbeing at the heart of government policy.”
Somebody said he was good at shouting truth to power, let alone saying it.
He also said that the cost of living crisis created what most people need, dignity. Wearing coats indoors, using foodbanks, even having to cancel children’s parties because of poverty, all rob families of dignity.
How about the dignity of tax research?