Report:
6th Annual Independent Survey of Elvis Websites
"Historic
three-way tie for favorite site!"
The
survey was conducted during November and December 2004.
Methodology
A
standard survey questionnaire was used. It was issued by email
to 344 fan club presidents, webmasters and other identities
in the Elvis world. Of the 344 surveys distributed, 47 came
back marked 'return to sender'. Four (4) of these were able
to be resent meaning a potential response of 301.
In
the list of Favorite Web Sites we are only listing sites that
received at least 10 votes ie. sites a reasonable number of
respondents were familiar with and preferred. This eliminates
the introduction of bias due to very small respondent numbers.
All sites receiving at least 1 vote or mention are listed
in the Appendix.
Response
Rate
One
hundred and thirty two (132) valid surveys were returned,
a 44% response rate (this compares to a 36% response rate
in both the First and Second Surveys; 34% for the 3rd Survey
and 40% for the 4th Survey). This increase in the response
rate was pleasing and provides a statistically valid sample.
Typical mail responses rates are between 40% and 60% and internet
based surveys return a 30% to 50% response rate.
On
a geographic basis responses from the USA were again steady
this year.The
respondent increase again came from the EC and Australasian
regions.
As
with the 5th Survey, a number of responses (43 in total) were
disregarded during the poll analysis. These related to unsolicited
returns resulting from the poll being circulated on a number
of email distribution groups. The researchers could not include
these responses as they would have clearly skewed the results
and invalidated the poll as satisfying the requirement it
involve a representative sample.
Findings
The
Sixth Annual Survey of Elvis Web Sites resulted in a total
of 47 sites (up ten on last year's 37, but still well below
the 64 recorded in the 3rd Annual Survey) receiving at least
one vote or mention. There was a polarization of votes toward
the top five sites. A number of respondents mentioned more
than one favorite or best site in different categories. A
number of sites received a significant increase in votes compared
to the number they received last year.
Respondent
Demographics
Male:
72
Female:
60
Average
age group of respondents: 25-45 years
Favorite
Sites Based on Number of Votes Received
For
the first time in the six years of the survey we have a (three-way
tie) for your favorite site. Throughout the voting there were
no more than seven votes separating the 1st and 5th ranked
sites. Five sites performed significantly better than all
other sites (last year's votes in brackets):
#5:
Official Elvis site - 52 votes (33)
#4:
Elvis Unlimited -53 votes (13)
eq.#1:
For Elvis CD Collectors - 58 votes (43)
eq.#1:
Elvis Information Network - 58 votes (51)
eq.#1:
ElvisNews.com - 58 votes (56)
The
next ranked sites were Elvis Australia (31 votes), Elvis World
Japan (23 votes) and Elvis Presley Gold (20 votes). No other
sites received more than 9 votes and sites ranked 9 to 13
(all with 9 votes each) were all based in the EC.
Respondent
comments for the top five ranked sites included:
Elvis
News.com:
'the
best source for the latest news'
'Elvis
News has been there since the start……a quality site!"
"ElvisNews.com
gives me my daily dose of Elvis! Elvis! Elvis!"
'of
all major sites, only Elvis News and EIN update daily, and
there is enough variety in their content to make both essential
reading'
Elvis
Information Network:
'the thinking fans site'
'love
the variety of stories on EIN'
'the
best site for articles, reviews and interviews'
'of
all major sites, only Elvis News and EIN update daily, and
there is enough variety in their content to make both essential
reading'
For
Elvis CD Collectors Only:
'best source for import news'
'easily
the best messageboard'
"fantastic
messageboard"
"a
great all-round site"
Elvis
Unlimited:
"cool design, great news"
"my
fave site run by hardcore fans"
Official
Elvis Site (Graceland):
"as
the official site it's #1"
"The
King lives at EPE!"
What
site has the best news?
This
question turned into a two way tussle between Elvis News and
Elvis Information Network. The winner (by a margin of 4 votes)
was:
#1:
www.ElvisNews.com (60 votes)
What
site has the best articles?
A
range of sites were nominated with the top three being the
same as last year, but with a narrower vote between them:
#3:
ElvisNews.com (31 votes)
#2:
EP Gold (32 votes)
#1:
www.elvisinfonet.com (Elvis Information Network) (41 votes)
What
site has the best interviews?
In
a near repeat of last year's voting, this question was a very
close four way tussle. The result:
Eq.#3:
Elvis Unlimited (26 votes)
Eq.#3:
EPGold.com (26 votes)
#2:
www.elvisinfonet.com (Elvis Information Network) (28 votes)
#1:
For Elvis CD Collectors Only (29 votes)
What
site has the best design?
This
question was a very close contest:
#5:
elvis.com (20 votes)
#4:
Elvis Unlimited (21 votes)
#3:
Elvis In Norway (22 votes)
#2:
Elvis Australia (24 votes)
#1:
Elvis News (25 votes)
What
Elvis site has the best audio?
#1:
www.Jordans-Elvis-World.com
What
Elvis site has the best video?
#1:
www.Elvisworld-Japan.com
What
site has the best search facility?
As
with last year, the clear favorite was Elvis Find
What
site has the best online Elvis shop?
Excluding
"third party" shops (amazon, ebay), the preferred online shops
were:
#5:
www.elvisunlimited.com (25 votes)
#4:
www.elvisnews.com (27 votes)
#3:
www.elvislyyours.com (28 votes)
#2:
www.elvis.com.au (37 votes)
#1:
www.elvis.com (40 votes)
What
is the best Elvis messageboard?
While
alt.elvis.king and www.elvissecondtonone.com each obtained
around twenty votes, the preferred messageboard was again:
For
Elvis CD Collectors Only with 69 votes
Special
Mention Category
The
following sites and/or individuals were nominated for special
mentions: "
- Arjan
Deelen - for his continued good work in obtaining interviews
with key people in the Elvis world "
- Chart
updates - ElvisNews.com
- David
Neale - "for his regular, informative book reviews
"
- ElvisNews.com
- "The team at Elvis News has been there giving us Elvis,
Elvis, Elvis for more than 7 years! They deserve a medal!"
- Bill
Burk's Elvis World Online - EIN/elvisinfonet.com
- EIN
E-Alert (weekly news bulletin)- "easily the best email newsletter"
- Piers
Beagley (EIN) - "His reviews of DVDs, books and albums are
much looked forward to, and he is usually right!"
- Sid
Shaw - "Sid isn't everyone's cup of tea but he stirs things
up, and the Elvis world needs that."
- Steve
Moore (elviscrawler.co.uk) - "....helps fans...is a model
for what webmasters should be like."
- Susan
MacDougall (Australia) - "For her hard work designing 6
websites"
Negative
Site Attributes
The
biggest issue of concern was sites that "steal news from other
sites without acknowledging the source". Many respondents
weren't shy in mentioning offending sites!
The
second biggest issue was sites that are slow to download*.
Another
issue (but not as strongly commented on as in last year's
survey) was the perceived trend to sites losing their news
and information emphasis and becoming shop sites.
'Splash'
pages continue to be disliked by many respondents and a small
number of respondents stated they disliked sites that published
"rumors".
*
the researchers record that this finding is a function of
several variables eg. searchers' computer efficiency and large/many
pictures or file content size on different sites.
Health
of the Elvis World
As
is the nature of research there are tangential findings that
point to the health of the sector/subject being researched.
'Sore thumb*' votes often offer an insight into the 'motivations'
of respondents and 'politics' of the subject area. As a bit
of fun the researchers very loosely (and we stress - VERY
LOOSELY) analyzed the responses to ascertain how 'healthy'
the Elvis world is. In the researchers opinion, on a scale
of 1 to 10 (1 being terminal and 10 being immortal) the Elvis
world has a 'health' rating of: 4.5 (a substantial 50.0% improvement
on last year's rating of 3.0, and three quarters of the rating
(6.0) in the 3rd Annual Survey).
*'Sore thumb' votes are those that stand out as being significantly
different in degree of magnitude and/or affiliation to the
material vote trend or qualitative response.
There
are two ways of assessing 'sore thumb' votes. Firstly, the
level of 'negative' qualitative response relative to the full
qualitative response can be assessed (in simple terms the
number and strength/vigor of negative comments compared to
the number and strength/vigor of positive comments).
Secondly,
in a sample of 100, if 95 respondents rate item X as 9 out
of 10 and the remaining 5 rate item X as 2 out of 10 it raises
a clear research question: is the strong disparity reflective
of respondent bias or respondent preference? Secondary analysis
can often reveal which of these is in operation. Analysis
of 'sore thumb' votes is used widely in motivational and attitudinal
research.
Final
Comments
With
each survey, several respondents query the need for our survey
given existing web ring polls. It was because of these existing
polls that we introduced our survey. The web ring polls have
no statistical validity. They are 'self selection' polls where
responses generally come only from those with a particular
(vested) interest in voting. As this is not a representative
sample of the total audience the results are not statistically
valid.
Having
said this, we are not putting web ring polls down, they are
a useful tool for web masters to get ongoing feedback. However
a statistically valid survey like ours is also needed. Our
poll has greater credibility as we approached a large number
of webmasters and Elvis world identities and a large enough
number of them responded (voted).
We
hope you find the survey results interesting and we hope they
are a catalyst in the improvement of Elvis websites during
the next 12 months.
Last
year we said "At this time we are undecided whether or not
to conduct a 6th Annual Survey. The results of the five polls
indicate that there are five or six sites which regularly
feature as your favorite sites, with their placings only fluctuating
in a minor way."
A
decision on a 7th site survey will be made based on your feedback
to this report.
Finally,
a big round of thanks to all of you who took the time to give
us your views. We appreciate it!
Gary
and Greg, Elvis Central (February 2005)
Permission
Granted: Permission is given by the researchers for the
findings in this report to be reproduced in full or reasonably
in part by webmasters and fan clubs. Disclaimer - Elvis Central
International is independent of any fan club or web site.
We are both professional researchers by day and Elvis fans
by night. As we found out during the first survey, there is
apparently another group called Elvis Central on the Internet
and operating out of the US. We are not associated with this
club in any way.
APPENDIX:
LIST of ALL WEB SITES RECEIVING VOTES
alt.elvis.king
anelvisfan2001.com
Candid
Central
Elvex
Pages
Elvis
Australia
Elvis
Central (USA)
Elvis.com
(Official Elvis site)
Elviscrawler.co.uk
Elvis
Express
Elvis
Find
Elvis
In Concert
Elvis
Information Network
Elvis
In Norway
Elvis
In Print (David Neale)
Elvisly
Yours
Elvis
Matters
Elvis
Movie Database
Elvis
News
Elvis
News Network (aka Jordan's Elvis World)
Elvis
Presley Fan Club Blog
Elvis
Presley Gold
Elvis
Presley News
Elvis
Presley Suite 101
Elvis
Presley www
Virtual Library
Elvis
Tapes
Elvis
The Legend
Elvis'
Women in the Movies
Elvis
World Japan
Essential
Elvis (UK)
First
Online Symposium on Elvis Aaron Presley
Flaming
Star Norway
For
Elvis CD Collectors Only
Girls
Guide to Elvis
How
Great Thou Art
International
Elvis Presley Fan Club (Hong Kong)
International
Elvis Search Engine
It's
Elvis Time
Jordan's
Elvis World (aka Elvis News Network)
Masters
and Sessions
Mr.
Misery (Lyrics site)
Official
Lisa Marie Presley site
Presleys
in the Press
Sitting
On Top Of The World
Suite
101.com
TCB
World
Tcb-files.com/elvispictures/
Worldwide
Elvis
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