We've run online surveys on a number of sites over the years. Aside from writing a good (and short) survey, the biggest challenge is driving users to it. You want to do everything you can to get the survey in front of users, without being *too* obnoxious about it. We've tried to balance those two factors by pushing it out as a popup on the site home page, so everyone sees it....but only running the survey for short periods of time (a week or two) so repeat users don't keep seeing it. So it's somewhat intrusive, but the alternative is being so polite about the survey that you won't get any decent response rate.
If your population for the survey = your members, then sending out an email invitation to take the survey is also very helpful, but don't confuse that sample with one of actual site visitors.
We've run online surveys on
We've run online surveys on a number of sites over the years. Aside from writing a good (and short) survey, the biggest challenge is driving users to it. You want to do everything you can to get the survey in front of users, without being *too* obnoxious about it. We've tried to balance those two factors by pushing it out as a popup on the site home page, so everyone sees it....but only running the survey for short periods of time (a week or two) so repeat users don't keep seeing it. So it's somewhat intrusive, but the alternative is being so polite about the survey that you won't get any decent response rate.
If your population for the survey = your members, then sending out an email invitation to take the survey is also very helpful, but don't confuse that sample with one of actual site visitors.
good luck!
Dave Schaller
eduweb