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Report: 6th Annual Independent Survey Of Elvis Websites

By Elvis Central, February 06, 2005 | Other
Here is the complete report on the annual independent Elvis Websites survey from Elvis Central. The main conclusion: an “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 tosender’. 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*’

Related links

wiz wrote on February 06, 2005
Comprehensive, informative and interesting to see a 'global' survey of how Elvis information, being delivered via the web is received by the fans.