I’ve been using Survey Monkey a lot lately to check the pulse of my ChronicBabes, and it’s terrific - if you keep your surveys short and sweet, you can use a free account and get wonderful feedback. I include lots of questions that have comment spaces, because my readers are very opinionated and happy to offer lots of tips and suggestions for articles.

Another benefit of surveys is that readers feel involved in the process, part of a community. If I can get 100 women to respond in a week to a short survey, and most of them give long responses, then they must enjoy the surveys. And I get fantastic information I can use in developing content and future products for them.

So how about you? Are surveys your thing? I’m curious to know if you use them, what you expect to get from them, and what service you use. Do you publish your results? Do you use responses in your marketing or project development? Fill me in!

With the impending sales tax hike in Chicago and surrounding suburbs, many consumers are considering crossing county or state lines–as well as heading online–to make their purchases. This was profiled in an article in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune, showing the staggering difference in sales tax across counties on a $1,075 laptop.

How will your shopping habits be affected?

And if you sell goods, how will your business be affected?

Leave your comments and/or click here to take a survey

How about a little guerrilla research to find out how the group feels about e-newsletters as recipients? It might give us some insights about what to do — and what not to do — in our own communiques. Results will be posted early next week. Take the newsletter survey.

Here is a summary of the data collected from our first Idea Xchange survey, which focused on the topic of change. I hope you find the results interesting.

Here we go…
While most of us don’t go looking for change, we’re not change averse, either. “Here we go…” was the response of 86 percent, or six of seven respondents (all Idea Xchange members) to the question “What is your basic, knee jerk reaction to change?â�� No one picked, “Oh, no!”, but one confident soul did respond “Oh, goody!” Ah well, the rest of us can aspire to that level of flexibility!

No One Wants to Win the Lottery?
When asked select the change we’d most like to make from a list of six, we were about equally split. Three of seven respondents (42.9 percent) said the biggest change they would like to make is to ‘earn more money.’ One person would like to ‘lose weight/get fit.’ Three others would like to ‘be more confident.’ No one picked ‘learn new skills’, ‘win the lottery’, or ‘meet new people.’

No Shrinking Violets
Some of the biggest changes respondents have had to make include divorce; getting fired and/or quitting and starting a business; moving; acceptance of chronic illness and the necessary life redesign around that, and learning how to be paraplegic. A hardy bunch, Idea Xchangers.

Best changes? Three respondents said starting their own businesses was the best change they ever made. One said taking back, and keeping control of her financial life was in the top slot. One is approaching seven years with her current boyfriend because she dared to soften her anti-relationship stance. Another respondent cites a tie between leaving an unsatisfying career as an interior designer and the person she has become since an automobile accident that left her paralyzed. A respondent with a degree in political science and German abandoned the law school track for a career in graphic design.

Seems we’re brave, too.

Okay, I’m going to break the ice here: How do you REALLY feel about change? Where has it taken you? Where do you want to go? This survey is completely anonymous and just five questions long. Once I get the results in I’ll give you a full report!

Click here to take survey