I know these are not scientific polls but I would still suggest that you are little more precise about your poll question wording. Wording makes a huge difference in the responses people give. It seems like the choices you are giving are being a bit influenced by your own experience which may not fit other peoples.

For example. The option that says No I don't use coupons I focus on store brands. That is your experience but what if someone wants to pick the No option but they don't focus on store brands. Maybe they wait for sales, maybe they just don't find the 50 cent savings worth worrying about and buy name brands anyway, maybe they don't have the time to search for coupons, there are probably many reasons, but putting one particular reason and tieing it to the No response leaves them not really sure if they fit that category. Also you have the Coupons are for little people category. People may be conflicted about picking that because they don't actually think they are better than people for not using coupons but that wording makes it sound that way.

While it may not be as spicey sounding, I think its better to go with some fairly boring options that are less likely to leave people conflicted about the choices. If you want to put in options that talk about other things that are done to so called "justify" not using coupons like buying store brands instead I would suggest making that a separate option from just the plain no I don't use coupons option.

Just a thought.

Those are valid points. However, simply having a yes/no survey would (as you pointed out) boring, and I don't like boring. Also, it would be considerably less informative. As currently written, there are basically two 'flavors' of both yes and no. And I would hope that people wouldn't take an anonymous internet poll so seriously that they would actually feel conflicted over which 'flavor' of that they choose.

The 'little people' comment was intended as a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that 50 cent coupons aren't worth my time, and I seriously doubt that my readers honestly believe that they're actually stating that they're better than others when they choose it.

Beyond all of this, I actually do think there's value in finding out things lik how many people use coupons in general vs. those that are total hard core couponers that eat for nearly free (there are some out there). In a simpler structure, those two would be conflated under 'yes.'

Also, there's the 'other' category that very few people actually select, but which would fit any opinion.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts. I have a number of more objective polls in the pipeline.

I wasn't suggesting a simply yes no survey. Just one that more clearly deliniates the choices. Have 10 choices if you like. The reason I suggested it is because I found myself not wanting to choose any of the options because I felt that the way they were worded and combined they only covered a portion of the actual choices. Basically my choice wasn't on there which was I don't use coupons because they aren't worth my time and are too much of a hassle. Obviously you can't give every choice but when you give some very specific choices without generic choices you end up leaving out part of the spectrum.

I actually found this true of your first survey too, but didn't comment until I found the pattern repeated on the second. This is a very common problem with most internet polls I see so maybe its just the nature of the beast.

If you don't find the suggestion useful, thats fine, just thought I would share my experience with the questions.

(I did end up choosing the little people choice and did have to choose it inspite of the fact that I felt it was implying that I thought coupons were beneath me. Perhaps I am just unique and no one else believes the words mean what they say).

Sorry to double post here, but one other thought that I left out. Since the only two no choices were No I focus on store brands and no, coupons are for little people. I would be willing to make a pretty good sized bet that the No I focus on store brands number over-represented the number of people who don't use coupons and actually do focus on store brands but ended up with a lot of people who don't use coupons but have different reasons for doing so other than focusing on store brands but chose that option anyway because they thought it was closest to their real reason (which wasn't because they thought coupons were for little people. I almost chose the store brands option although I almost never focus on store brands purposefully).

For instance giving choices such as:
No, I focus on store brands.
No, Its just not worth it to me.
No, Coupons are for little people (If you still wanted to include this one)
No, I just don't use them.

Would make sure that someone could find a reason and if not could always just go with the no I just don't use them response.

So if you were interested in getting accurate data about the number of responders who focus on store brands I bet you didn't get it due to the choices that were provided.

If its all just for fun and you aren't really trying to measure the secondary elements of the poll such as focusing on store brands then I guess it doesn't really matter except to the extent that some people may choose not to answer the poll at all because they think none of the answers are representative for them which I have also done on some polls I planned to answer but couldn't find an answer that was accurate for me and didn't want to provide a compromise answer.

D-man, periods are your friends. Spice up your post with them a little. I do agree that the poll was a little tough for me to answer as well. I am fairly hard core, but I don't let it dictate my life. My wife may disagree, however....