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Simple? I'm no Puritan, but I'm hesitant about clicking a button that starts with the word "sex". I'm not used to professional high-quality services resorting t

Simple? I'm no Puritan, but I'm hesitant about clicking a button that starts with the word "sex". I'm not used to professional high-quality services resorting to ... well, it's not vulgarity, but sex is sort of a traditionally taboo topic. So in spite of how good your product my be, here I am thinking it's more likely to suck because you broke this unspoken rule. But maybe that's just me. The words are simple, but the choice to include the risky language is not 'simple', in that it's risky/innovative/uncomfortable/attention-grabbing (depending on viewer's perception). I guess a good word is 'unusual'.

shovel 11y ago
Great perspective and a fair point. Thanks for the feedback. I recall that just before I published the site, I decided to change the CTA from the boring placeholder I had to something more playful and human. It was the first thing that came to mind It just seemed like a fun idea. It worked so I kept it. Reading your comment, I'm tempted to try something more conventional but it's too easy to be skewed by responding to a single data point. It's edgy so it's bound to be polarising (I've also received positive feedback on the very same text). I might run a split-test to get some data on it.
- _abattoir 11y ago
  Yeah, I didn't want to give negative feedback per se, but I wanted to share my gut reaction with you because those are just as valuable as thought-out opinions w/r/t conversions. I admire the boldness and as a Linguistics major I can confirm the craziness of the word, re: standing out, is way more valuable than any imagined revulsion that I may be assuming. Best of luck.
  - shovel 11y ago
    > those are just as valuable as thought-out opinions Totally agree. And early data says you might be right. I set up a split test on Optimizely with 2 more variations and both beat the control: Control SEX UP MY INBOX 35% CTR Variation 1 DISCOVER NEWSLETTERS 61% CTR Variation 2 GET STARTED 58% CTR Variation 1 is winning so far (74% lift, 79% significance). I'll keep it running because right now it's skewed toward HN traffic, and we're a weird bunch here - we seem to behave differently to everybody else Anyway, thanks again for the feedback. Looks like you're onto something.
mszyndel 11y ago
+1

shovel 11y ago

Great perspective and a fair point. Thanks for the feedback. I recall that just before I published the site, I decided to change the CTA from the boring placeholder I had to something more playful and human. It was the first thing that came to mind It just seemed like a fun idea. It worked so I kept it. Reading your comment, I'm tempted to try something more conventional but it's too easy to be skewed by responding to a single data point. It's edgy so it's bound to be polarising (I've also received positive feedback on the very same text). I might run a split-test to get some data on it.

_abattoir 11y ago
Yeah, I didn't want to give negative feedback per se, but I wanted to share my gut reaction with you because those are just as valuable as thought-out opinions w/r/t conversions. I admire the boldness and as a Linguistics major I can confirm the craziness of the word, re: standing out, is way more valuable than any imagined revulsion that I may be assuming. Best of luck.
- shovel 11y ago
  > those are just as valuable as thought-out opinions Totally agree. And early data says you might be right. I set up a split test on Optimizely with 2 more variations and both beat the control: Control SEX UP MY INBOX 35% CTR Variation 1 DISCOVER NEWSLETTERS 61% CTR Variation 2 GET STARTED 58% CTR Variation 1 is winning so far (74% lift, 79% significance). I'll keep it running because right now it's skewed toward HN traffic, and we're a weird bunch here - we seem to behave differently to everybody else Anyway, thanks again for the feedback. Looks like you're onto something.

mszyndel 11y ago