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Two front page Hacker News posts and why one converted 20x higher

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Re: Two front page Hacker News posts and why one converted 20x higher

#11

Post by rhizome »

aresant wrote: post #7
rpq1480 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, totally obvious. Would have been more interesting if any of those results hadn't been completely expected.

Take a look at how many articles on the frontpage today today don't follow those principles. For instance the current #1 post - "Living in a van" - has one mention of Priceonomics in the article, no explanation of the service, and no call to action within the story content. Not saying that this isn't obvious, just saying that despite it being obvious people don't necessarily employ those strategies and are tossing ou…

Users...eh. Signups are not revenue.

[cue 'signups can too be revenue!' HN submission]

Re: Two front page Hacker News posts and why one converted 20x higher

#12

Post by ryanbraganza »

austenallred wrote: post #2

There's a principle at work that true marketers use to their advantage. It's quite simple, and is avoided all too often, especially by detail-oriented people who operate a little bit differently than non-detail-oriented people. I assume that HackerNews has a lot of engineers who are by nature detail oriented, and therefore this principle is ignored far too often. The post that converted at the better rate had a link…

> People don't really read things online, they scan. some things jump out, and only if you're very intrigued will you actually read the individual words. In fact, very few of you will even get to this line that I'm writing. The chances that you'll read each line decreases exponentially.

I only read that first sentence of that paragraph.

> Note that I've made all of my main points in the first sentences of what I've written. Did you even read everything, or did you just scan through and pick up on a few words? The attention paid to each line decreases exponentially as you continue.

Then I read this and went back through it.

Re: Two front page Hacker News posts and why one converted 20x higher

#13

Post by mladenkovacevic »

Allow me to flip your methodology upside down.

So one article converted well because you actually had hyper-linked calls to action and the article was half the length. Well duh.. you didn't need to run an A/B test to crack that nut.

So 700 leads compared to 30 - seems like a pretty definitive victory for the first article, right? Not necessarily. Consider the quality of these leads. In one scenario, signing up was served up on a silver platter and as soon as the word "free" was baited, a lot of freeloaders probably bit the hook. Yes, they might enjoy your service and some might even convert to a paid customer when they can afford it... or maybe not. How many of them even need your service? How many just wanted to scope out what the author was actually selling because they are at the budding stages of some get-rich-quick scheme (a likely scenario considering the entrepreneurial, "how-to" content of the article).

I think your second article is much more brilliant, and barring the absolute absence of clickable links to your actual product, would actually produce much more qualified leads for you. I like that it talks about working with family, subtly suggesting the respect with which you treat your customers as well. This lends genuine credibility to your business and excites happy/warm feelings in me about working with you and giving you money for your services. The 30 leads that put in the effort to seek your product out after reading all that are far more likely to convert to a paid customer later on than the gang of what could very well be 700 hormonal over-caffeinated teenagers with big business dreams but no cash (gross hyperbole but you get my point).

So in conclusion I think yes, calls to action and clear succinct messaging is important - no secret there. But the content is even more important for the long term results. The story you tell should be crafted with the customer in mind that'll ultimately pony up the cash for quality service. I think you should've run with the family narrative, but included a few calls to action.

Re: Two front page Hacker News posts and why one converted 20x higher

#14

Post by Swizec »

austenallred wrote: post #2

There's a principle at work that true marketers use to their advantage. It's quite simple, and is avoided all too often, especially by detail-oriented people who operate a little bit differently than non-detail-oriented people. I assume that HackerNews has a lot of engineers who are by nature detail oriented, and therefore this principle is ignored far too often. The post that converted at the better rate had a link…

> The attention paid to each line decreases exponentially as you continue.

Man, with that writing style ... absolutely!

Or maybe I'm just writing a comment that is intentionally long to prove my point that people don't read comments, which are long and very obviously without much more content.

Here I am admiting that this comment is longer than it needs be because I'm lazy and trying to prove a point which was marginally hinted at by the parent comment, which was also an example of a comment that is too long for its own good, albeit that one was trying to prove a different point.

No there is no punchline, I am just trying to show that writing in an overly baroque style and often repeating fluff phrases that don't really mean anything or add any new information is useless ... again, there is no punchline. This whole comment is a punchline.

See?

Re: Two front page Hacker News posts and why one converted 20x higher

#17

Post by btilly »

rpq1480 wrote: post #6
ryanio wrote: post #5

TL;DR: One article converted because they were talking about and pitching their service throughout the whole piece (4 calls to action), while the other was about their experience of hiring family members with no real discussion or pitches about their business (0 calls to action). Duh?

Yes, totally obvious. Would have been more interesting if any of those results hadn't been completely expected.

The fact that something is totally obvious is never a reason to not try to go back to the well with some more obvious blogspam.

After enough successful trips they may figure out what their optimal tradeoff is between spaminess and not winding up on the front page.

Re: Two front page Hacker News posts and why one converted 20x higher

#18

Post by Camillo »

benologist wrote: post #9

Great advice for other startups trying to exploit HN for traffic!

Indeed. Why would conversions even be the point? Yet most other commenters are not even raising an eyebrow at this. Is this still supposed to be a news site, or is it now understood that we're browsing advertisements?

Re: Two front page Hacker News posts and why one converted 20x higher

#20

Post by bpatrianakos »

ryanbraganza wrote: post #12
austenallred wrote: post #2

There's a principle at work that true marketers use to their advantage. It's quite simple, and is avoided all too often, especially by detail-oriented people who operate a little bit differently than non-detail-oriented people. I assume that HackerNews has a lot of engineers who are by nature detail oriented, and therefore this principle is ignored far too often. The post that converted at the better rate had a link…

> People don't really read things online, they scan. some things jump out, and only if you're very intrigued will you actually read the individual words. In fact, very few of you will even get to this line that I'm writing. The chances that you'll read each line decreases exponentially. I only read that first sentence of that paragraph. > Note that I've made all of my main points in the first sentences of what I've w…

I went back and read the first sentence multiple times and didn't see a point. There's a principle at work? That's the point? If it was then I'm disappointed. I thought there might be some kind of mention of what it actually was.
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