Archive for December, 2010

Curiosity Actually Increases Your Conversions! Here’s How…

Want to know the easiest way to get more of your e-mails read, and to get more blog comments?

Is it to say less in your e-mails?  And less in your blog posts?

I wanted to finally know the truth, I did what any programmer would do... I took the word count of 100-plus of my blog posts and the comment count of 100-plus of my blog posts.

(My blog posts are an average of 539 words and I get an average of 28 comments per post... cool, right?)

I dumped the whole thing into an Excel spreadsheet and calculated the correlation between the length of a blog post and the number of comments it gets.

I was dead-set on telling you that shorter blog posts get you more comments, but guess what happened?

I Was Wrong... and The Answer Really Surprised Me!

Excel is supposed to give me a number between -1 and +1.  -1 means a negative correlation.  That would mean shorter blog posts get more comments. +1 would be a negative correlation, meaning LONGER blog posts get you more comments.

But the correlation was: -0.050037583

Almost No Relationship Between

Length of a Blog Post and Number of Comments!

There is no difference between a short blog post (my shortest is 40 to 100 words) and a long blog post (my longest is 1000 to 1300 words)...they get the same number of comments!

If you're a boring blogger, it doesn't matter if your post is short or long.  You'll still get the same number of comments.  And if you're exciting, whether you're short or long, you'll get the same number of comments.

It's about the content, not the length.

That Means Size Doesn't Matter... Or Does It?

So does that mean you shouldn't care whether your posts or short or long?  It means your posts should always be short.  Here's why...

Scenario #1 - One Long Post: Let's say it takes you an hour to write a 1000 word blog post.  You could post it once and get 10 comments and be done.

Scenario #2 - Three Short Posts: Or you could split it into three blog posts, post there 333 word blog posts and get 10 comments once, 10 comments the next time, and 10 comments on the third part for a total of 30 comments.

So if you're trying to maximize the number of comments on your blog, why WOULDN'T you write short blog posts?  Since it makes no difference?

And on top of all that, it's easier to "tease"... arouse curiosity...by saying less. When you try to get curiosity by saying MORE... it becomes more and more like an episode of "Lost" which to me is just too much work.

Keep It Simple....

Say less in your blog posts (keep it at 500 words or less) and say less in your e-mails leading up to your blog posts to get them to click.

I'll leave you with the template for Lance's BEST converting e-mail message ever. It's fill-in-the-blank and it's such a short and vague message it'll make your head spin...

This is what me and Lance joke about as the "What's That About?" e-mail template.  Just replace anything inside (parentheses) with your own words related to your product and your niche.

Why (insert technique here) is the worst way to (get the result you want).

What (number) other techniques work much better?

What are other keys to (desired result)?

(Guess)?

What's that all about?

Discover the secrets...

(url)

Go there now...

That's right.  A simple 39-word e-mail converted better than a year's worth of longer e-mails.  Crazy, isn't it?

As usual, I need 50 comments to continue blogging... and after I get 100 comments... I will CLOSE all future comments to this thread.  Looking forward to your comments below!

Question:

What's Your Weirdest Curiosity Technique That's
Gotten You Clicks, Optins and Sales?

Or what technique from an e-mail guru has sucked you into either clicking on an e-mail link, opting in or buying?  What single line has aroused your curiosity more than anything else?