

How Groove's Email Copy Makes Their Posts Go Viral - grinnick
http://grinnick.com/posts/how-groove-s-email-copy-makes-their-posts-go-viral?ref=hn

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netnichols
The article was going along nicely until the huge bright orange banner came
down asking me to vote on HN. I just couldn't read any more after that, it was
simply too distracting and I couldn't get rid of it.

I don't criticize attempting to get some upvotes, but please consider doing it
in a less intrusive manner.

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grinnick
I agree that the color is too bright. There's sometimes a fine line between
being intrusive and not being noticed at all.

For example, I don't show the banner until you're 30% of the way through the
article because I don't want to annoy people who haven't even started reading
(and thus have got zero value).

The orange banner will disappear mods remove the ?ref=hn from the URL.

I'm the author obviously.

~~~
anthonycerra
You planned that using logic, but people's emotions don't react to logic. It's
an emotion after all. I thought it was obtrusive as well and didn't realize
how far into the article I was. The only thought I had was "this is in my way
and there's more to read."

All that being said, just do a split test :) Maybe people like me are in the
minority and you get more upvotes for having it displayed that way.

~~~
grinnick
I think I will try to split test it actually.

If I do, I'll make sure to post the results on HN with an even larger orange
banner! ;-)

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luxpir
I'm enjoying the Groove posts too, and agree with your general point - being
upbeat is valuable, as is soliciting feedback and calls to action. I just
think I'm too cynical to be too pushy in an email, even if it's dressed up as
good-buddy niceties.

I mean, that '1 hour early' incentive is original and all, but it's clearly a
confidence trick. It's a little insulting to his readers' intelligence, no?

Overall I'd say it was the content of the post more than the email copy that
has made this series of theirs a success.

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mikeg8
I think this was a great little analysis and I will try to keep it in mind for
future emails to subscribers.

