How Groove's Email Copy Makes Their Posts Go Viral | Hacker News Reader

How Groove's Email Copy Makes Their Posts Go Viral

grinnick.com

9 pointsgrinnick10 comments

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.

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.

I'm not sure 30% content vs vote now is the fairest trade-off, but kudos for holding off a little :)

Just noticed your family name is Tuite. Even if you don't pronounce it as 'Tweet' IRL you really could have fun with that online. Tuite by name... (etc.). I'm sure you might have noticed.

Haha hadn't thought of that actually.

Only added the banner recently. I'll experiment with only showing it further into the content.

You're certainly right that it can be a fine line. I personally would respond better if there would be simple, static, highlighted boxes at the top and bottom of the article, that scrolled with the article.

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.

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! ;-)

I've got noscript running, so I didn't see it. Goes nicely with my point though - treat your readers with respect. Some crowds are more sensitive to it than others, but even those who don't notice any foul play shouldn't have their ignorance abused?

Of course some people will want easy ways to do things, which I completely understand. It's just normally the case of someone trying to drum up business, rather than millions of users wanting easier access to that person/service.

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.

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

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