Good case in point for this: At my local coffee shop (a Caffe Nero – don’t know if you have these in the US) whenever I bought a coffee they’d ask “wuld you like some cakes or muffins with that?”. The result? It was too much effort for me to think through the options so I always said no.

More recently though, they’ve started offering a specific single option: “would you like some passion cake with that?” or “would you like a choc chip muffin with that?”. The first time they did it I said yes.

I like to think of it as “making it easier for the customer to say yes”.

Ian

I like your new look. Much easier to scan and read. Thanks for asking for feedback!

Lisa

http://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/landing-page-confusion.html

What I’m saying is that complexity kills a sale. Too many choices results in none.

How much is too many? More than three.

With lower priced products, you want only one choice. That’s my opinion. You’re welcome to try two or three if you like.

I would not offer all different kinds of copy as you currently do. I would pick content or sales copy and do just that. In general, writing content pays far less than writing sales copy.

Within the “content” category, there are dozens of different types of content. And within the “sales copy” category, the same is true. You’ve got space ads, direct mail, online sales letters, autoresponder messages, classified ads, Google AdWords ads, resource boxes, etc etc etc.

Now, I understand that “too many options” is the problem…so how many options are too many?

Also – can this be applied to services as well? Meaning…I am a writer – should I be offering web content, sales copy, and articles or narrow it down?

Thanks for the great article Ryan.

John – I think you made a good decision. I’d be interested to know the results of your test.

Peter – Yes. Better to start with one price/choice and see how it converts. You might split-test two or three prices to see which price sells best. (In the split-test, your reader would see only one price.)

Tim – I enjoyed your “worms” post. Thanks for linking back and sharing my post with your readers. I think most folks online suffer from information overload, so it’s a good topic to address.

The timing is amazing, as I’ve had similar thoughts, but in a more general sense–related to becoming focused on building a business, or other personal desires.

I believe it’s one of the great roadblocks to success. Information overload, shiny objects, etc…

What we need are more worms!
uhh… you’d have to read my post:
http://www.timgary.com/?p=33
to “get” that.

Take it easy,
Tim

Yes I know I need to test but in general is that a good way to start?