> How about not showing it at all until the person has seen a dozen or so pages?
We actually tested that as well (though I think we did it after 6 pages). The conversion rate was of course higher than showing it immediately, but the users didn't open or click any more frequently. (Hence, showing "immediately" on first page load is better business-wise.)
> Does your A/B test detect how annoyed the readers are?
Haha, that is indeed why I pushed against this in the first place (if I hadn't, we wouldn't even have tested it so thoroughly). But the fact that such "annoyance" didn't show up in any metrics ultimately won me over.
One thing to keep in mind is that I've only tested with non-technical users, who I think are in general much less annoyed by this sort of thing than the typical HN person.
We actually tested that as well (though I think we did it after 6 pages). The conversion rate was of course higher than showing it immediately, but the users didn't open or click any more frequently. (Hence, showing "immediately" on first page load is better business-wise.)
> Does your A/B test detect how annoyed the readers are?
Haha, that is indeed why I pushed against this in the first place (if I hadn't, we wouldn't even have tested it so thoroughly). But the fact that such "annoyance" didn't show up in any metrics ultimately won me over.
One thing to keep in mind is that I've only tested with non-technical users, who I think are in general much less annoyed by this sort of thing than the typical HN person.