One of my most popular posts from last month (as you'll see below) was the one where I shared which of my emails from March had been opened most, and which got the most clicks through to my blog.

Here's the report for April.

Where you see (+), (++) and (+++), that indicates that the headline in question was at the top of one of the other lists (with (+++) indicating the #1 position). Also, you'll see (--), which was the second most bounced message (by a pretty heavy margin), yet it fared pretty well in clicks and opens.

Most Opened Emails

  1. (++) (+) ClickBank Finally Cleaning Up Its Marketplace?
  2. (+++) (+++) SETI Decodes Message from Outer Space - Marketers Weigh In
  3. Want Me to Guest Post on Your Blog?
  4. (--) Which Headlines Got the Most Opens/Clicks? (March)
  5. Finding Good Products to Promote on ClickBank
  6. (+) Adding Social Proof to Your PayPal Checkout Page
  7. START Triage Can Save Your Website's Life
  8. Marketing Ethics: Persuasion vs. Coercion
  9. Fill in the ______ in Your Marketing
  10. Don't Push the Button Unless You Know What It Does!

#1 got 13% more opens than #3, and 30% more than #10. Given this blog's audience, it's not too surprising that it was a winner.

#2 was my April Fools Day post.

Most Clicks Through to the Blog

  1. (+++) (++) SETI Decodes Message from Outer Space - Marketers Weigh In
  2. (+++) (++) ClickBank Finally Cleaning Up Its Marketplace?
  3. Adding Social Proof to Your PayPal Checkout Page
  4. (+) Want Me to Guest Post on Your Blog?
  5. (++) A Few Ways to Reduce Your Website's Bounce Rate
  6. (--) Which Headlines Got the Most Opens/Clicks? (March)
  7. Finding Good Products to Promote on ClickBank
  8. An Enemy All Entrepreneurs Must Conquer
  9. Don't Push the Button Unless You Know What It Does!
  10. START Triage Can Save Your Website's Life

#1 got 44% more clicks than #4, and 66% more than #10. As you can see, there's much more variety in click through rates than open rates.

Most Clicks as a Percentage of Opens

Open rates tell us which headlines drew the most interest, and raw click-through percentages tell us something about which post bodies were the most interesting. But the ratio of clicks to opens tells us even more about which posts started with content that kept people moving.

The body of each email contained an excerpt from the beginning of the post. Any posts that start with too much introductory drivel will produce boring emails, and draw less clicks. Post that created curiosity or interest at the very beginning got more.

  1. (+++) (++) SETI Decodes Message from Outer Space - Marketers Weigh In
  2. A Few Ways to Reduce Your Website's Bounce Rate
  3. (+++) (++) ClickBank Finally Cleaning Up Its Marketplace?
  4. (+) Adding Social Proof to Your PayPal Checkout Page
  5. An Enemy All Entrepreneurs Must Conquer
  6. (--) Which Headlines Got the Most Opens/Clicks? (March)
  7. (+) Want Me to Guest Post on Your Blog?
  8. Finding Good Products to Promote on ClickBank
  9. Don't Push the Button Unless You Know What It Does!
  10. My Internet Marketing Ethics "Manifesto"

#1 performed 29% better than #5, and 53% better than #10.

Most Opens By Day of Week

  1. Monday
  2. Friday
  3. Wednesday
  4. Thursday
  5. Tuesday

Monday outperformed Tuesday by 16%. With obvious outliers removed, Friday had the best open rates, outperforming Tuesday by 10%.

Most Bounces

One of the most interesting stats, since it varied more than any other, was the bounce rates for the different messages.

What was really interesting was that the bounce rates most definitely were not closely correlated with Spam Assassin scores for the messages. Of the top 10, only 5, 7 and 8 had elevated Spam Assassin scores (maxing out at 6.2), as did 3 other messages that didn't make the top 10 (#13, #16 and #19).

I'm pretty sure all of the elevated scores were caused by AWeber not encoding non-ASCII characters. (Yes, I reported that to them -- hopefully they'll fix it).

Here are the most bounced messages:

  1. Ad Placement: Do You Think This Would Work?
  2. Which Headlines Got the Most Opens/Clicks? (March)
  3. Goals vs. Vision: Are You Pushing Your Business in the Right Direction?
  4. How to Sell Ethically Without Being a Bonehead
  5. Lower Priced, Ad Supported Kindle Coming - I Would Have Bought It
  6. My Internet Marketing Ethics "Manifesto"
  7. (+++) (++) (+) ClickBank Finally Cleaning Up Its Marketplace?
  8. After 7 1/2 Months of Blog Riffing...
  9. (++) A Few Ways to Reduce Your Website's Bounce Rate
  10. (+) Want Me to Guest Post on Your Blog?

#1 had a 33% higher bounce rate than #4, 94% higher bounce rate than #7, and 97% higher bounce rate than #10.