I learned the hard way to pay attention to even small changes.

Recently one of my ecommerce sites started slowing way down on sales. Over a period of several days, it was only pulling in about 30% of its typical sales volume.

I am used to fluctuations in sales to some extent, so I didn't concern myself with it for a few days.

As the fourth day started and sales were still down, I figured something was up.

I started reviewing the site and it dawned on me that the slump in sales corresponded with a minor change that I had made. 4 days prior I had added a new graphic to this particular direct sales letter site.

The graphic was this:

It did not replace any other links to the sales page. I simply put it right next to the existing text only links which read: "to get instant access to this information, click here to order now"

I don't know, I kind of liked it. Apparently my visitors didn't...

I immediately saw an increase in sales and my conversion rate was back up to its normal level.

For whatever reason, the graphic was killing my sales.

The point of this article is not to influence you away from putting this sort of graphic on your site. In fact, your site may do better.

You won't know until you test and track the results. That's the point. I had broken one of my own cardinal rules. I usually make a change and track the results. I failed to do this and it only dawned on me when the results were so bad, they caught my attention.