FWIW highly successful internet marketer Don Crowther says, and I quote, "1 of the top 5 mistakes online marketers make is: Not Testing!" The basic caution here being, never assume that any element of your internet marketing is working optimally: tweak it, test it, watch your metrics and tweak again, until you concretely identify what brings in the best responses. There are a whole lotta things about selling on the net that are counterintuitive. One non-fiction book seller I know, for instance, experimented with literally tens of different price points for his nf books – and found the single price that sold best was $8.97, specifically, by several percentage points of response. His theory was that the number in cents was just unusual enough to draw customers' eyes, and so make them take a second look at the item (and so lingering with it longer, end up purchasing). It widely outperformed the more traditional (and "intuitive") .99 figure.

At any rate, what works best for your material will continue to be a question mark until you actually test it. Think of it as an ongoing experiment with a cash reward at the end of the process. Good luck, and let us know how it goes! Once you're done melting down, of course.

Pink Raygun has asked if I was interested in writing for their website. The first piece was rejected, I just sent the editor a new piece. Ahem. LOL.

I'm looking forward to reading Splintegate…

On a related note, social scientists observe that the most people we can comfortably keep track of with bonds of (relatively) close association is 150; beyond that number people in our network blend into others who are "out there" and not part of our really interactive connections. (It is no coinkydink that the average user on Facebook has an average of 150 friends). So both of these shows have a body count that is within that outer limit of 150, beyond which we (emotionally) deal with groups of "those people" rather than "my familiy and friends". The smaller the group, the more rapidly the "friend and family" association emerges. For this reason, I would argue that Destiny's crew must necessarily have become closer knit, simply because their numbers were 1/3 smaller than those of Voyager. I was amused by Colonel Young toasting the family they had become (in the last episode, iirc), including even the "crazy uncle" that was Dr. Rush. I think that's reflective of that small(er) group bonding dynamic.