I don't call a 1.5% change big. A more appropriate title 'Small UI changes, less results'?

I have changed the wording on pages before to get 40% better conversions.

I bow to your awesomeness. The overall improvement between designs was 12% overall. The article is one post in a series where the overall conversion goes from 10.3% to 14%.

You guys continue to impress. That's a pretty big jump for a small amount of work.

Did you check to see if the conversion to paid fluctuated? I would be incredibly surprised if it did more than 0.5% from the start of the trial to the end.

Also depending on the sample size "big" is subjective - because they take paying customers they result could be anywhere from $900-5000 more each month.

Once there was this project which increased Google's ad revenues by 1.5%....

Thought-provoking. Please share more of the tweaks as you discover them, both what works and what doesn't.

The results are small. 2% change in something that is fluctuating anyways is minor - the numbers are unimportant, a 2% change does not qualify as big results.

Joel, you need to check out Google Website Optimizer. It tells you when the change is proven. I'd love a 2 minute change to result in a 2%+ in conversion.