September 2, 2011

Alan Editor Test

We're back from Wikimania and have just completed our first test with an editor appeal from a Wikimania interview. On Friday, the fundraising team tested a new appeal from Wikipedia editor Alan Sohn against Jimmy's founder appeal. We're happy to report that Alan's appeal performed on par with Jimmy's appeal. This is the first time we've seen a non-staff member's appeal compete on the same level with Jimmy!

File:Jimmyvssteven191.png

Jimmy Banner

Alan Appeal Highlights

Used Alan's own words copied straight from his interview transcription.
Clearly described his personal connection to Wikipedia.
Directly addressed the need for donations.
Included the specific comparison among top 5 websites.

The results from this test are really encouraging. In the coming weeks, you'll see more appeals tested from our ongoing interviews. We will be interviewing people from all different areas of the world over the next several months. If you're interested in sharing your story and explaining in your own words why donating is important, please send a message to wikistory@wikimedia.org.

Mhernandez 19:47, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Raw Statistics

title	impressions	views	donations	amount	amount50	avg_donation	avg_donation50	click_rate	don_per_imp	amt_per_imp	amt50_per_imp	don_per_view	amt_per_view	amt50_per_view
Alan	773462	10092	83	2135.36	1683.75	23.77	17.69	0.013202	0.000104	0.002688	0.002114	0.008107	0.205567	0.162347
Jimmy	773478	11126	122	2083.11	1820.63	18.96	15.89	0.014616	0.000154	0.002623	0.002302	0.010786	0.182511	0.160784

Report

File:C_0209_Alan_EN.pdf

US Form Design Test

To improve this year's fundraiser, we're working to accept more currencies and payment methods in different countries than we have accepted in the past. Our donation form will have to change quite a bit to be able to use these new methods, so in our latest test we tried out a new form design. Our current donation form is a two-step page, where you select your donation amount on the first page and enter your personal information (name, billing address, and email) and credit card information on the second page. From the first page, if you select an amount and the PayPal option, you are taken straight to PayPal and not our second step credit card page.

The new form we tested, placed the personal information fields (name, address, and email) on the first step with donation amount. The second step only asked for credit card information. This new page was tested against our standard two-step form we used throughout last year's fundraiser that does not include the personal information or credit card fields on the first page.

Our control form without the fields on the first step did significantly better than the new form, especially for the number of PayPal donations. We're working on a new form this week that will keep the personal information fields on the first page but also allow PayPal donors to continue without filling out these fields.

Form without personal information fields

In the next few tests, we will try different donation form layouts and designs to make the donation process as clear and easy for donors as possible.

Mhernandez 20:48, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Raw statistics

title	views	donations	total_clicks	amount	amount50	avg_donation	avg_donation50	don_per_view	amt_per_view	amt50_per_view
No extra fields on 1st step	22354	496	496	10213.50	8813.50	20.03	17.36	0.022020	0.457173	0.391322
Extra fields on 1st step	22117	411	411	9959.00	8259.00	22.94	19.24	0.018510	0.446866	0.371198

Full report: File:C ExtraInfo 0902 US.pdf