Test... don't make the same mistake I did!
After more than three years in business online I finally got serious about testing. In just a short time I've boosted my conversion by up to 50%... and I've still got a long ways to go. Some of the things I've discovered through testing are counter-intuitive; I never would have guessed the outcome on my own.
For example, video is all the rage and many people think they can boost coversion by using it. I produced a good video and tested it against my standard sales page. Voila! I saw a small but still significant increase in coversion.
But then I tested the video page against a new page version without video - and the video lost! So now I don't have a video on my page. I'll probably try another type of video in the future... but I'll be testing it!
Why did I not test for so long? One reason was laziness. It can seem like a lot of work the first time. But once you do it you see how easy it really is.
Also, I think I was also over-confident in my personal judgements. I figured I could guess and predict visitor behavior... but I've finally learned that it's impossible.
Finally, I thought I'd get similar results by simply making a change to the sales page and then watching my sales rate. Of course, that doesn't work either: sales can go up or down at any time for reasons not connected to your changes being "tested".
The lesson here is don't accept any excuse for not testing! Start testing from day one and make it an important part of your strategy.
And there's no reason to ever stop either. There will never be a time when I'll be content to stop testing things. Improvements may slow over time but you can always improve something.
If you're not testing you're just taking shots in the dark!