You probably won’t be surprised to find out where I stand on this. The easy answer is to just split test (assuming you have enough taffic – http://blog.revahealth.com/2009/11/sample-sizes-for-ab-testing.html) – but you already knew that.

My theory is that you have to snap people out of their ‘comfort zone’ in some way to get their attention. There needs to be something to poke you in the eyeball a little in order to move you from passively reading, to engaging. I guess this is where copywriters come in. I’d say there are only a few ways of getting attention

* shock (easy)
* humour (harder)
* recognition (as in brand recognition)
* having the words the user is looking for in your title

Shock is a tricky one and your tag line combines a bit of humour to soften the blow. I’m all for that. You will get people who rail against it but as a benchmark, if you get 1 or 2 emails a year complaining about it, your about on the right track.

I’d think in terms of percentages rather than absolutes.

10% people would have preferred the old tag line (and clicked it)
10% would have skipped the old tagline but like yours
75% makes no difference to them
5% get offended and don’t click

Of course figuring out what these percentages are is the tricky bit. I would argue however that having triggered some kind of emotional response from your reader, they are more likely to ‘do’ something. Emotional responses heighten our energy levels and make us more prone to suggestion. I’m not trying to brainwash anyone here , but at a guess I’d say that someone who is already smiling by the time they get to your reviews is more likely to contribute and get involved than someone who is not.

I’d suggest ferreting out some of the more humorous categories and putting them up front. Maybe even seeding a few. Some suggestions:

‘Presents most likely to get my gf to consent to a threesome’ (bit weak)
‘Best heap of crap Jap import that I can buy for $900′
‘Best piece of technology I can buy to ignore the fact I have tax returns to make’

My favourite exponents of this kind of thing are over at http://www.theregister.co.uk. They take, frankly, mostly driery press releases about new RAID arrays etc and make them interesting.

I have to day though, I like the ‘before you buy it’ bit though. Very strong appeal to people’s insecurity.

It’s interesting you’re the third person who has mentioned the design to me today (and how it could be improved). I kinda liked it…but now I’m starting to reconsider! :)