A few days ago I got an email from somebody who’s developing and creating an audio information product.

He emailed me wanting some advice on testing.

He had learned about the importance of split testing different elements of an ad against each other and wanted to know what I thought about testing the color of the page.

I emailed him back and I said the color of the page may make a difference, you’ve got to test it, but it’s going to be a small thing.

Certainly not one of the first things you should test anyways.

And that's absolutely true.

You see, there are things that are much more important than the color of a page that should be tested first.

One of the world's best copywriters and direct marketers, Gary Halbert, talks about this in terms of there are things that "whisper" and things that "scream" in an ad.

And the first things you want to test are the things that scream -- like your headline and your offer.

In other words, before testing the color of the page, the font of your signature or the thickness of the page border, test your headlines, offers, first sentences, etc. The things that scream.

Those are the things that will usually have the most impact on your response. And by testing them first, you will be saving yourself a lot of time and frustration.