Every Friday almost half a million businesspeople receive the (by
request only) BizTravel.com email newsletter. Site producer
Ronnie Smith tries to select content that's so compelling that
after seeing a short summary in their newsletter, readers will
click through to read more on the site itself (and then hopefully
be cross-sold on buying other BizTravel.com products.)

When cartoonist Marc Tyler Nobleman approached Smith with a
proposal for the newsletter, she wasn't very sure that humorous
drawings would be a big draw for busy businesspeople. Smith
says, "It's cute, but that's what it is -- cute. I didn't think
it was as enticing as a column on frequent flyer miles that we
know our readers will just love." However, she decided to test
adding a cartoon in January 2001.

The results surprised everyone. Smith says, "We got so many
click throughs on it that my CEO totally loved it!" In fact the
first month's cartoon pulled the second highest click through
rate of all of that week's articles. Then the following month's
cartoon shot to the number one spot for click throughs. Now
Smith supports traffic to the cartoon on the site by adding a
link next to other articles that reads, "If you need a good laugh
click here." And as it turns out, that's exactly what many
businesspeople do need these days.