Posts Tagged ‘copywriting’

Split testing works. Use it well, and you will improve your conversion rates, and, thus, your profits. And, if you are advertising, or have significant product costs, raising your conversion rate just a little can raise your profits a lot. But there are many different kinds of split testing software out there.

I can’t discuss every feature of every testing tool out there, but I can give you a major overview of the different kinds of split testing software.

One big distinction is between single variable and multiple variable (multivariate) testing.

Single variable split testing is very simple. You just try stuff and measure the results. And all you need is a tool that rotates and keeps score.

Google offers a single variable split testing tool, but you have to have an Adwords account to use it.

With multivariate testing, you can test many factors at the same time on your page. So, instead of just testing your headline, you can test your headline, your offer, the P.S. statement, and your lead image all at the same time. And with multivariate testing, if it’s set up right, you can use the same amount of traffic testing many variables that you would use to test a single variable.

So there’s the main distinction between single variable testing and multivariate testing. But once you get into the realm of multivariate testing the options seem to multiply again. One difference among multivariate tools is between tools that are hosted on someone else’s server, and ones that you install on the same server as your webpages. Hosted solutions can be slower, and more expensive, but you don’t have to install any software.

The Split Test Accelerator is a good choice if you want to install the software on your server. Kaizentrack is another optoin. If you want a hosted solution, you can look at Sitespect and Vertster.

The next distinction probably causes the most confusion among people looking into split testing for the first time. It’s also more important than the last distinction, becuase it determines how fast and accurate your tests can be. The three kinds of testers are 1) random independent rotators, 2) Taguchi testers, and 3) full-factorial testers. Taguchi ranks first for speed and second for accuracy. Basically Taguchi testing involves using a marvel of mathematics known as “orthogonal arrays”. These have special properties that allow you to test every combination in a space while running only a small fraction of the actual combinations. You have to be a little bit careful about interaction effects with Taguchi testing. The Split Test Accelerator and Kaizentrack are Taguchi testing tools.

If you want to get around interaction effects you can with a full factorial tool. It will take more traffic to avoid the interactions — a lot more — but with a FFT, like Google’s Website Optimizer, you can just see how every combination plays out, and live with the interactions.

The Taguchi and full factorial tools both use arrays to maintain a relationship between the options being served for one factor, and the options being served for another. Some split testers don’t do this, though. They simply treat each factor as independent from the other factors. This leads to more flexible test designs, but also to longer and less accurate tests.

Now that’s just the overview. There are many other features to compare and questions to ask. Does a tester allow you to exclude bots and spiders? Does it allow real time access to data? What kind of reports does it show? What kind of information does it track for each visitor, and is the visitor-level data available for viewing. Etc.

Dominic DeLong has used taguchi testing tools for years to improve web sites.

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The authoring and submitting of articles has of late been very prevalent as a website marketing method. If done properly, this activity can be a highly efficacious way to generate back-links to your site(s).

You don’t have to spend a lot of money, but you will have to spend a great deal of time writing up and submitting your articles to the multitude of accessible article directories and e-zine lists. A good piece of this burden can be relieved if you use an article marketing submission tool, which can be had, gratis or for a fee, from online sources.

You need to take care, when writing your article, to utilize a set of keywords that reflects your niche, as well as all the search engine optimization strategies with which you are familiar; and you need to build the article to be a valuable author resource. Once you have a composition that you feel is “up to snuff”, then copy/paste it into your article marketing software, and click the Submit button.

Is there a problem with this? Oh, yes. If you submit the same exact article text to every existing article directory site, you may not get the plethora of back links you were expecting to get. The top search engines are designed to detect duplication of content and to back link only the “original”.

Is there a solution for this? Yes, although it may not be the most attractive of solutions. Keep up the submissions but submit only one time for each unique article you write. This eliminates the duplication, and assures that you will get your back link for the article. It will take a long time, but eventually, if you submit at least one unique article per week, you will end up with a ton of back links to your website.

So now you are thrilled with the prospect of a flood of traffic brought in by articles you are about to write. Well, that’s good, but you should know that you may have to wait for a good chunk of time for this to manifest! Perhaps you have even tried this before, with good results, then it sort of petered out. The Internet is a ever-changing environment and sometimes what you did there for months doesn’t yield the results you got used to. This can apply to submitting articles as well.

If you want to explode your traffic and really start moving up in Google then you need article submission on your site. Click the link to see an extrodinary tool.

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