Testing

[MartinRussell]

Whereever I have gone on my journey online I have loved the ability to test.

Being online with the traffic flows and measurement options is a direct marketer's heaven - but also for me a danger of getting too sucked into testing the heck out of something rather than just going for quantity of throwing it all at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Anyway, if others have a use for this skill (eg something that makes money, but could make lots more) then I'd be happy to see what I can do to help.

Or if other 'testers' out there have any tips to share I'd love to hear them.

[David_Perdew]

Martin - why don't you start this tip-sharing thing on testing. I'd suggest using your free blog to create a post (http://community.mynams.com/blog.php) and then drive visitors to it here in the forum. Who knows, it could become a guest post on the MyNAMS site :) Great topic.

[MartinRussell]

Hmm David - thanks for the invitation. I've now got that suggestion on my "Ideas" list to let it simmer.

It will help if people here show some interest, and if they, also let me know what they might like in this area. So over to you dear reader.... time to click on Reply, and type your thoughts!

[ChristineCobb]

Why not tell us what you look for when you look at your stats whether it be Google Analytics or something else.

[MartinRussell]

Hmm - let me see if I can give a useful answer to such a broad question.

I look for 'bottlenecks', ie the point in my sales processing that is stopping the rest of everything from working.

So for most people starting out they don't have the traffic, they don't know how to sell or pre-sell, and they don't have much to sell anyway. Everything is a bottleneck.

Over time the points of leverage change.

For example, when I was in the US and did the one speaking engagement I got 'suckered' into there, a guy took me aside after dinner and showed me a postcard he had produced for one of the health products in his MLM. He asked me how he could improve it.

The card looked pretty good, and then he said, "I mailed it out to 40 of my expired customers a month back, got 6 orders and earned just under $1000." So I looked at him and said, "Get it out to more people!" because this guy has a huge downline in his company, and the postcard was generic enough to work for all of them. The money he would earn from getting eyeballs onto that card was much greater than any tweak I could offer him to his copy or formatting.

I like the James Brausch formula of "Traffic + Copywriting + Product (ie number of things people can buy from you) = Successful Internet Business". Your analytics will tell you where to focus on or test next.

[MartinRussell]

Okay - I'm needing help!

Anyone who knows testing has seen the fall of Google Website Optimizer as it was linked in with Analytics which is a good move.

Unfortunately that now changes how I can use it.

Worst of all the new Google option called Content Experiments seems to ONLY allow A/B testing.

Does anyone have a good recommendation for multi-variate testing options for a WordPress blog?

Thanks :)

[ChristineCobb]

Have you looked at Conversion Prophet?

[MartinRussell]

I think I saw it once previously but now GWO is gone, you're right, it's a great one to reexamine. Thanks Christine!