Hey there everyone. I've noticed that while everyone says you need to split test, there aren't very many tools available to help someone get the job done. Even the simplest split-testing tools are being sold for cash or at best are given as enticements with other tools or products. Part of the reason for that is because it's so easy to do if you know any code, I think. But whatever the reason no one seems to have brought out a nice piece of freeware for this simple and much needed task. So, I tackled it. I'm posting a free simple split testing script in PHP that allows you to split test 2 HTML content files, tracks pageviews, can be used to track clickthroughs as well, and provides you with a detailed log of all of the views and clicks it receives. It's VERY light on features at the moment, but it covers the basics and gets you some stats. Without a database. So you can run it pretty much anywhere you can write to disk using PHP without any sort of configuration or database access needed. You don't even have to know how to write HTML to split test using this script. The script is totally beta at this point, no one has used it but me. You are the first to get access to it. Hopefully that means that rather than calling me a bunch of names if you have a problem you'll let me know about it so I can fix it If anybody wants it, here it is: http://freebies.enspherant.com/copysplitter/ I'm considering releasing several other simple tools to help people in their affiliate marketing and vending efforts over the updoming days. In fact, I plan to release a clickbank product shortly. That's the reason for this being in the clickbank forum, of course. So anyone who's interested please give the script a shot, and let me know what you think. I haven't released or announced this script anywhere else, so I'll be providing DP users some support here while I get my own forums together. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your tools! I personally use Google's Website Optimiser: http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer It's free, and although not open source, will do A/B tests as well as complex multivariate tests. What'd I'd really like thought is a hosted solution that lets me have finer control over the split process. Larger funnels with several conversion points, and different value conversion points.
You're Welcome. Thank you very much if you could be bothered to try it out I didn't know that the website optimizer had this capability, that's awesome. This simple script I wrote can also perform multivariable tests, it can track every link on both sets of copy simultaneously, if you configure them properly. The detailed link tracking allows you to determine not only which page is converting more visitors, but also exactly which link is being clicked every time a customer clicks through. This is not only good for testing sales copy but good for testing visitor response to almost any sort of interactive web interface. Also, because the script performs all of it's logging and then sends the user your complete HTML document, you can use all of the same analytics and other statistics or tracking tools that you normally use while split testing with this script. Most of them won't even receive any indication that you're conducting a split test. -Zero script configuration required (there is some optional configuration) -Minimum HTML modification (link tracking codes only) -You host the script and all of your own logs/statistics -Split test at any level of granularity you like, on almost any server -50/50 split or random copy I haven't tested this yet, but you could probably modify this script in a minor fashion (edit a file-type parameter) and even use it to split test module or plugin versions transparently. Of course, you don't have to do any of that stuff, to use the script. Does the Google tool require you to add tracking code to your pages (or other code) or is it some google-icious javascript magic? I'll probably research later, but I'm curious now Can you explain to me what you mean by that? I understand the hosted solution part, although it's always my preference to host my own data and statistics where that's reasonable. What do you mean by "Larger Funnels", "several conversion points", or "different value conversion points"? I'm assuming that by different value conversion points, you are referring to something along the lines of tracking whether a customer converts at the offer price or at the exit price, etc...? IS this the same thing you mean by "several conversion points"? I'm completely serious, and I could be interested in providing said solution. Would you care to share some more of your thoughts here?
So... Imagine I have a product with an exit popup, an upsell and several other up and downsells along the way. For example, a $49 initial offer followed by a $39 exit downsell or a $79 upsell. The downsell is followed by another small $29 offer, and the upsell follow by a $69 downsell. And so on... Basically I'd want to be able to track traffic through each path along the funnel, monitor conversion rates at every point, earnings at every point and eventually calculate the optimal path and starting point. Plus I'd want to be able to do fine grained testing of individual parts of a page (which I can do with Google's multivariate but it's a bit of a pain to set up), as well as tracking visitors over several tests (eg, what % subscribe to the newsletter, and what % of them reach the end of the subscription, and what % buy at each point along the autoresponder series, etc). Would I pay for it? Perhaps. If it were complete enough and easy to use. But being a professional programmer I'd probably just build something myself. It definitely needs doing by someone - Google is OK for some stuff but it's too complex for anything else, and I haven't come across a great tracking/testing package yet. Unless anyone else has seen anything floating around?
Ahhh, ok. "I'm a programmer, and I know exactly what I want, but I'll be darned if I have the time to build it. If someone did it well enough I might actually pay for it." You, Sir, are the toughest customer out there, and much like myself in this regard. I could split test a 1000 word article word for word and add traffic stats and conversion tracking codes in less time than it would take me to get through the intro docs for Google's web site optimizer. Not bragging, there are a lot of people like me, but that's where I am. That's why I've never used their stuff, and didn't realize they provided split testing tools. Of course, the fact that it didn't come up in over 8 hours of research (mostly searching google and bing for references and tools) tells you that they're continuing to have similar problems to what I have, excellent tools, poorly explained and/or marketed. They depend solely on word of mouth. But unlike me, with a frickin' quadjillion hits a month, it's working for them I'm seriously trying to change that. All right, so here's what I'm thinking. What you really need is a good analytics tool. I mean, one that is targeted for this sort of testing. I'm guessing that you already have most of the raw data you need. And back to my earlier comment, I'm not loading all of that data into anyone's hosted solution, unless it's directly profitable for ME. If you program for the web, at one point or another you've probably seen some "raw" web traffic data, it's an overwhelming flood of data, even for a small segment of a modest network. It takes a fraction of a second to record a data transaction. You can spend years finding new ways to divine useful or profitable information from a collection of those logs The thing about the split testing is, you don't want to test your whole funnel at once, right? You test at "pressure"or "squeeze" points and "conversion" points, working your way through the system. Of course, I'm speaking theory here, if you've set up a whole funnel of split/rotating content at once I'd love to hear about your experience. In any case, I wouldn't tackle that analytics package without a guaranteed return. The value in it's use is questionable and depends on the level of effort you want to invest in working with it after it's already in place, too. And it STILL requires that you understand what you're doing, and learn how to ask the right questions to make profitable use of the data. I removed cookies from this script because the analytics required to make them useful would have taken this product FAR beyond "freebie" status for me. That's far beyond the scope of this thread, in fact it starts me thinking that perhaps some e-books and video tuts are in order, LOL. As far as this tool (back on-topic with the thread) it will get a beginner started, and once you're familiar with it's use you can gather much of the information you're interested in. Single or multiple point conversion tracking from split copy on a particular page, tracking pageviews for each version of the copy as well as clickthroughs from multiple conversion points on each variant. The same script can run conversion tracking against any page on the web. It can track form submissions, responses to popups and alerts, any time a customer action results in a response from the server, this script can make a note of it for you. If you have IDd the link you can infer almost anything else you want from there. It's all about the time you personally choose to spend at your analysis. Oh did I mention no database, and works transparently with all of your other analytics and tracking tools? This is a flexible tool that is simple enough for a beginner to use. If you're not split testing your copy at all, and you've been curious about it, feel free to give this script a shot heh, I've never tried to "sell" a free script before.