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Thanks to one of my favourite tactics for increasing the number of leads I generate with my sites, it’s very possible to double the amount of visitors you convert into subscribers – with just 10 minutes of work – today. The process also makes the challenge of attracting new customers far easier to conquer.
It’s one of the most effective tactics used to grow internet empires yet there’s a good chance you’re not even using it. People who have been in the internet marketing world for a while now will know what I’m referring to, but for everyone else, allow me to introduce you to Split-Testing. The basis for another in-depth tutorial and exclusive ViperChill case study.
Split testing, in it’s simplest form, is testing elements of a web page against each other, to see which convince more visitors to perform a desired action. For example, you may want to see which eBook cover graphic on a free giveaway page tempts more people to give you their email address.
The reason that marketers like myself split test is pretty simple: We can make a lot more money and convert more visitors into subscribers, without having to get more traffic.
For a few years I strayed away from split testing, assuming that it was too complex for me to implement or I just wasn’t getting enough website visitors for it to matter. I was wrong. My income has increased dramatically thanks to split-testing, and it’s something you can implement on your website today with ease.
I’m going to first show you some of my own split test examples, then talk about how you can set-up split testing yourself, and finally cover which page elements I recommend that you test the most.
Squeeze Page Header Variations (DOUBLED Conversions)
There is a page on this site where I give away a free eBook on how I grew ViperChill to over 10,000 subscribers in 12 months. I send visitors to the page mostly through this site, but also through purchasing Solo Ads on Warrior Forum. I talk more about Solo Ads in this video if you want to learn more about them.
For this split test all I changed was the words in the headline of the page. Here is how they compared. Note: To interpret the following figures be aware that 54.2% means, for example, 54 out of every 100 visitors would convert (give away their email address) using this headline variation.
Headline #1: “Discover How You Can Grow Your Blog to 10,000+ Subscribers in Just 12 Months” 24.2% Conversion Rate
Headline #2: “My Free PDF Reveals How to Get 10,000+ Blog Subscribers in Just 12 Months” 34.3% Conversion Rate
Headline #3: “Discover How This Very Blog Grew to 10,000+ Subscribers in Just 12 Months” 54.2% Conversion Rate
In the initial stages the figures were actually the total opposite to what they are now. The bottom headline converted the best for warm and cold traffic (people who had never been to ViperChill before) in the end.
I also tested a version of this page with no white bar in the header, leaving no way for a visitor to click off the page. Even after hundreds of conversions, there was no statistically significant difference between having the header and not having it.
CloudBlogging Add to Cart Button
When I launched CloudBlogging I also shared an interesting statistic about people who were visiting my sales page and actually purchasing the product. Even though there were over 4,000 words on the sales page, changing just the ‘Add to Cart’ button that people had to click on to purchase the product made a dramatic difference.
Making the button stand out more and changing the wording above it improved the conversion rate by 39%. The button style with the dashes around it is known as a “Belcher Button” as it was made popular by the marketer Perry Belcher.
The Power of Negative Subject Lines
Not only do I test the pages that convert visitors into subscribers or customers, I also perform ‘split test broadcasts’ when sending out emails with Aweber. This allows me to see which variations of a message get the most opens and entice people to click on links.
I could then use that headline again in the future for new subscribers, or even just keep it in mind for use in a future blog post.
Negativity in subject lines always seems to help me get more opens due to its emotional impact. If you’re going to use this though, I recommend you do so sparingly.
Why Split-Test?
The reason I split test is simply because I can make more money and convert more visitors into subscribers with the same amount of traffic. Though in the later stages of your testing it’s usually easier to double the traffic you send to the page than it is to double your conversion rate, you can make a big impact in the early days.
I said at the end of CloudBlueprint that the people who split-test and optimize their whole marketing strategy the most are generally the people I know who make the most money. If I was personally starting from scratch when it comes to making money online I would follow the Blueprint strategy and do nothing but conversion rate optimisation.
If you can optimise your squeeze and/or pitch pages to get great conversion rates, and then do the same with your sales pages, you put yourself in a much better position than your competitors in your niche. Most people simply don’t do any split-testing on their pages, and they’re really missing out.
There is no reason not to be optimising the conversion rate of your website. After all, you can create tests in minutes, for free, and test virtually anything on your pages. Things like clicks on certain links, people purchasing products, or people filling in sections of a form can be tracked with ease.
The Two Tools I Recommend
There are two tools that I personally recommend when it comes to split-testing. They are Google’s own Google Website Optimizer which is a free tool, and Visual Website Optimizer which is a paid tool.
The different between the two is a little like the difference between Google Analytics and GetClicky. Many of us are moving over to Clicky for the real-time analytics side of things, which enables us to react to traffic spikes as they happen (and convert more visitors).
Visual Website Optimizer in this case is the real-time solution, with Google Website Optimizer having a fairly long wait before showing changes (most notable when your traffic levels are low).
If I’m totally honest, the real time aspect of VWO was not actually enough to tempt me to pay for their service. Though, I am more than happy to since it’s a great solution overall. Whenever I try to use Google Website Optimizer it just never seems to work for me. Granted, I haven’t tried in a couple of weeks, but I could only ever get it to track a few conversions before it would stop updating (even when I knew there were hundreds).
I looked for help with the service online and found people in a similar situation, but no resolution in sight. It was then that I signed up for the free (for 30 days) version of VWO and have used it ever since. If Google Website Optimizer works for you then that should be more than enough for your needs.
How to Split-Test
There are multiple ways to test variations of a page design. Multivariante testing, for example, changes multiple elements of your page on the fly, to find the combination which converts the most visitors. A/B split testing, which is what I mostly use, sends traffic between two different URL’s where you can test varying designs.
When I launched Cloud Blogging, some people were taken to CloudBloggingHQ.com while others were taken to CloudBloggingHQ.com/hq/ and similar URL’s. Each page included variations of certain elements like the headline I used. This is so I could test which version of the sales page convinced more people to purchase the product. I ended up changing 8 elements from the original page very early on and made more money for doing so. I still have more things I want to test.
When split testing, it’s important to test as few elements as you can at a time. Ideally, you should only ever be testing one change against another. I prefer to take my time with the whole process so I can get a high-converting page which will benefit me over the long-term.
When you sign up to either of the two tools above, you’ll need to go through their own wizards which help you create your first test. If this is your first time, then I would set-up a split URL test / A/B Test, and then create another page on your site, slightly different to the one you want to improve.
On the new page and the page you’re testing, simply paste the javascript code you are given in the header section of each of them. You’ll have to do this in whatever CMS you’re using or manually if you’re using static HTML files.
A small guide to split testing using WordPress as your CMS, can be found below…
How to Fully Split-Test on WordPress
Though I haven’t actually tried it, pasting the javascript code you get from either VWO or GWO the HTML tab on WordPress should work fine. Otherwise you can add it to your header file by going to Appearance >> Editor >> header.php and adding it there.
Add all of your code just before the closing < / head > tag and save the file.
If you want to perform big changes in terms of variations then it’s not always easy to do so with the typical WordPress WYSIWYG page editor. I highly recommend OptimizePress to anyone who wants to be able to style squeeze page and sales pages easily so they can vary different elements.
Shown above, OptimizePress is a popular theme for WordPress which I’ve mentioned a few times on this site. It really does take the pain out of creating sales and squeeze pages.
Another alternative is to create static HTML files on your site. For the 10,000 Subscribers eBook page, that’s exactly what I did. All you have to do is go to the blog post / page that will be the original page alongside your variation and view its source code. You can do this on any browser by going to the necessary variation of View > Page Source. Then, copy all of that code into a text editor (I use TextWrangler, for Mac) and save the file.
You can then upload it to a new folder on your server, and edit the page. That way you can remove things like the header from your WordPress page, which wouldn’t have been possible with the original editor. Make sure you include the javascript code from either VWO or GWO and you’re good to go.
If you need some ideas on what to split test, then keep reading…
What to Split-test
The three most common elements things I like to split test are…
- The Headline – As shown in the 10K eBook example above, changing the wording of your headline – even just slightly – can have a huge effect on your overall conversion rate.
- The Offer – Not what you’re offering, but the format that it’s in. You can see big changes between giving away a PDF on a squeeze page compared to a video or podcast in certain industries.
- The Button – Whether it’s your “Free Access” button on a squeeze page or “Add to Cart” button on a sales page, changing the colours and wording of this element can also have a positive impact on your bottom line.
The best thing about split-testing is that you really can test as many things as you want. You can see which sidebar variation convinces people to opt-in to your blog or just get more people signing up for your freebies on your about page. The only limit to this is your imagination.
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to ask me in the comments below. If you understand everything then you’re now in a position to get a lot more out of the traffic your sites currently receive.
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I always appreciate how detailed your posts are. For instance with this one, showing your readers different scenarios for titles and what works best really helps us use our head when thinking of creative post titles. The images help a lot as well to paint a picture as some learn better from images.
Thanks Frank,
Glad you enjoyed it
Hey Glen,
Great post! I have a bunch a camera sites in my niche portfolio that are all building one list and when I started split testing, I was stunned at the results. In one case, changing two words more than doubled my optin rate. In another case, simply adding an image to the text that was already there also had a huge impact.
If you’ve never split tested before, its not that hard and its very, very, very worth it!
Love your blog, dude.
Trent
Thanks Trent, I really appreciate that.
Great to hear about your results!
Fantastic Post Glen,
I remember all the Split-testing we did with Cloud-Blogging. It’s amazing how such simple changes can make a huge difference to conversion rates.
Split-testing can literally double your sales overnight.
Some nice reading before going to bed!
Mmm might purchase the squeeze theme soon…
Thanks Glen!
You’re welcome Ralph,
Enjoy!
P.S. Thanks to everyone who joined the forums (http://www.viperchill.com/vip/)
Amazed to see over 1,000 people there already! The VIP section will become a monthly fee on Sunday so if you want in, check it out now
Just woke up to this amazing blog post. I know its going to be a good day! lol
I appreciate all the details you go in too Glen. Seeing your own personal results is what really drives the point home. People want to see that it actually works and that split-testing makes a difference.
I will definitely be looking to doing more testing in the future. Bookmarked this as a guide!
-Stephen
Hah, thanks Stephen.
Good to see you signing up to the forum as well!
Appreciate the comment
Finally!
I always hear how great split testing is and how much it helps you to improve conversion butnobody takes the time to explain it in detail. to be honest, I was very confused.
Thanks for this post, Glen.
Cristina
You’re welcome Cristina
Rrrr
The one element to making money online that most people miss is the conversions side of traffic. I think this is for two reasons.
1: It is analytical and noone wants to face the truths that something might not be working, and
2: Viperchill has not written an epic post on the subject.
Now people only have 1 reason to avoid looking at this aspect
Thanks for doing what you do best, perhaps you should be changing your name to Glen AllEpic instead?
Bookmarked and shared – but then that’s becoming the norm now (a lesson in an of itself really)
Hah, you made me laugh with the surname suggestion on Twitter.
Thank you very much for the kind words Alex. I appreciate the support
Thanks Glen,
I know that split testing the absolute crap out of my new cloudblogging landing page is going to be imperative to achieving my permanent departure from full time employment. Bring on the passive income!
Enjoy!
Just what I need at the moment!
Getting a 54% conversion rate from a squeeze page from both cold and sold traffic is really awesome. The best I get to my squeeze page is 32%, but I guess I haven’t been split testing much.
I also love your sales page split testing advice and I’ll be implementing it soon.
I have both Optimizepress and Premise, but if it were left to you, which will you choose to create a sales page?
I think the main advantage Premise has is that it is actually a plugin and it can work with any theme while OptimizePress is a theme on its own which you will need to install.
I don’t know which one is easier to use since I never really used Premise but I can say that OptimizePress is pretty awesome and it makes creating sales and squeeze pages really simple.
Maybe you should split test? Make a squeeze page with OpimizePress and one with Premise and see which one converts better…
I think you made a great point. I’ll split test both
If you do this, try to use the same wording.
i would be interested.
Nice idea
Good to hear Oni,
I haven’t used Premise (didn’t really like the look of the demo’s) as OptimizePress is fine for me
Hi Glen, first came across split-testing on your Cloud Blueprint videos. It is a bit too advanced for me at the moment (i.e. I need some traffic first!) but I have bookmarked this article in anticipation!
Fair enough, Tom
Good luck to you when you come back to it!
Hey Glenn,
WpOptimize is a theme. You wouldn’t happen to know of any plug-ins that do the same thing (a/b split test), would ya?
I know. I did say that in the post
You can either do the static HTML route like I mentioned (view the page source of a blog page and upload it to your server) or split test different pages by putting the code in your header.php file.
thanks Glen…missed the “theme” part. Feeling a little stupid right now for scanning rather than reading and just clicked the aff. link…
hah no worries
Extremely informative post Glen, as always!
The design of your landing pages and buttons is actually quite beautiful. Wondering if you’ve ever tried testing really ugly landing pages to see if they convert better?
I’ve read somewhere before that ugly landing pages convert better for product reviews.
Also, when you’re creating a new site, do you wait till you have certain traffic numbers before you start testing? The traffic to most of my sites is so tiny that I think any testing wouldn’t yield any meaningful results.
Thank you Paul
I try to start testing as early as possible (and yes I’ve had ugly pages. It depends on the niche. Pretty in the IM field seems to work well); there’s really no reason not to.
Nice post.
Question: I use wordpress and have a site wide side bar with a subscribe box at the top. How can I split test the side bar?
I looked for a plugin for this but there were no options.
The option I used was to split-test a high traffic page (such as your about page) by having a static non-Wordpress variation of it online as well.
In the plain HTML file you could edit the sidebar (for the about page variation) and then see which converts better overall. Then, use the final version on the actual blog.
I will give that a try on the beginners section of my blog – fishing-blog.co.uk thanks for the response
No problem. Good luck!
This might work for you if you’re looking to split test different options on your sidebar.
You need to install a plugin called Widget Context. It creates a box on each of the widgets on your sidebar allowing you controll over where they show – homepage only, on specific pages, in certain categories, etc.
Create a widget for each of the alternatives you want to text – e.g. different optin boxes (I usually do optin boxes in untitled text box widgets).
Then create two identical pages, say test1 and test2.
Use use the Widget Context box to activate one of your widgets on page test1 and not on page test2 – and vice versa for the other widget. The esiest way to do this is to check the box marked “Show on selected” and put the page name (as it appears in the permalink – e.g. test1 or test2).
Then you do your split test by either showing page 1 or page 2. Since they’re identical apart from the one widget that’s different, you’ll actually be testing what you have in that widget on the sidebar.
If you want you can extend to having completely different sidebars and testing those. But usually best to test one thing at a time.
Ian
PS Personally, I use widget context to make sure that the only thing in the sidebar on certain pages of my site is the optin box. I also use it to remove the sidebar optin box from my homepage (because I already have a giant full-width optin box on it)
Thanks for this response, Ian!
This excellent! Exactly what I needed to test my opt-in form. My root page and my recipes page get just about the same traffic each month, so I’m going to use this plugin to change the one on the recipes page.
Great post Glen, and great plugin recommendation Ian.
-j
Great stuff, Glenn!
To riff on your email split-test ideas, you can also benefit on a split test for a single email broadcast. Say you have a large list with 100,000 subs. You could, say, split-test two different subjects to two small segments of 1,000 each and see which has the higher open rate. Then, after few hours of data from your split test, you could send the email with the better-performing subject to your remaining 98,000 subs. You would then benefit from a higher open rate on those 98,000 email sends.
This feature is actually automated on Mailchimp, which is pretty cool: http://mailchimp.com/features/ab-split-testing/.
Hey Bob
Yeah, good point. That’s something I’ve done quite a few times.
My list size was very small in this case (1,800) so I didn’t really bother, but I highly recommend it for bigger audiences.
Hey Glen, thanks for this. I have a question – what if I want to split-test WordPress elements that aren’t part of the landing page (for example, a widget on the sidebar, or something). Is there a solution that you recommend for that kind of testing?
Let me know if you find an answer. I am desperate for a solution for this
Already replied to you, Jamie.
Answered above
Glen,
Great stuff, as always. Love the split testing advice. I will be adding few option forms on my site sidebar, after the content and on few other places to see if it converts well.
I will also try this with one of my niche blog and will see how it works.
It is awesome, how changing some words in headline can make so much difference.
Thanks for sharing this awesome stuff with us.
~Dev
No problem Dev.
Great to see you over here again
Split testing and all this great stuff, I guess I have to start creating digital products to give away huh?
I guess so
Glen,
Interesting post, I’ve been an advocate of a/b testing in previous jobs but my views are wavering and I think there is still a lot about this kind of work that isn’t quite mathematically or statistically significant enough for us to make major decisions on.
From your example – 34% clicked through on page A, 26% clicked through on Page B. Therefore we presume a switch to Page A will get improved click rates across the board. But A/B testing doesn’t tell us how many of the group that didn’t click through on Page B would have clicked through on Page A, and we’ll never know that, because they don’t see both pages and they don’t make a choice between the two. They just make a yes/no choice against the one option you give them.
I don’t know what sample size you’d need, or what size of sample in your pre-existing click through data you’d need to be certain any changes absolutely would make a difference. 100? 1000? 10000? 100000?
Cheers,
David.
David – the split testing services like google website optimizer tell you how confident they are that one version actually beats the other based on the number of tests performed. They show quite a lot of stats which will tell you whether the results you’ve got can be relied upon or not.
You can see some details of what they show here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=61146
Aweber doesn’t show such detail and I’d be a bit more wary of some of the results there. For example, I once sent the exact same email with the exact same headline to two different groups of about 600+ people. The open rates in one group were about 10% higher than the other. it was just pure random variation. Unfortunately, Aweber doesn’t give you the tools to see what was random variation and what was statistically significant – you’d have to work that out for yourself.
Ian
Thanks Ian, Looks like an interesting read, think I need to do a course on statistics to really understand a lot of this…
Thanks for your reply, Ian
Hey Glen, just what I needed cuz I’ve been looking more into split testing, but what I’m wondering is how can I send search traffic to different versions of my home page when most of my traffic is search traffic to a specific URL?
How do I do that without creating redirects and possibly mess with the SEO I’ve done for my site’s home page?
Search engine spiders will see the original only I believe, not the variation. If you’re not getting traffic to your homepage at all then no, you can’t really test that.
You can test variations of pages that are getting traffic though. Just make sure they offer the same type of content. Block the variation from search engines with your robots.txt file if you’re worried about it.
Glen, another great post !!! I’m gonna have to re-read it as there is a great deal of info here..Thanks again
You’re welcome Mary
It would have been much better if this was a video tutorial. After a whole day’s work I just can’t focus and read.
And after a whole days work people tell me I should have made a video instead.
Thanks for the information. I had heard about split testing and I wanted to know more about it and it is lucky that I read this blog often.
Thank you for being here
Glen, good post. I’ve started doing some split testing on my squeeze page and I’ve had some interesting results.
I’ve found Google Website Optimizer works fine – I guess you were getting the correct JavaScript to go in the correct pages? – anyway you’ve got some great results with the alternative so that’s great!
Hi Rob
Yeah all was fine. As I say, it would test the first few conversions and never go further than that…
This is a great post Glen and I cho everyone else’s comments regarding the level of detail you put in the posts and the number of examples. Human behavoir is something that is hard to predict unless you can test.
One example that I came across a few years ago when testing websites with a friend was whether or not to include a currency converter on a page. The client wanted the converter inlcuded as he was Canadian but had alot of US clients. When they added the currency converter, conversions dropped 15% as viewers were not focusing on converting $$$ and not clicking on BUY NOW. So its worth mentioning if there are others out there wondering if that makes a difference.
Anything one does to “interupt” the sales process can hurt conversion.
Again, awesome, detailed post! Keep up the great posts….we love them!
Gordon
Thank you Gordon,
You should like tomorrow’s then!
That’s an interesting example. Thank you for sharing
Interesting stuff, Glen. I’m guilty of not doing as much testing as I should, even though I know how important it is.
I think the biggest hurdles for me are getting everything to work correctly and figuring out which elements are the most important ones to test. Obviously, if you’re selling something or soliciting opt-ins on a squeeze/sales page, your goals are pretty clear, but it’s a little foggier on blogs (or maybe that means I need to do a little more thinking about what specifically I want visitors to do when they get to my site…).
Definitely some good places to start in your article, though!
Hi Glen, this is a great blog! I just found out about it through Pat Flynn’s blog and I just have to say you have some truly helpful posts!
It’s pretty crazy how making such subtle changes in wording can make such a big difference in conversion rates. I’ve just started split testing with my email list and I think I will start with some of my blogs too.
Thanks for the post, I’ll be back frequently
Hey Carmine,
Really glad you’re enjoying the blog. Thanks for the comment
Great article Glen.
I haven’t tried testing anything I had to offer. I thought it was too complicated for me. I should give it a try.
How is clicky so far?
Clicky is great. I’ve been using it for almost two years now
Hey Glen,
thanks for sharing your results.
The headline test surprised me too. I thought the “how you…” always outperforms the others.
But you never know untill you test!
Thank you very much for reminding me to increase my testings!
André
You’re welcome Andre!
Thanks for the comment
I guess I am a cold visitor hopefully I shall become a warm visitor. Nice post. Need to catch up.
Hah, thank you Gadel!
Hey Glen, great post. Just wanted to let you know one conversion change says 39% when I think you mean 3.9%
Hey Dylan,
It’s a 39% improvement over the original…
Let me try this and I will increase my subscriber. Nice post.
Let me know how it goes
I got a lot of benefits here. thanks for info
awsome post..thanks for sharing
You’re welcome!
Great Article, the header post difference surprised me with such a drastic difference on the one that merely states how you did it instead of how to get 10,000+.
Testing is really important, sometimes a simply display or image can make a difference. The worst part is that there isn’t really any explicable reason for it, it’s just a fact.
Nice post, very simple – how advanced would you say one had to be before setting up the spilttesting, and how many readers should one have before one begins to test this?
All the best
Simon
It’s never too early to start testing
A simple yet effective strategy to improve traffic and clicks throughs. Thanks for the very useful article.
Hi Glen.
A very informative post indeed. Thanks for sharing. It tells me how much I have to do more to be able to catch up, being a newbie…The responses from readers are also awesome! Please keep it up! Thanks. Jaime
thanks for the post. I’m a newbie to blogging and have been following your blogging case study with interest and dipping into your posts on this site too. all really informative. I’m learning loads
Really enjoying all your posts. I’m fairly new to blogging and now have so many ideas! Thanks.
Wow, really enjoyed this post.
So thorough and helpful, and I liked how you focused on each aspect which makes it easier to implement on my own blog.
Thanks.
thank you very much for your post!
I’m a beginner in AB-Testing.
your site is boooookmarked
Thanks for sharing! I personally did not try split testing but I have seen many people implementing that method. After reading this post, I have a better understanding on how split testing works.
Hi Glen
Loved your site. I believe I have just bookmarked a valuable site with this one. Big up
About the split testing: I heard there’s some HTML code to mask my URL (instead of mysite.com/index1 just /index) but I cannot find it.
Would you point me in the right direction?
Thanks a ton
Wim
Definitely going to be trying split testing on my site.
Great post, i like when somebody actually write exact conversions rates as they are, along with changes and improvement.
Actually A/B or split testing is EVERYTHING. When u have some smart-ass in team, who “knows” things, it’s simple. Test it. We had 4 different landing page – it sick, how little things can change conversions and ROI.
Also. I am reading now famous book “The Lean Startup” and basically, is all about hypothesize and test it.
Hi Glen, I know its an old post but I noticed that the cloudblogginghq.com link is sending traffic to a holding page!
Anyway, been watching the /blueprint videos recently and happy to say that you have inspired me to put some commitment in to launching some email blogging sites!
Cheers Glen,
Danny
Hey Glen,
Great post! What VIP forums are you referring to?
When clicking the link to http://viperchill.com/vip above we’re taken to:
http://www.viperchill.com/viperchill-1/
Hey Janssen,
They’ve been down for a while now. Sorry