Monday, July 28, 2008 7/28/2008 05:20:00 PM
The past year has seen a blossoming of great advice and ideas about Website Optimizer and website testing. Advertisers are seeing economic pressure to boost efficiency, testing tools such as ours are more accessible, and more people are focusing on post-click optimization--giving customers the best possible experience from search to sale. I wanted to point out some highlights from this convergence of all things testing:- Bibles. Check out Tim Ash's and Bryan Eisenberg's new manuals on testing. I like Tim's book for its breadth of coverage--everything from business cases to ROI, process and math. I like Bryan's book for the gazillion ideas on what can and should be tested. You can download Tim's appendix for free and pre-order Bryan's book, which launches soon at SES San Jose.
- Website Optimizer 101 Back during our beta days, Conversion Rate Experts published a great article on testing tips, which caught lightning in a bottle and was quickly digg'd, linked to, and forwarded by tons of people. They relaunched their site a few weeks ago, and their famous Website Optimizer article is as relevant today as it was when it first came out.
- More tips. The guys at VKI Studios have a nice article on common first time tester mistakes. If you're not yet a pro, chances are you're probably making or about to make some of these mistakes right now. And WiderFunnel has 3 great tips on how to instantly improve almost any page. The advice about copy length is timeless.
- Analytics workaround. ROI Revolution has made an Analytics-Website Optimizer integration workaround. If you love both tools, you absolutely must look into this one.
- Calculator. Our friends at WebShare put together a handy sample size calculator. It's a great way to find the right number of page variations before you actually create them.
Hope you enjoy these standouts as much as I have.
