Ebay is broken. And everyone knows it.
I have friends who won’t even use eBay because it sucks so bad in so many ways… shipping, payment, bidding, and my personal hatred… last minute bidders.
Why I’m Pissed:
All last week I had the highest bid on a lovely navy blue suit built perfectly to fit my smaller frame (hard to do) and with a conservative yet striking two button styling. Man, did I want this suit. My max bid was set at $40 and I planned to raise it as the bids (hypothetically) went up over the week. All week I sat at $19.99 and was highest bidder on this suit.
And as the week went on… nothing happened.
Nobody else came along and bid. It looked like I was in the clear. Even as the minutes wore down to 5, 4, 3… it seemed that I was the only guy that knew about this suit.
Until 30 seconds before the end of the auction. When two people started bidding and eventually outbid me with about 5 seconds to go. One of them eventually got the suit for $41.99 ($1.99 higher than my earliest max bid). But the thing is… if things had been slowed down a bit, I would have happily gone much, much higher than $41.99. [click to continue…]
Split-testing or A/B Testing is incredibly important for webmasters. Everyone should be split testing their websites to make sure that people are able to use your site, even if you aren’t selling anything. It’s just makes good sense.
Let me share with you an example of one time that split testing saved my [you know what]:
When I launched the Wordpress Landing Page Theme a couple of weeks ago, I used GWO (Google Website Optimizer) to test different variations of the copy on the page. One of the variations I tested included a Flash slideshow of the different looks, or skins, that the Theme included. I personally really liked the slideshow because, among other reasons, it used Futura Bold as the font and it was sort of a shout out to Wes Andersen.
So I made one of the variations the exact same as the rest, except that this slideshow was included. And you know what happened?
Not one of the users who saw that version converted.
After some further investigation, it turned out that this slideshow was causing a ton of browsers some serious problems. Not only was the slideshow not being shown, but it was also messing up the rest of the page. Since the slideshow was at the top of the page, it meant that damn near everything was totally messed up.
Without Split Testing, this never would have been so obvious
So what do you use to split test?
Well I’ve suggested Google Website Optimizer on my Tools I Use list, and as an additional tool to help with your analytics in Google Analytics is Killing My Website, but it looks like there is a new player on the scene.
It’s called Genetify. See the super-cool demo.
If you aren’t too technically savvy, I would still stick with GWO. But if you know your way around CSS, then check out this comparison of Genetify and GWO.
I’m not going to go into the specific of why Genetify is different and (maybe) better, since the Genetify project at Github could do a much better job. But I’d suggest you all check it out!
Thanks goes out to Brian Cray for telling me about Genetify during some disc golf today. Check out Brian’s hit article about A/B Testing to learn more.
It’s official. I drank The Thesis Theme Kool-Aid. And damn does it taste good.
It only seemed right that since I’m writing ebooks on how to make Thesis better, making Thesis Theme skins for internet marketers, and pimping Thesis Theme coupons, that I should at least practice what I preach and run the theme here.
Now of course there are thousands of Wordpress themes out there and maybe Thesis isn’t for you. There are plenty of reasons why many sensible people wouldn’t want the Thesis Theme. (For one thing, it’s freaking HARD to modify Thesis to do some simple tasks if they aren’t common practice) But for a TON of wordpressers, Thesis is simply the bomb.
And I’m going to show you why… [click to continue…]
After many months of work, it’s finally ready!
If you are looking for a way to make Landing Pages, Squeeze Pages, or Sales Pages in Wordpress…. well your problems are all over my friend.
Find out how to create hot, high-converting blog pages without the hassle in my newest project:
The Wordpress Landing Page Theme.
My name is Brad and I love to help people drive traffic and make great blogs. Thanks for coming by. If you like what you see here then check me out on 
