I use and recommend Muvar for multivariate testing. I’ve done quite a bit of work with it for myself and clients.
The biggest problem with Muvar, for me, has been timeouts. Muvar needs to compile quite a bit of information. And the more visitors you get, the longer it takes to compile that information. But there’s another factor that can cause timeouts, and that’s how many variables you use.
I bragged to this blog some time ago that my latest Muvar Template had 140 variables. I now know this is NOT a good idea. So my latest Template has just 2 variables…
Overall
Page
This basically sets up Muvar as a split tester, and can be a valuable way to get information. I can add 5 different versions of a sales letter in to this variable and see which page wins out. Then modify that page a bit, and add it as a new Page variable.
This strategy has it’s place, but obviously is not the most powerful way to use Muvar. Another Template I’m using right now looks like this…
Overall
html-b
deck
lead
proof
educate
bullets
stimulate
testimonials
price.close
ps
html-a
The actual copy only has 9 elements, even though the copy is about 12 pages. This helps to keep timeouts to a minimum, but lets you mix and match variables like the multivariate software intends you to.