I was wondering, has there ever been a copywriters competition?

You know, get the top 10-20 copywriters (which would be who?) and have them all write sales copy for something. Split test the different pages they produce and see who makes the most sales. The winner rakes in the net profit from the whole enterprise, or the proceeds go to charity or something.

How might one construct such an event so as to maximize the publicity for all concerned?

Or, are the top copywriters all too busy making mucho moola to be bothered with such put your rep on the line kind of challenge?

Probably been done long ago. How did it work out?

Phil

By the way, how do you do a split test online?

My first thoughts are that you would have two different domain names with each version of the copy. But then how could you set it up so that each got the same volumes and quality of traffic?

It's probably a stupid question, but can someone enlighten me?

Jane,

Mike posted this link in one of his posts:
http://www.marketing-strategy.org/

I've never done a split test myself, but here's my understanding.

You set up a CGI script that catches all the incoming traffic to your URL. The script sends half the traffic to one page, and the other half to a 2nd page. You don't need seperate domains.

I'm guessing you might use a hidden form field, or other technical device,
in each page to track the user from each page through to the order form.
Thus you can tell which orders came from which page. Whichever page gets the most orders wins.

Some people are relentless in this kind of testing and continually tweak and test, tweak and test, tweak and test until they've raised their conversion rate significantly. If you were, for example, going to spend a bundle on advertising, you might want to do this kind of research before you made the buy in order to get the best bang for your buck. Obviously there's a limit to how much time you can invest in any kind of research so you have to consider which situations merit the investment. Again, all of this is as I understand it (or maybe don't) from readings elsewhere.

Phil

Janeology,

Its very easy. If you are doing a ST online you get a script from the link mentioned previously and follow the instructions and stick it into your html.

You put one set of copy in the script and interchange it wth other bits of copy such as headlines etc. Use one set or headline on one and interchange with the other. It is all done eeverytime the page refreshes or you can get it to change by date.

With offline if you are sendoing mail to 500 simply split in two and use a different headline on each.

Measure response as it comes in.