When most people think of A/B split run testing, they are thinking in a “classic” sense. Change one thing at a time, and you will be able to understand the results of your change. Good or bad, you will learn some useful nugget about your marketing.

There is another strategy. This is one I call the shotgun approach. It never teaches you as much as the first, but it frequently brings in better results. The analogy is similar to firing a shotgun. Hopefully a few of the pellets will find their target, which in this case would be a more profitable landing page.

Rather than meticulously varying one element at a time, take a big picture view and vary the whole thing. Change the offer, the major benefit, the headline style, everything. Just try to keep them in line with each other. Although you will never know exactly which change resulted in the bigger results, you just may find a more profitable page! Now is where classic split testing becomes handy. Use it to fine tune your new page by focusing on things like the headline.
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PS- We are discussing this and other interesting topics in the new Vertster forum at http://www.vertster.com/forum/ Feel free to join in!