[wp-hackers] A/B testing of posts with unique URLs for each variant & editing in custom fields

lp43 lp43 at duke.edu
Wed Aug 24 05:11:27 UTC 2011


I'm wondering if anyone could offer advice on how to think about creating an
A/B testing plugin for *posts *that *Req. A)* lets me assign unique URLs for
each variant post* and *Req. B)* is customizable on the frontend (i.e.
new-post.php). There seems to be *two *ways I could go about doing this:

*1. The first way*: Create three separate posts, use the Shrimptest plugin
to test, and exclude two of the posts from single.php (This was basically
the answer<http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/26362/creating-unique-post-urls-for-a-b-testing-is-this-even-possible>that
Otto gave when I asked about it on Stackexchange. The
*problem *with this solution, though, is that I would have to go into the
files to edit the code every time I want to test a different batch of posts.
And I can't figure out a way for it to meet requirement B.)

*2. The alternate way*: Create custom fields in new-post.php that would give
an editor the option to write in alternate headlines and upload different
Facebook images and FB text. This is my preferred option right now since
everything would be customizable from new-post.php. The *problem *is that
I'm not sure how to meet requirement A (a unique URL for each variant I
test). Is it even possible to create a custom field in new-post.php that
assigns sub-URLs on top of the default URL?
Any tips or suggestions on any part of the problems I described would be
great! Thanks in advance!

*Note: The reason I need requirement A (unique URLs for each variant) is
because I ultimately want to measure shareability of my posts on social
networks. For example, if I launch a post with Headline A, FB picture B upon
sharing, and FB text B upon sharing, I want the number of clicks on that
A/B/B variation to be tracked. Thus I need to assign a unique URL to that
variation.


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