When most people think of A/B testing, they imagine sophisticated tools like Optimizely—complete with dashboards, metrics, and multivariate experiments. Those tools are great, but they come at a cost: subscription fees, extra code, third-party cookies, and a hit to user privacy.
Right now, I’m not looking to add that complexity or expense to my workflow. But I do need to A/B test—at least in a lightweight way.
Recently, I’ve been selling a niche product on Etsy: customized levels designed to help with laser engraving on tumblers. Early on, sales were slow, but with some tweaks—photos, titles, and descriptions—they picked up. Then, unexpectedly, sales flatlined.
I had no idea what had changed.
That’s when I realized I needed a simple versioning system to track my own changes. Etsy doesn’t keep a history of your titles or descriptions, so if your changes tank performance, there’s no built-in way to trace it back.
My solution: use Git.
I keep a local Markdown file (joel/sandbox/abtest/tumblertrick.md) where I log the exact titles and descriptions I post. Each version is committed to Git. That way, I can run git log to see exactly when I made changes and what those changes were.
Here’s the structure I use:
# High-Visibility Level for Tumblers - Perfect for Laser Engraving
Place this level on your tumbler and rotate until it's level. Helps ensure precise laser engraving. Available in Standard and MAX versions.
I don’t commit notes or observations—just real, published changes. That keeps the Git history clean and useful for correlation. If sales drop again, I’ll know whether it was a title change, a photo tweak, or something else entirely.
This isn’t fancy. But it works—and it respects my budget, my privacy, and my customers.
Written by Joel Dare on May 5th, 2025. AI used for editing and re-wording.
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