How to run a homepage duel that answers one question
A 48-hour Creator Duel is useful when two approved homepages differ in one place. Here is how to set that question, share the link, and read the result without pretending the vote is revenue.
Picture Jordan, a founder in Austin, on a Tuesday night with two homepage screenshots open on a laptop. One headline says the product saves finance teams three hours a week. The other says it replaces the spreadsheet they already hate. Jordan wants a winner before the Thursday standup. The temptation is to start a duel immediately, share the link in two Slack channels, and let the higher number decide the quarter's homepage. That move feels decisive. It answers a mushy question: which of these two different products, aimed at slightly different people, with different buttons, did a handful of voters prefer on a shared link.
A Creator Duel on LandingCrush is a timed head-to-head between two approved homepages. From /duel you sign in, pick one of your approved pages, and enter the other homepage's id from its /homepage/123 URL. Both pages have to be approved. The duel runs for 48 hours from the moment you create it, and the page gives you a share link. The form describes that window as the community deciding a winner. Use the duel when you already know the single difference you want judged. Use the ordinary swipe feed, and the crush rate on each detail page, when you want each version to collect its own record. Neither one measures trial starts on your domain.
Write the question before you create the duel
Open a note and finish this sentence: "These two homepages are the same except for ___." If the blank needs a comma, you do not have a duel yet. You have two drafts. A useful blank is short. "The hero names the buyer as a finance lead" is one difference. "The headline, the illustration, the button label, and the logo bar" is four differences wearing a trench coat. Voters can still crush one page and pass the other. You will not know which change earned the crush.
Write the question in the language a teammate can disagree with. "Which first screen makes the buyer obvious?" is a question. "Which one is better?" is a mood. Put the sentence at the top of the doc you will paste into the standup. When the 48 hours end, that sentence is the only claim the duel is allowed to support.
If you cannot name the difference because the pages are still moving, stop. Submit the stable version first. A duel against a page you plan to edit tomorrow compares a moving target to a fixed one. The share link will outlive the screenshot you thought you were testing.
Get both pages approved, then start the clock
LandingCrush does not put a new submission into the public vote the moment you paste a URL. Status stays pending until a moderator approves or rejects it. A duel requires approved homepages. If the second design exists only as an image, submit it as its own homepage. The free plan includes one active homepage submission. Creator Pro, at $19 a month or $190 a year, includes unlimited submissions, which is what you need when two variants have to sit in the product at the same time. Prices are the ones published on the pricing page. Do not assume a second slot is free.
Capture the page the way a voter will see it. Paste the live URL when the page is public, or upload the screenshots you actually want judged. A desktop capture and a mobile capture are different first screens. If the argument is about the phone, do not duel a wide desktop crop and then call the result a mobile verdict.
When both pages are approved, go to /duel. Select your homepage. Enter the other homepage id. The create page tells you the duel runs 48 hours and that both homepages must be approved. Copy the share link it returns. That link is the artifact. Send it to the people who should see this matchup. The product page says both creators promote the link. If you are dueling your own variant against your own other variant, you are the person who has to distribute it. A link that nobody opens is a timer, not a sample.
Decide what you will read when the clock stops
The record that already exists for a submitted homepage is on its detail page: crush rate, vote count, and comments. Crush rate is the share of votes that are crushes. Forty crushes and sixty passes is a crush rate of 40 percent. The glossary calls a crush rate above 70 percent strong. That is LandingCrush's label for a high preference share among people who voted. It is not a forecast of your signup rate.
Before the duel starts, write down the vote count on each page. A page that has lived on the Homepage Hall of Fame for a month already has a history. A page you approved this morning does not. The duel gives both pages the same clock and the same link. It does not erase the votes those pages collected earlier in the general feed. When you compare them, separate "votes during this argument" from "votes this page already had." If you cannot see a clean during-the-duel count, say so in the note. An unclear sample is a result. It means you do not have a winner yet.
Read comments that mention the difference you wrote down. A crush with no sentence is still a vote. A sentence about the headline is the part you can edit. If the comments talk about the illustration and you tested the headline, the duel did not isolate the change as cleanly as the sentence at the top of the doc. Keep the sentence honest when you report back.
You might be thinking the share link creates a fair A/B test by itself. It creates a shared invitation. It does not assign voters at random, it does not hide the brand unless those voters turn Blind Mode on in a swipe session, and it does not record what they do on your website. Treat a close result, or a result with a thin count, as "no preference yet." Ship the version that is simpler to maintain, or change a larger idea and submit again. The swipe A/B explainer walks through how to line up crush rate only when the counts are in a similar range.
Share the link without coaching the answer
Tell people which two pages are in the duel and what you are trying to learn. Do not tell them which one you hope wins. "We changed who the hero names. Tell us which page you would keep" is a fair ask. "Obviously the new one is clearer, can you crush it" is a poll of your friends with extra steps. Friends already know the backstory. The point of a public vote is that a pass is allowed.
If some of those people already know the logo, ask them to use Blind Mode when they vote in the swipe feed so the name does less of the work. Blind Mode hides the company name during the swipe. It does not recruit a customer panel. Say that out loud if a teammate treats the duel as market research.
Keep the promotion window inside the 48 hours. A link forwarded next week is a story about a duel that already ended. The product sets the expiry when you create the row. You do not get to extend it from the share screen because the standup ran long.
Report one sentence, then stop
When the window closes, write three lines:
- The difference you tested.
- The crush rate and vote count you are willing to cite for each page, and whether those votes are the whole history or the duel window.
- The comment theme that matches the difference, if one exists.
Then write the decision: keep A, keep B, or no preference. Stop. Do not add a paragraph about how this will change conversion. LandingCrush recorded pass-or-crush choices on the homepages you submitted. Your analytics, after you change the live page, record the action that matters on your domain. Those are different instruments. Averaging them produces a number neither one defined.
The product describes a Battle Tested badge for a duel winner. If you see that badge, read it as a record of the duel. It is not a conversion rate and it is not a promise that the same page will win on your traffic.
If the note still says "which one is better," you ran a timer. Rewrite the question, change one thing, and run a smaller comparison. The next duel is cheaper than a quarter spent building the page the room liked for reasons nobody wrote down.
What is the one difference your next two homepages are allowed to have?
Common questions
Q: Do I need two approved homepages to start a duel?
A: Yes. The duel form asks for your approved homepage and the other homepage's id. A screenshot that was never submitted cannot be challenged.
Q: Does the duel replace the crush rate on each page?
A: No. Each homepage still has its own crush rate, vote count, and comments on its detail page. Read those records alongside the 48-hour challenge.
Q: Will the winner raise signups?
A: The duel records which submitted homepage voters crushed in that matchup. It does not measure trial starts or revenue on your site. Check that on your own analytics after you ship.