Set up test Linode using clone or backup

I'm trying to set up a test site that resembles my production site, so I can make some testing alterations without mucking around with my production site. I imagine many others already do this, and Linode seems to have some great tools to allow me to do this. However, I'm terribly stuck…

Here's what I've done so far, I restored my production snapshot to a separate linode in the same data center (I assume making a clone would do the same thing yes-no?). I can SSH into the test server using my root production linode password. I can see all my folders. I then tried to fire up my test linode by entering in the public linode IP address found in the Remote access tab, but nothing comes up… I suppose I need to make some network domain changes somewhere?? Maybe inside my apache conf file… Hmm. I configured all that network muckitymuck using Webmin for my production linode. I thought maybe I could go to http:///testlinodepublicip:10000 and then make all the network changes. No dice there either. Nothing comes up.

So, what the easist way to pop this test site up live so I can see changes I've made? I'd rather not set up nameservers,or a dns, etc. I just want to use the linode public ip address.

Once this is set up, I envision my process would be to make changes to my test site, test it out by going to http://testlinodeipaddress and seeing if things work OK. And then go into my production site and manually make the same changes… After that, when I want to test more changes down the road, I'd delete my test linode image and restore my production linode to my test linode and go through the same process. So… I'd like to not have to keep changing a million network configuration settings just to see my test linode online.

Any thoughts, and/or best practices would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!