How do you find beta testers?

[Richard Gaskin]

jonathandlynch wrote:

 > I guess I will do a lot of asking around for the general public
 > opinion.

Prospective customers are great for several reasons:

- They represent your target market, so their interests
   and skill level will be a good match for assessing
   not only technical fitness but also usability.

- They're more motivated than most because they'll benefit
   directly from what the product delivers.

- When encouraged to speak candidly they'll be a wealth
   of information about possible new features for v2.0,
   opportunities for refinements in v1.1.

- Some will be so grateful to work with a vendor that actually
   listens to customers that they'll be happy to put in the time
   for great testing just to get a free license for the software.

- If you don't already have a list of prospects to contact
   about testing that may be an indicator of the state of
   your marketing plan.  After all, if you can't find prospective
   users who'd want a sneak preview of something that will benefit
   the work they do, you won't be able to find prospective users
   to become customers.

Cultivate that inner circle of end-users and so much becomes much easier...

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com