How can I check my service? (like consumer-proof)
I have a prototype - educational web service and I just want to get some real users - would they use it, their feedback and so on.
And I just don't know, where I can get them. At the moment site is at free hosting, nothing is invested in advertising. Of course, before spending some money on it, I want to estimate probability, with which this whole story will work out and return me at least what I invested.
What can I do?
Friends is not an option. NO, I have friends (ha-ha), but it is interest conflict - interest of my friend and interest of consumer. They probably will say it's cool just not to offend me. I want real consumer-proof.
Getting Started Marketing Finance
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This is where the hard bit (for some people) starts. You have to go out and sell the idea. Who are your likely users? Whoever they are, get in touch with some and offer your service as a free beta, just to see if it is something that people are interested in. I'd recommend reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries too, as there are a lot of good ideas in there. Good luck. – Steve Jones 11 years ago
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@SteveJones, service is free and for individual students always'll be free. I just want to let some people know about my service – Joe Half Face 11 years ago
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When I said "sell", I meant convince people to use it. Whether it is free or not doesn't matter. Track down some students and let them know about it. If it is something of value they'll use it, if not, they won't. – Steve Jones 11 years ago
1 Answer
Find an educational institution that would benefit from the educational value of your website and ask them to try for free participation in a pilot project.
Make a deal with them that if the project becomes successful that they'll get more value out of it due to helping you with their existing user base to test out the site.
And implement a way for the users to provide feedback to you from the site (you may have that already).
Should your site not fall into any of the traditional educational categories you can always place an ad in the paper (nothing fancy) letting people know of the site.
Let the users know the site is in beta and that any feedback is welcome.
Hope this helps.
