Ask HN: How did you get early beata testers (Non Friends and Family)?

Search for sites like http://betali.st and put up your splash screenshot. People who are interested would check it out and try the product.

Post facebook/twitter messages to your followers and ask them to try. Better yet, find some twitter hot-shots who might be interested in your product and send them a tweet. Sure most will ignore you, but if 1/10 tries it out, you've got another power beta user.

Lastly, take a look at my post here (http://www.geekatsea.com/what-google-must-learn-from-my-fail...), will give you some ideas as to what beta users say vs. what they mean.

Good luck!

1. Use launchrock to create a splash page with info of what your product does and a signup form. 2. Create your blog and write about your product & field. Follow SEO best practices and put a sign up link in your blog. 3. Run a Google adwords campaign with a small budget. 4. Go to startup events and network with people who might be interested and point them to your launch page.

You can advertise. Say, $1-$5 per click (I'm not an expert). It won't really pay off (in terms of value per user), but it will give you feedback.

It won't scale as well as word-of-mouth / viral adoption, but that's a premature optimization issue.

You cold call them. You find people in forums, communities, etc. who have complained about the problem your solving, or are active powerusers in the industry, and you message them. You tell them, "hey, I read in your blog that you were having trouble with X, I'm working on a solution. Can I email you to ask about your experience with [1][2][3]?"

Even better if you can skype interview with them. Best of luck.

Get out there and talk to your customers face-to-face. If it's something they want, they'll bite your hand off to be on the beta, and you'll learn more about what your product should be by having a proper conversation than you ever could over email.

First of all, what did the people who used the product say? Then, check and see if the analytics matches what they are telling you. Then you'll know if they are honest.

Generally, if your site is open to the public and not growing, the beta testing group wasn't thoroughly impressed. Granted, that'll only hold true if your F&F are really apart of your target market. If they are just checking to see what you've done with your free time, they aren't gonna help your case.

But not all is lost. Coryl's response was right on. Find the people with the problem and pitch them your solution. If you have a solution to a pain point, pain killer v. vitamin, your users will evangelize for you...that being said, it always helps to have a product that gives them the ability &/or encourages them to do so. Just don't abuse it.

How I got beta testers?

1) I became active in startup groups and often engage in conversations via message boards, forums, startup groups and social networking sites. By doing so, when it's time for me to ask for a favor, people are genuinely curious and interested in checking it out.

2) I've spent a lot of time networking with startup people a couple (or more) steps ahead of me. First they provided me with valuable feedback and I supported them in whatever way I could. Then, when I was ready to launch, I sent them an invite to test and asked them for a tweet. It's innocuous and drives get traffic. Turns out, startup people follow startup people...who knew.

It shouldn't take more than 20-30 users, that go from signup through value proposition to generate the beginnings of viral growth. If you don't get the desired results from a batch that size, figure out what's broken and fix it. Once you understand how people matriculate through your website, verify the value proposition and start seeing the benefits of user / evangelists, then you can figure out how to drive more significant traffic.

I wouldn't pay for traffic until you understand the aforementioned nuances of your site.

First of all, what did the people who used the product say? Then, check and see if the analytics matches what they are telling you. Then you'll know if they are honest.

Generally, if your site is open to the public and not growing, the beta testing group wasn't thoroughly impressed. Granted, that'll only hold true if your F&F are really apart of your target market. If they are just checking to see what you've done with your free time, they aren't gonna help your case.

But not all is lost. Coryl's response was right on. Find the people with the problem and pitch them your solution. If you have a solution to a pain point, pain killer v. vitamin, your users will evangelize for you...that being said, it always helps to have a product that gives them the ability &/or encourages them to do so. Just don't abuse it.

How I got beta testers?

1) I became active in startup groups and often engage in conversations via message boards, forums, startup groups and social networking sites. By doing so, when it's time for me to ask for a favor, people are genuinely curious and interested in checking it out.

2) I've spent a lot of time networking with startup people a couple (or more) steps ahead of me. First they provided me with valuable feedback and I supported them in whatever way I could. Then, when I was ready to launch, I sent them an invite to test and asked them for a tweet. It's innocuous and drives get traffic. Turns out, startup people follow startup people...who knew.

It shouldn't take more than 20-30 users, that go from signup through value proposition to generate the beginnings of viral growth. If you don't get the desired results from a batch that size, figure out what's broken and fix it. Once you understand how people matriculate through your website, verify the value proposition and start seeing the benefits of user / evangelists, then you can figure out how to drive more significant traffic.

I wouldn't pay for traffic until you understand the aforementioned nuances of your site.

if you're in a niche field (like alot of startups are) try searching for forums etc. in that niche then try reaching out to users on those forums and acquiring them as beta testers. I'm sure others on hacker news are alot like me and would love to beta test a variety of products so posting it on here would not be a bad idea either