Best way(s) to gauge interest in a website or idea???

[faromic]

I've had an idea for a website for a while. I think the development would be costly (as expected) so I don't want to put a ton of money into it before I know there's truly a market for it. Based on the research I've done and stuff I've picked up I think the best way to go about it is to just setup a landing page listing the key benefits, features, and fremium revenue model. I would ask potential customers to enter their name and email to capture their info. Once they opt in I could maybe forward them to some sort of survey regarding the future site.

A couple things I'm not sure about as I haven't done this before. In terms of traffic should I just rely on organic traffic? How much organic traffic can I get from SEO from a one page landing site? I also thought of using Adwords or facebook ads to drive traffic to the landing page. I'd try and keep the budget low (but not sure how efficient this would be). I can try and use offline methods such as targeted postcards to get people to go online and check it out.

I would have to say the site is under development or pre-development (something along these lines). The thing I'm wondering is whether there are an legal repercussions. I remember reading somewhere not too long ago that if you put items up for presale and people purchase you have to deliver within 30 days. I'm not sure if there is an issue with capturing emails based on people thinking this site is coming.

I'm not sure how else I can gauge interest using a landing page? Maybe a landing page is not the way? I can setup several and split test. I did a google search and found unbounce. That may be an option.

 

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[prime]

Split test.

You can't get in trouble for telling them the site is coming in 30 days. You can extend the time window, I see it done all the time with info products. Your best bet is to take action.

As far as traffic, forums is the easiest way. Participate in forums that cater to your target audience, have a link in your signature for your landing page. RT people on twitter so they come and check out who your are (targeted retweets though), Instagram, Pinterest, etc... The way most experts gain traffic to their sites are through loop holes in the system, you need to figure out those loop holes for your niche and exploit them.

I'm in the celeb industry, I've been doing it for 5 years roughly now. I've analyzed my my competitions backlinks in the past, I analyzed the structure of how they operate their social media accounts, as well as how their audience is interacting with them... See what your competition is doing, follow along (don't re-invent the wheel). Once you've applied most of what's working from all your competition, find the ways their not implementing and strike gold with those methods.

Also keep up to date with what's trending via the internet. I read through a lot of tech blogs to see the moves in the internet space of the big boys, google, bing, mashable, techcrunch... What technologies are they using these days.

The current state of website creation. Static sites are old news because everyone is accessing the web via mobile, hence why I plan to revamp a bunch of my sites to a more responsive design ( google responsive design).

... Another thing figure out your costs, it doesn't cost you anything to put up a project on an elance site, gauge the market of what people are pricing you at for what your looking for... btw refrain from putting all the details on your project post, get on the phone with developers, pick their minds until you start to understand what is the overall criteria most developers agree upon, also the phone is where you can get into more detail...

Finding a good developer is something else, but if you talk to 4-5 developers, you will see what kind of technology is needed, a average pricing point, and more... post the exact same job in another job site, rinse repeat.

If your competition has opt-in pages, sign up to all their newsletters, see what they're talking about, the structure of their auto-responder...

Research is the name of the game.

BTW... Items for pre-sale, make sure you state exactly your shipping policies, so if something does come about it, you have a point of reference, and if you already sold them something you don't have... communicated with your customer. I don't see why you would leave them in the dark or whatever it may be... "Hi valued customer, just wanted to let you know production is running late.... more" give them some type of reassurance that your not try to pull a fast one on them, most will understand. Throw in an extra bonus for their patience if you do run behind schedule on something they've already paid you for.

 

[faromic]

Thanks for the response!!..this is a good start.

I have some questions regarding your response:

1.

RT people on twitter so they come and check out who your are (targeted retweets though), Instagram, Pinterest, etc... The way most experts gain traffic to their sites are through loop holes in the system, you need to figure out those loop holes for your niche and exploit them.

Do people really check everyone that is retweeting their tweets? I have a twitter account but don't tweet that often. I've read that's an excellent way to get traffic assuming you have good content.
Real briefly, what do you mean by loopholes in the niche? I don't understand entirely understand.

2.
What do you use to analyze your competition? Something like Market Samurai or Long Tail Pro?

3.
I also subscribe to techcrunch and a few others but that's about it. I'll have to look into others. It's tough to keep up with all the changes sometimes

4.

The current state of website creation. Static sites are old news because everyone is accessing the web via mobile, hence why I plan to revamp a bunch of my sites to a more responsive design ( google responsive design).

When you say static websites...aren't landing pages static for the most part...maybe a jquery slider. Correct me if I'm wrong I'm still learning. The actual site would be dynamic of course and mobile friendly (maybe even an app in the future).

5.
I won't be selling a physical product...the site would based on a subscription or one time fee per use.


A couple more questions.
Do you have a programming background? Just curious..

I definitely have to do some more research especially regarding Instagram and Pinterest as I don't use them (although I have accounts). I'll have research the best use of these for traffic...and I've come across the articles it's just a matter of getting my hands dirty.

But you would agree the best thing to do is to get a developer to create a couple different landing pages with an opt in form saying it's coming in 30 days...then go from there trying to drive traffic to the site. Is it worth getting a designer to actually design the page so it's appealing to try and get as many opt ins as possible?

I feel like I've come a long way since I started about 6 months ago but have a long way to go.

Thanks again, great info!

 

[prime]

Do people really check everyone that is retweeting their tweets? I have a twitter account but don't tweet that often. I've read that's an excellent way to get traffic assuming you have good content.
Real briefly, what do you mean by loopholes in the niche? I don't understand entirely understand.

Yes, people check who is retweeting them, not all, but most do. If you say something on twitter or a forum just like this, you get a notification if someone likes your content right or RT's... most of the time I'm interested in knowing who liked my content and what content they liked. Same rules apply to RT'ing.

Loop holes... every industry has them, and sometimes the top ranking people don't know about them, but if you tap into them, your competition won't even see you coming right underneath them. I call them loopholes because there not obvious to most people, but make a huge impact. I have found certain loopholes in my niche where I gained the competitive advantage over most of my competition and now they are nowhere to be found. I can't give you examples, because that defeats the purpose of them, but the basic thought behind it is, observe your industry and figure out weaknesses or vulnerabilities that will help you, so again it really comes down to observing your niche.

When you say static websites...aren't landing pages static for the most part...maybe a jquery slider. Correct me if I'm wrong I'm still learning. The actual site would be dynamic of course and mobile friendly (maybe even an app in the future).

Yes, I worded that wrong, I meant Fixed websites. I want you to grab the side of this window and make it smaller? Does the text move, does the website adjust to the size of the window? No it doesn't

Do the same thing for this site Smashing Magazine

See the difference? The second website changes the way it looks depending on the size of the window, it does this for phone as well, because it knows that a phone is at 640 or 320 or what ever it may be and it adjusts so that everything is still readable...

If you think about that, if someone goes to your landing page and they got to zoom in to read what sales letter, pinch the screen, and all this mess on a mobile phone... honestly I rather take a look at it at home or just lose interest quickly (if I'm on a mobile device)...

But let's say your website adjusts, and is perfectly readable, all they have to do is scroll down the page. No pinching, no zooming in, zooming out... Which is the better experience for the customer or might get you the sale?

But you would agree the best thing to do is to get a developer to create a couple different landing pages with an opt in form saying it's coming in 30 days...then go from there trying to drive traffic to the site. Is it worth getting a designer to actually design the page so it's appealing to try and get as many opt ins as possible?

I feel like I've come a long way since I started about 6 months ago but have a long way to go.

I think it's smart to get a landing page up to collect emails so you can start probing your target audience as to what service they looking for/price point/etc.

and to address your other questions, I don't program much, I taught myself how to html/css on wordpress, I use market samurai just to get an idea of my niche, but when I say I analyze I mean, I go to the top players in my niche and analyze their sites:

The way they monetize, site structure, users or just blog, sales copy, opt-in funnel, site colors, lingo being used, etc.

I over do it, but I like to know what I'm up against.

 

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[Gravytrain]

First: Minimum viable product - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Then just offer free testing to anyone in the space who might be interested. Let them play with it, break it, and give you feedback on it so you can improve.

The most important thing is getting going, though. So many people have trouble with inertia.

 

[faromic]

I agree the biggest thing is to get going. I already have a domain so I'm going to go to unbounce (or do some more research on creating landing pages) set up the page with aweber form, etc. and go from there. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Thanks

 

[johnp]

idk..you can test and test and ask and ask. You are just delaying actually getting started. I started like this.

1. come up with the idea.

2. Build/start the damn thing. get feedback as you build it

3. Get it out there. Ask people what they think. make it better. keep building it.

4. Pivot build, pivot build, all based on consumer reaction.

People are going to tell you a trillion different things. Look here. If you throw your landing page up then people tell you to turn your button from blue to red, or change the font, or the tag-line. Some suggest new features. Your head will spin, you will never get anything done. If you build/start something that provides value and focuses on some sort of segment of the population, then you know the interest is there. So go for it.

 

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[johnp]

A couple things I'm not sure about as I haven't done this before. In terms of traffic should I just rely on organic traffic? How much organic traffic can I get from SEO from a one page landing site? I also thought of using Adwords or facebook ads to drive traffic to the landing page. I'd try and keep the budget low (but not sure how efficient this would be). I can try and use offline methods such as targeted postcards to get people to go online and check it out.

It's not always that easy. SEO should be a long-term approach. Don't put all of your eggs into one basket. If you really want to know how people react then pick up a phone and call, go to your target market. Ask them, create polls, don't invest all of your money into FB, and all of that other stuff.

Finally, the benefit of actually building a product is that you can build some of the marketing into it. Load it up with social sharing buttons, add ways for people to talk about your product and spread it. There is a great book on building marketing into your product, it's called Purple Cow

 

[faromic]

Build/start the damn thing. get feedback as you build it

I understand building the product is the best way to find out if people are interested and to get REAL feedback, but the trade off is that I have to spend more money than I may want on an idea I'm not guaranteed there is a market for. That's the reason I was leaning toward making a landing page with a screenshot of the future site......

But then again, how much can you really learn about the product and it's market if it's in such a simple state. That's why at first I just said landing page....however it may be worth it to develop a simple site with a couple working pages (MVP) even though it won't have the advanced functionality that I want it to have. That shouldn't break the bank. I can at least get some feedback on that and people may be more willing to try out the site. That may be the route to go.

 

[johnp]

I understand building the product is the best way to find out if people are interested and to get REAL feedback, but the trade off is that I have to spend more money than I may want on an idea I'm not guaranteed there is a market for.

You don't need to use your own money. I started my business with $0 of my own money and I didn't put my own money into it until 75% of the thing was built and I didn't want to take on more investors.

 

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