Ask HN: How do you determine market potential?
I have an idea for a web application that seems suited to a subscription based revenue model. There are already a small handful of similar products but they all look really pathetic with the exception of maybe two which fall squarely into the marginal category.
I believe I can implement my idea well enough that it puts the other services to shame but I worry that the lack and shoddy look of the existing services might indicate a near non-existent market potential. Or, maybe a market that's just very difficult to get any traction in.
How can I test the market? Are there ways to get an idea of how much traffic or how many customers these other service might have (there's nothing listed on the sites)? I've heard people talk about using Google AdWords to test for market interest but I've also heard that there's a learning curve to figuring out how to effectively use AdWords. Any ideas?
Regards
--update-- For anyone interested, I did find this:
Using AdWords to assess demand for your new online service, step-by-step
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/11/using-adwords-to-assess-demand-for-your.html