Ask HN: Should I market when gauging interest?

2 points·mgallivan··3 comments

I've set-up a LaunchRock page to gauge interest on an idea for a mobile application. If there are a lot of sign-ups then I'll probably proceed into development.

My question is: should I attempt to drive as much traffic as possible to my "pre-launch" site?

Is the formula for gauging interest as simple as number of signups / number of visitors?

Thanks!

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That's not the formula at all.. You can 0 signups but if you drove 1000 people who don't want your product, it doesn't mean much... they just might not be your target audience. However, if you drove 1000 people who you know are interested in the general field/industry and they sign up, that means something. In the end, feedback is is more important - talk to customers, nothing can replace that.

I don't believe there is a magic formula.

You should definitely find out whether there is a market for an idea before building it. But, I am not sure if a LaunchRock page is going to help with that. I suggest directly speaking to your target users.

5 direct suggestions from potential end users are better than 20 signups on a launch page.

I'm noticing that in the last day or two of the LaunchRock site being live.

I think my strategy will be to use the LaunchRock site as a secondary method of getting my message across. I've been talking to niche users and appending my site to the end of the e-mail.

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