Ask HN: How to reward beta testers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to reward beta testers?

16 pointstzaman6 comments

We are currently preparing our beta testing plan for our application (http://carmivore.com) and we will soon start inviting testers. We will charge a monthly subscription fee for the final product, but are unsure how to reward our testers properly.

Any recommendations and tips welcome!

View on HN

Some common rewards:

  Free use for some number of months.
  First shot at their preferred user names; lower user #n.
  Badges; points; karma; etc.
  Public recognition.

A bit more expense and with fulfillment hassle:

  Physical swag: t-shirts, pens, buttons, etc.

A bit more leg work:

  Complimentary, complementary partner service.

My favorite:

  Make your product so awesome that the value it provides is reward enough.

You can give them a special badge.

Solid list. I'm going through the same thing soon and have decided to never give it away. Give it away while you're patching critical bugs, but if it works, they should pay for it. Give them other stuff, like faster response times or better support, but you should never give the product away. No idea if this makes business sense, but it's what I've settled on.

Thank you, a very comprehensive list!

What about a page with their credits, and a link to their blog if they got one?

Ask them what they want.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com