How to obtain betatesters?

Question

A friend of mine is building a web application and is expecting to create a business around it (who doesn't). Of course he's done all the internal testing and friends&family, but few are interested or spend enough time with the system.

The thing is he would like to find more people to use/test the application, but he doesn't know how. Nowadays bringing people to an unknown site doesn't seem too easy. The idea is not to promote the business as a business (there are adds for that), but to find people with some tech-knowledge that can help with the testing.

So the question is: how/where can you find users/beta testers> How to bring them to the site?

PS: sorry if you think the question doesn't belong here, but I though it could be interesting and a way to solve the issue

Answer 1

Finding beta-testers is damned difficult. But there's an obvious way, search for them in the same blogs and forums where you will get your users. If you aren't able to find a beta tester, how in the world will you find a buyer?

BTW, I am on the same boat, write me to javier@pcdesktopcleaner, I can help you do the beta testing

Answer 2

Depending on how large-scale this is, and whether he's prepared to spend money, he could consider http://www.utest.com/

Answer 3

Is it a service that you would expect to charge for? If so offer it for free during beta.... But make it obvious to people that it is beta :) Don't want your potential customers getting bad impressions of your system.