What freebies would motivate you to alpha/beta test?

[KevinMU1]

For those of you who are so inclined anyway, what extra push in terms of prizes/freebies etc would be necessary to take seriously some fun beta testing?

 

[tweakmm]

hookers and beer

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: tweakmm
hookers and beer

Sounds good to me.
Where do I sign up?

 

[KevinMU1]

beer I might be able to manage, hookers, well...

link for the software itself is in my sig, if you want to take a peek, we've tried gratis requests so I thought I'd see if maybe some incentive might work, but it may not, just throwing it out there... no promises at this point.

 

[LordMaul]

Free T shirts..


If not, give away authentic Bill Gates' toenail clippings.


Well, they won't be authentic, but who will know?

 

[ultimatebob]

I used to run a public beta test team, so this is a subject that I know well.

I found that offering a free copy of the completed software is the best way to get people interested in testing the product. To keep people interested, make sure to reward your top testers with promotional trinkets like T-Shirts. Also, make sure to get rid of any slackers who are too lazy to file bug reports, because they can slow down the whole testing process.

 

[KevinMU1]

Now when you say T-Shirts, would that be T-Shirts that advertise the project or otherwise?

What about gift certificates to national chains like Borders (are they national)?

And what if the end product is going to be free? Any further ideas?

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Depends a bit on what needs to be tested. Games I'd test for free, but for service packs that may mess up my system I wouldn't mind getting some of those games too.

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: KevinMU1
Now when you say T-Shirts, would that be T-Shirts that advertise the project or otherwise?

What about gift certificates to national chains like Borders (are they national)?

And what if the end product is going to be free? Any further ideas?

Almost any T-Shirt would work. Project t-shirts are the most popular, but product or company t-shirts also get a good response.

We once gave out amazon.com gift certificates, too, but I think the testers liked it best when we gave out free games.

 

[bmacd]

i'm a beta slut. I'll do it for the thrill of it.

-=bmacd=-

 

[KevinMU1]

I will pass on the tshirt idea to my partner, maybe we'll do that.

 

[LordMaul]

Originally posted by: KevinMU1
I will pass on the tshirt idea to my partner, maybe we'll do that.

T shirts are never bad. Also, get black t shirts. they may be slightly more expensive, because it's harder to print on black than on white, but black is more liked.

 

[arod]

Originally posted by: LordMaul

Originally posted by: KevinMU1
I will pass on the tshirt idea to my partner, maybe we'll do that.

T shirts are never bad. Also, get black t shirts. they may be slightly more expensive, because it's harder to print on black than on white, but black is more liked.

Black t-shirts are not more liked in Texas.... 100 degree tems plus black t-shirts.

 

[KevinMU1]

Well, I think tshirt color preference is about as bad as web site color schemes--everyone's going to want different things and have different opinions. Especially when geography is a factor.

Thanks for giving me more to think about.

 

[KevinMU1]

What about rotating prizes that would change everything month, with a new winner picked each month? Or does the uncertainty of the prizes and the contest nature spoil the fun?