From the blogging-as-a-service department, here’s a tool I think any app development team could use. BetaBait offers a simple proposition: sign up to try new apps on one side, sign up to find beta testers on the other.
It’s a free, email-driven service. When you join, you’re on the daily email list, which breaks down the apps by category. BetaBait charges $50 for a sponsor slot at the top of the email, so readers see sponsor apps first. That’s it. If you’ve got an app, there’s no reason not to use it.
Co-founder Cody Barbierri wants to connect early startups with early adopters. Bugging people to try an app doesn’t work, he’s found. To solve the problem, BetaBeat targets “the people who love to be the first to try new apps,” so startups can get straight to them via email.
BetaBait just wants to be helpful and make a little dough from sponsors. The website has places to sign up, info for sponsors and a short but helpful primer on marketing an app to early users.
Does it work? It’s only been out two days – and BetaBait itself is still in beta – but apps are already seeing results. I emailed all the founders on today’s list to ask, and I got a bunch of responses right away.
Quoc Nguyen, founder of local hotspot finder RedSpark, says, “We were extremely surprised in the influx of interest in our product the day after we published on BetaBait.”
“I was able to track that 3 people signed up from it,” says Sean Barkulis, co-founder and CEO of personalized “smart-calendar” UPlanMe, which has only been on the list one day. “Not bad, considering we were 3/4 of the way down on the e-mail.”
Check the Mail makes a full-featured email client for iOS devices that, once its out of beta, will be able to work with all the major free email services. Its team says it’s seen traffic and sign-ups both days. “What we really like about BetaBait is that the sign-up process was simple and quick and emphasizes getting the point of our project across in a very succinct manner,” the team says.
I got one really thorough response from Erik Lagerway, founder of stealth social iPad app Hookflash. He says “they really need to improve upon” the BetaBait dashboard, offering analytics and stats to testers. Right now, it’s just a panel to manage the email listing, as seen here:
That does sound nice, but maybe it’s a lot to ask for a totally free service. Lagerway is also frustrated by the inability to track signups specific to BetaBait using its own tools, but UPlanMe handled this by putting a special tag in the link it submitted.
It’s a simple, free service, and I’m sure the team will appreciate Lagerway’s feedback. If you want to put your app in front of people who want to test apps, BetaBait is a no-brainer.
