
How I got feedback from 200 people for just $17 - acangiano
http://blog.anynewbooks.com/2010/09/how-i-got-feedback-from-200-people-for.html
======
netaddict
There should be ratings system in Mechanical Turk based on sincerity of
answers. You should be able to pay more to get people with better ratings.

Another option is to get reviewed by thousands of people through Hackernews,
Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

------
zzzmarcus
Feedback from person 201 for free:

I love the idea but I'm really hesitant to sign up for such broad categories.
What would get me to sign up would be allowing me to enter keywords like:

Physics, Austrian economics, marketing, Ruby, Android, Spanish fiction etc.

I'd be fine with those even if the newsletter only had one book in it or if it
came only once every couple months as new books were released. As it is,
getting a newsletter with all fiction or programming or science or business
books in it wouldn't be much better than sending spam with random Amazon
links.

Great idea though and the site looks really nice.

~~~
acangiano
Thanks for your feedback. I think that the service as it is works for some
people, and it doesn't for others.

That's why my next big feature is going to be adding the ability to follow
specific authors, and probably keywords as well. This way people will have a
choice. :)

------
run4yourlives
Just FYI I signed up for your book list, what to read next is an issue I have
a lot, and with a life like mine getting time to hit a bookstore is a luxury I
rarely have.

Also, Go Canada, nice to see another startup joining the ranks from my
country. Good luck to you!

------
patinador
The motivation to visit your website is 17/200 $, so this is a crucial
information. You can't use this sample for inference about the real population
of readers or customers.

A better approach for those 200 people would be to ask them: i) who do you
think would be interested in this site and why. ii) What other services are
related to this one. iii) Can you tell a source of clients for this site?

Anyway, a crooked sample doesn't allow a straight thinking or inference. The
number of people 200 is not related to the 17$.

~~~
acangiano
As I mention in the blog post, this is not a statistically valid sample. They
can, and did, provide me with food for thought nevertheless. That said, your
questions are all good suggestions for follow up tests (keep in mind that you
need to phrase them in a A/B format).

------
danparsonson
I just wanted to offer a suggestion regarding the colour scheme - I personally
found the blue menu bar on a blue background (with a blue search box) to be
quite hard on the eyes; I think it would be worth spending a little time
experimenting with different colours there. Maybe invert the menu bar, so it's
mainly white with black text and a blue highlight for the current page? You
could probably leave the search box as it is in that case.

Anyway, best of luck with the site :-)

------
ryanlchan
Is there a problem here in listening to the wrong people? That author admits
that this demographic is quite different from what might emerge organically;
might their answers be equally as different? I'm not downplaying the
inventiveness of this method for getting feedback, but I'm worried that it's a
little misguided to use this for development purposes.

------
justinchen
Glad you had a good experience with the service! It feels good to know that
we're helping other entrepreneurs out. :)

