How to do market research on a proposed web service.

techguy

Hi There,

So, I have a "good" idea for a website that will provide a service to general public. It isn't limited to Ireland.

I have spoken to one individual who is familiar with this area. He says it's a pretty good idea. He has recommended that I use Constant Contact to do some surveys and try and get a feel for what the public think.

I agree that this is probably the best thing to spend money on before anything else.

I'm just not really sure what kind of questions to ask etc..

Obviously I can't tell you what my idea is so apologies for that.

With regards the actual implementation of the service. I am a developer so I could develop the backend of the site. I would then just need a graphic/web designer to do the frontend.

Then there's hosting charges and marketing. For moderate traffice I'm guessing the hosting would run into a few hundred euro a year. I would probably do most of the marketing using Twitter/Facebook and maybe some PPC on Google.

Just wondering what you guys think and where I should go next?

Thanks..

wapnote

One idea is to do some research thru Google on your idea.

If you have a look at Google's traffic estimator, you can get an idea of how many people are searching for the niche you are thinkin of getting in to:

https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox

You could even try some Google PPC advertising before you even develop your idea - just create some ads and maybe a landing page and see how many people are clicking your ad.

realmadrid

Maybe have a look at any other website offering a similar service then do a check on their traffic through Alexa. See if and how they are generating traffic/income

MOH

You could try setting up a blog on the subject, get it ranked well and see what the traffic on that is like.
If you go ahead with it, incorporate it as part the site and 301 redirect it there.

Free/paid surveys on SurkeyMonkey

Second the adwords tools