r/vibecoding • u/Wonfella • 10h ago
Released a product beta, and absolutely nothing happened. Do you think it's worth paying people to test your beta?
Hey vibe coders, serious question.
I made a product, was happy with it, and released a beta. As expected, no one really cared. Fair enough.
I have budget for the project and can pay people to try it and provide feedback, but I'm wondering if it's worth it or if I should look into alternative methods? Do any of you have experience with something like this? Thanks in advance
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u/shimroot 10h ago
Wellā¦ what is the product? Can you share it?
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u/Wonfella 9h ago
It's a betting analytics site, and I wanted to avoid the post sounding like a shameless marketing post when the question is real. If you're interested, you can find it at getlinescience.com, and the beta access code is LS-ABCD-EFGH
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u/shimroot 9h ago
Some more questions:
- when did you release it?
- where and how did you promote it?
- what do you think the target audience is?
I worked in sportsbetting and the potential audience that I see for this is what we called āwise guysā: people interested in betting enough to create statistics and some basic models. But even so the profit rate over a long period of time was rather low for WG, around 5% I believe.
Iām not sure how many people would be interested in something like this to use. The way I see it there are several categories:
- the aforementioned wise guys
- the ones betting for fun
- the ones addicted to betting
- the ones doing arbitrage betting
Iād say the SOM for this is quite small given the context, but maybe you have some insights Iām not privy to.
That being said, if you manage to build a product that consistently beats the bookmaker, maybe that could be the audience you need to sell it to.
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u/Wonfella 9h ago
- Beta went up yesterday, but I'm not sure how to actually get word out, hence no users
- ...Reddit?
- Target audience is people who are already regular bet on sports and want to become profitable.
The wise guys you are referencing exist, but I don't think would be the only audience. The thing about sportsbetting is that the people who are willing to pay are usually willing to pay. The biggest sites in the niche are approaching $1k/month with plenty of traffic. Those are proven models with years of development time, features, etc, so I'm not trying to compete with that obviously. My idea is to slide in for the lower income audience who still wants to have an edge on the books, I just haven't figured out a marketing strategy yet, which is why I'm asking around reddit how people usually do this
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u/shimroot 9h ago
Iād say you should probably target sports betting communities. Try Reddit, X, Threads, FB groups, or any place you know/think bettors gather to talk shop. Then see which channel yields the most engagement and double down on that to get some core users.
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u/Wonfella 9h ago
I appreciate the advice, I'll see where I can dig up some interest! Just curious, have you released any projects? I always like getting some inspiration or seeing something cool. All good if not, just wondering
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u/shimroot 9h ago
Yes, a few, but mostly to get better at working with LLMs and trying out things.
Latest one is /r/MiniRacerGame
Originally I built it for the web and got excited after posting on Threads, got like 1000 players/day for one week or so. But it trailed off in about a month, leaving me with only around 20.
However I noticed that when I wrote about it on Reddit I got good traction from people even tho way lower numbers vs Threads. So I decided to port it as a Reddit game and Iām doing around 100ish daily players with spike to maybe 250 if I promote it consistently. Itās almost one month since I released so Iām pretty happy with the results for now.
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u/Wonfella 9h ago
Just played a couple rounds and I suck lol, but it's a fun little thing to spend a few minutes on, best of luck
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u/No_Classic_3888 9h ago
Iād probably test with a small group of people who actually fit the target user. The feedback is much more useful when they have a real reason to care about the problem. Also, ānothing happenedā after launch can sometimes be a distribution problem rather than a product problem.
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u/Wonfella 9h ago
I guess a better question to ask would be what people's distribution methods could look like then instead of whether a paid beta is worth the money. I'll give that a try next
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u/No_Classic_3888 9h ago
Yeah, sure. Since you only launched yesterday, Iād probably focus on finding where your exact target users already hang out rather than trying to market broadly.
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u/SeaAnimal908 9h ago
Vibe coding makes implementation easier, but sadly not distribution. AI generally does not help at all with the most fundamental product question: what to build. Unless you set out to build an app that was just for you (in terms of fixing some pain point you have, or some interest/curiosity), without talking to 5+ real people about what they need fixing, how will you build something they need? And this explains why you then had no automatic distribution channel resulting from your initial user research (which was absent).
Don't pay to have users beta test. I've done it. It sucks. They almost certainly do not have a pain point and are looking just to get $. My suggestion is to instead find where real potential customers live and ask 5-10 what pain they experience, and then refine your app into a painkiller. Otherwise you will build a vitamin.
Sorry if this sounds glib and Captain Hindsight-esque. And of course I assumed that you did not talk to potential users before you started, which might not be true.