[truthseeker]

The biggest problem I face is finding the initial set of users whom you can interact with to identify the product/market fit.

Lets say your customers are small businesses. - Do you cold call them about an online product/webapp? - Adwords is too expensive when you are not sure if there is demand for the product.

Finding the first 100 customers who love your product is the hardest thing (or so it seems to me).

I would love to hear stories on how you guys went about finding the initial set of customers.

[mootothemax]

Do you cold call them about an online product/webapp?

Absolutely - at the very least, send an email, but phone calls are always way more intimate, as long as the person you're speaking to is receptive to the idea of speaking to you in the first place.

Adwords is too expensive when you are not sure if there is demand for the product.

I'm about to experiment with this. Honestly, if I could spend $30-$50 to validate an idea with real, live, targeted visitors, I'd consider it money well spent. The only lingering thought I have is: is that too little to spent?

[danneu]

I use Adwords to test things ranging from product titles to high level ebook concepts to optimum price point. The only way I could see it becoming too expensive is if you're shooting way too broad, so I'd like to hear your experience with Adwords and how our usage differed.

[mootothemax]

Great stuff! Can I ask what your typical budget is for testing these things? I understand if it's confidential, but I'd like to start working out how much a typical test costs :)

[danneu]

I recently spent just $150 in Adwords to get enough CTR data to choose from a list of product titles over a couple days. Most I've spent was $500 simply because I drilled down so deep into slight variations. The cost is really simple to figure. (How much are you bidding per keyword) X (How many clicks do you think you need for a good data set). 500 clicks at $0.30 is the $150 I spent. 500 only because I was testing between so many broad variations. You often don't need more than 100 clicks to see a clear preference trend.