Ask HN: how to do market research in the markets that you are new to?

[white]

I'm in customer discovery phase, building a product for eBay sellers, both professional and not.

However, I'm struggling to reach out to them - very few of my friends do it.

How do you reach out to markets that you are not in and/or very new to?

P.S. And if you are an eBay seller, please, please! let me talk to you for 15 minutes - I just need your Skype or phone # http://bit.ly/X2vIMA

[orangethirty]

Open eBay account. Contact sellers. Tell them about how product will make them more money. Offer free trial. Rinse and repeat.

[white]

Sure thing, I gave it a try, however you can only contact 6-7 people per day, with so far my success rate of those willing to talk is next to nothing.

[orangethirty]

A lot of sellers have external online stores which usually have an email address listed. Plus it's going to take you a lot of time to do this. Nobody said it would be fast. Welcome to the world of trying to make a real business work. It's hard. Takes time. There is no way to simy hack it.

[sherm8n]

Can you start off in a market that you are deeply familiar with? It takes way too damn long to break into a new market and understanding it to a point where you have an unfair advantage. At least if you start off with something you're already an expert in you'll have a leg up.