pre-Alpha, What to do before Beta

With all this hype of Betas and web application in early phases, etc. You can do some things before you launch your private beta. Let’s take a look.

Getting a name and Domain

The first (very important) thing you may have, is the name for your app, we all know what a great name can make for a product, and we all know names like Apple, Nike, Google, Microsoft, Digg, Facebook, etc.

You must choose a creative name that represent the purpose of your app, but then come other problem: the domain name. The domain name market is crowed and is hard to get a cool name in a major extension (.com, .net, .org). And when you find one, 80% of the time is like this, parked. Asking for the price in those cases is a sleepless night if you are bootstrapping.

Domain hacks are trendy right now (blame del.icio.us for that) so you can hack your desired domain and get something close to what you want. Or just get with a new concept create a new word or give new meaning the existents, like Google have done.

Logo and Splash page

These are the first elements you may see on a new web startups (and sometimes the only ones). With a Logo and a Splash Page you let people know that something if going on under the surface, that the domain is in use (not parked), also begin to create a brand for your app.

Is true that the logo and the splash page not say to much about you, but for the first moth will be enough. You can get some really good splash pages like twine with all the elements, or go to the extreme and make something like zombo.

So be creative and start making buzz, the next step is…

The blog

(Everybody) in this business blog now days, why not start blogging about your new app in your domain instead of putting links to your splash page and give explanations on every forum, blog, or facebook group you found in the intertubes.

A blog will start to reunite some sort of community interested in the idea or the app you are developing. Is a great way to get feedback even when you are not even on private beta, remember that the most important of your app is the users if you don’t listen to it then something will happen when you do certain things, then you can do this, but will not be the same anymore, got the idea, avoid that.

Your new blog will show that you are working on something, spread some ideas, but mostly get feedback if you pre alpha blog is death, then you app will be death too, if you launch. It’s time to get back to the white board.

Finally

So, get your parked domains, drop the logos inside and start buzzing about your next best thing.

Keep flowing.

Note: This blog post came to me when I was thinking of launching inkognito.name and how I realized that I don´t know if there is market or the public is ready for it.