For what its worth- my first steps when I come up with a 'killer' idea.
1.) Wait a week- if still excited about it go to 2.
2.) Discuss with my other half. As a non-techy she'll often have a very different view on things which is invaluable.
3.) Find and purchase a domain, and put up a sign up page based on a cheap theme.
4.) Buy some impressions from Adwords - this is enough to give me an idea of if anyone is already looking for what I want to build, and if they are get me some email addresses.
5.) Talk to prospects found in 4.)
6.) If still convinced its a good idea, I might start writing some code.
It is so easy to get going with writing code straight away, rather than thinking about whether you have any customers and how you're can reach them. The above approach has saved me many months of wasted effort, and found me a number of lucrative niches!
This is great advice for building a project for which you can find measurable demand.
If you have picked an idea for which there is no searches yet, but people might want, don't give up. It's where you have to listen to guys like Hiten Shah and Eric Ries that say get out there and talk to customers first. Just know you'll be building the channels to reach your customers too and it's not the same as being able to look into search results that aren't being met with a product.
I don't think there's an exact answer I'm afraid, depends on the product, how much its going to sell for, and how easy it is to find good keywords that match your product (and which people are searching on!). But maybe £200-300.
What I will say- is that if a decent numberpeople are signing up with interest in your product, on the basis of a single page of html, with no release-date, screenshots or demos in sight, then its probably something they REALLY want!
re: adwords - impressions vary from industry to industry. instead of focussing on impressions as a measure of success, here is what you ought to test when running an adwords campaign:
Test 1: are people clicking on my ad? are they at all interested in what i'm offering
Test 2: if not clicking, then how can i change the ad to gain clicks?
Test 3: if not clicking, how can i change the keywords i'm bidding on?
Test 4: if click throughs == true, how is the landing page working? am i converting people via an email sign-up or some other call to action?
Test 5: if people are coming to the LP but are not interested, how can i improve conversions? A/B test components of the landing page is a good start.
1.) Wait a week- if still excited about it go to 2.
2.) Discuss with my other half. As a non-techy she'll often have a very different view on things which is invaluable.
3.) Find and purchase a domain, and put up a sign up page based on a cheap theme.
4.) Buy some impressions from Adwords - this is enough to give me an idea of if anyone is already looking for what I want to build, and if they are get me some email addresses.
5.) Talk to prospects found in 4.)
6.) If still convinced its a good idea, I might start writing some code.
It is so easy to get going with writing code straight away, rather than thinking about whether you have any customers and how you're can reach them. The above approach has saved me many months of wasted effort, and found me a number of lucrative niches!