Just built a simple traffic/earnings estimate tool - how to get initial feedback?

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Hi there,

I have a niche authority blog that's approaching 100k pageviews in the last 14 months. I started it more out of passion than an attempt at IM, but now that I'm learning SEO, I'm branching out to more income-generating aspects of that same niche. So far so good.

A month or so ago, I noticed that while there were dozens of software products out there that helped find niches, estimate earnings, etc, they were either expensive (meaning $30+) or didn't exactly do what I was looking for.

So I spent some time building an Excel file that looks for four inputs:

-Number of monthly or daily pageviews for your keyword
-Whether the prior number was monthly or daily
-Your conversion rate
-How much $ you make from each conversion

Then, based off SERP heatmap data and using some moderately-complex Excel formulas, I built a model that shows you:

-How many visitors you'll get in position 1, 2, 3...all the way to 10, then showing position 20, 30, and 40
-The visitor data broken out by day, month, and year
-The amount of money you'll make given your conversion rate and revenue from each conversion

For example, let's say you're researching niches in an attempt to sell a $10 ebook that you'll write. You estimate a 3% conversion. If the niche gets 20,000 exact searches per month, and you're in position 1 on the SERP, you could be looking at over $2k/month. However, if you don't have the SEO steam to get to the top, but you're confident you can reach position 5, you'll still potentially make over $200/month. Is $200/month worth it to you? Maybe it is, maybe it's not. But at least now you know what you're looking at.

Now because it's in Excel, it's simple. I won't hide from this fact. But it's also easily portable (to mobile devices, for instance), does not require an install, and is CHEAP. I figure under $10, probably closer to $5.

I have a day job, and the few days per week when I'm in my office, I'm dying to get back home and do my research on Market Samurai. If you work in a managed environment like me, you know how there's no way you're installing any IM software on their machines. Since this is in Excel, you don't have to. The other benefit of this tool over others is that it doesn't focus 100% on being first in Google. Maybe your niche has enough traffic that you'll make money in position 5 or 6. This tool will tell you that where other's won't.

So here's my quandary: how do I tell if there's a market for this? How does one typically get feedback on a new IM product before launching? I mean I suppose I could build a product page and link it to EJunkie, or try to get a WSO approved and see what happens, but I'd like to get some feedback from those I trust. Problem is I'm green and I don't know anyone.

Has anyone been in this position before? How does one test viability of a product and get initial feedback?
#built #estimate #feedback #initial #simple #tool #traffic or earnings

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