It’s the fake “Beta testers needed” approach which I’ve stumbled across too many times in the past few weeks.

Normally with beta testing you get a bunch of people outside your company to test out unfinished software to find and report bugs.

It might seem “unfair” to let other people find bugs in your software, but it’s a very powerful way of testing your software on a variety of computers, operating systems and browsers.

Another thing that makes beta testing powerful is that beta testers tend to find bugs that the developers and in-house testers have missed because they maybe use the software slightly different.

The final thing that makes beta testing effective is the determination of beta testers to actively look for ways to break the software – they are actively looking for bugs, and not actively looking to prove that the software works as designed.

Oh, and let’s not forget that plenty of beta testers are geeky code nerds that thrive on messing around with unfinished code – I know I am at least.

So when I see “Beta testers needed” in my inbox I open it and click through to see if I can help another coder get his product ready for the masses.

I do this because I love to help people – and it’s because of this that I’ve been sooo pissed off lately.

You see, there’s a new trend developing where internet marketers are looking for beta testers.

Only “catch” is that you have to pay to download a beta version – but since you’re a beta tester you’re “fortunate” enough to get it much cheaper than other people.

What a bunch a fake advertising – I have never in my 25 years of involvement with software development come across a beta test where I am going to pay to help another coder get his product ready for launch.

Another alternative to paying to beta test the software is a setup where the software is free, but you have to pay to host it. The last one of these scams I saw was a $97 hosting fee.

No matter which scheme they are trying to pull I end up taking money out of my own pocket in order to spend time testing an unfinished product for one of these internet marketers – and it makes me sick to my stomach.

Come on, put some integrity in your business and reward beta testers for their efforts or stop pretending that you need beta testers when in reality you just want people to “feel” special (without actually treating them that way) while you take their money away from them.