There’s a good post on TechCrunch about this whole “beta” fad that companies are partaking in to release web applications. It talks about the balance between making your site public too early and keeping it under wraps too long and going to market too late in the game.

It seems that when you distill the “beta” fad down to its elements, the purpose of it is purely for marketing. I doubt that any public beta has really benefited more from being public than private in terms of adding functionality and fixing bugs. A properly run private beta can be just as useful. But as far as marketing goes, TechCrunch provides some great pointers on how to use this marketing strategy.

The one thing I would add to this list is to write software for yourself. Create an application that you will use and then use it. You are your own best critic. If you don’t like it or don’t think it’s useful, then there’s a good chance that other people are going to feel the same way.