I'm going to hire someone to code a script/software for me to sell after, and I want to know how to measure the market demand first so I build my software idea based on the highest demand in the market for it. How to calculate or know what the online buying needs?
Here's a mixed bag of ideas off the top of my head: First of all, will your script solve a real problem? Participate in forums. Attach an "incentivized" survey to your signature file. You can use Adwords to test demand in your market niche. First see if you have any competition for your chosen keywords. Who's posting which ads and how long have they been up? If an ad has been up for some time, there is a good chance that that ad is profitable and that there are buyers. Create a survey (surveymonkey.com) and put it on your Adwords lander. Add a free goodie to it in order to entice visitors to fill out your survey. Check out the big affiliate networks like Clickbank, and RAP. Products there mean that there is likely some demand. Also, make sure that your survey is short and easy to answer, or people will bounce off your page. Hopefully those will serve as some sort of starting point at least! Best of luck to ya!!
1) run a poll (as suggested here) 2) use google adword's external keyword tool 3) check for comeptitors in the market and search for their sales numbers, or check their Alexa and compete rankings
You have to conduct keyword research to find out what people want. Then based on those results, create a product to fill the need.
I have two suggestions: (1) offer a live beta program to see what people really think, (2) put up a simple site that lets people go through the buying process but once they get to the final step have it tell them that the product isn't quite ready but they'll be added to your list so that they're the first to know when it launches. I've read about people having massive amounts of success using this method. Once I find the articles I'll post the links so you can read the case studies for yourself.