Launching site in beta, how to proceed

Question

I have a site which has login functionality where a user can register an account. I want a certain number of people to test it before launch. My plan was to create a bunch of random keys in my database that can only be registered once then have them proceed.

On the flip side I vaguely remember some web services to properly manage beta launches to facilitate all these tasks and receiving feedback etc.etc.

Any suggestions, is my plan common practice, am I reinventing the wheel?

Answer 1

Prefinery is a web service that manages this process.

Best of luck with your launch!

Answer 2

Just make a few test accounts for the users you want to test your site. You could run the site on a subdomain until you feel that the site is ready to go "live". If you want them to test the registration process as well, limit the amount of users that can register using a DB count query.

I'm not aware of any beta testing software.

Good luck.