Hah, I always love the reaction of people doing user testing for the first time. It's universally (as per the article) "I never really did this before and was AMAZED how people use the site vs. what I expected"<p>Some problems with the article.<p>1. Craigslist is fine but it will bias the users. If you ask people to do it for free, you're getting one subset of users (who are actually usually pretty decent). If you pay people, you open it up to a much wider, more motivated pool -- but you get "professional" test subjects.<p>2. Going to a random public place and asking people to try it is good for a shotgun approach, but if you're trying to get coverage for your target audience (particular if there is a certain demographic you need for monetization) this is a no-go.<p>As to the rest of the article's content... well, I don't want to rain on the guy's new-found usability evangalism, but this is pretty basic, heavily skewed stuff. It seems like he's passing on what his 'mentor' has told him completely uncritically. Particularly the Nielsen stuff. Ugh.<p>For people who do want to do free user testing for their site, I highly recommend ethnio.com. This allows you to target your existing site users and works great.