I think early adopters are smarter than that. They don't need to be lured in with the offer of free stuff. The very reason they're early adopters is because the

I think early adopters are smarter than that. They don't need to be lured in with the offer of free stuff. The very reason they're early adopters is because they grasp the potential for a new service and how it fits into their lifestyle. Not because of a superficial offer of freebies. Companies that are confident about their quality products at an early stage don't need to bait beta testers with free stuff to lure them in. In fact, I think you're going to skew the kind of user who would sign up based on getting free stuff in the wrong direction. No doubt, you could get _more_ users if you offer free stuff, but at this early point, companies want the _right_ kind of users, not quantity.