I have done a lot of consumer research for a previous job - I honestly think if you give someone an ear to talk to about almost anything a lot of people will do it.

With that being said, you might get a handful of, "no, absolutely not that's creepy" responses to the request, but if you ask enough people someone will say yes and be excited about it.

This is absolutely true. I also ask my clients for customer contact information and reach out to them until I have enough subjects.

Do not be discouraged by the no’s. Starting with friends and network is an option.

It also helps if you have a code of conduct/governance documentation for them to read and understand how their data is gathered and used.

I usually send a copy of all data to my subjects with a thank you letter and how it helped (with a gift card).

Getting started was (really) hard. There are agencies out there who enable the connection between the researcher and consumers for a fee. These agencies usually have a directory of people who volunteer for this type of research work.

It also helps to build a network, for starters I partner-up with many prominent content producers on YouTube and Twitter and pay them a small fee for introductions.

I also pay the people I study on the field (but not always, some are happy to help once they understand what it's for). A lot say no, but you only need a few yes. It's about drawing insights from a small set of data.

People like attention, especially if you care about what they're saying and take their needs and frustrations seriously.