What If Online Registration Is Voluntary?

from the makes-more-sense... dept

Plenty of people have been talking about just how silly it is for so many newspapers to force registration on users, seeing how it cuts down on the market size to which the paper can sell to advertisers, and drives users to other sites instead, since they don't want to go through the hurdle. It looks like at least one newspaper is looking for a much more reasonable middle-ground. They're asking for voluntary registrations. Basically, you can see the article just fine without registering. They just ask for registration info at the top of the page. You can even make that box go away, if you want. This way, they still get those people just passing-by who would never register, and when people do register, it's likely to be good, targeted data, rather than useless, dirty data.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Stevieo, 7 Jan 2005 @ 5:53pm

    forced registration to read news articles

    Yes, it's a problem and has driven me away from more than one media source. As long as there is one supplier to AP wire news that doesn't require it, I will always prefer the easier sites.

    Even when I do take the time to register, I get nailed w/it again the next time I clean my cookies or use a different computer. What a joke!

    If it were me and I wanted to collect info, I'd cut right to the artcle of interest, but put a banner ad asking people to sign up for the weekly HTML newsletter. This way I could get them hooked and prove my readership.

    Eventually, I'd offer them a susciption, deluxe version of the 'news'.

    Honey's always better than salt. And there is more than one 'freebie' give away to attract people to leave their "real" contact info.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Seun Osewa, 8 Jan 2005 @ 5:12pm

    Really Nice Step ... but

    I'd suggest that they should go one step further by giving users extra incentives for providing the correct information.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.