Alternative Methods To Augment User Subscription or Sign-Up To Your Online Offer or Newsletter

by Luigi Canali De Rossi and Alexandru Mihai Bocsaru
October 2002

As some of you have already found out, today it is indeed possible to obtain a person email address and even his name and last name, by simply persuading this person to click on a dialog box OK button. Yes, you have read it right.

A very simple and effective stealth technology is now accessible through several software tools and utilities which allow online marketers, webmasters and Internet business owners to increase dramatically the number of subscribers or sign-ups to any initiative or offer made available.

While I am not in any way advocating the aggressive use of this technology for obtaining visitors email addresses on your Web site, I need to testify the effectiveness of this approach even when utilized in an "open" and "transparent" attitude.

The issue is, it is so much simpler and immediate to click an OK button than having to type name, last name, email address, and God knows what else to sign up for just another one newsletter.

I have personally tested three of these technologies and have found the results truly impressive. As said, nonetheless I do not have an aggressive marketing approach, nor I try to push too hard my readers to sign-up, this tool has truly helped me increase by a factor of 5 or more, the number of people subscribing to this newsletter. I myself have had a hard time believing the results at first.

 

 

You can see a working example of this technology at:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/optin.htm

On this page, even if you click accept to click the OK button, I will not be saving or storing your email address. You have my written promise. (As a matter of fact you can see that even on my web site pages the Opt-in pop-up box will openly alert you of the fact that your email address will be exposed even after you have clicked OK. So I am certainly not into tricking you.
You can feel safe. :-))

It is quite evident to me that these tools can also be utilized in ways that I would not support, or find ethically correct. By prompting the user with the wrong information inside the initial dialog box it is easy to persuade any user to click OK A button.

So it is in the hand and in the brains of each one of you to make a good, elegant and effective use of this fascinating technology, without taking advantage, writing lies or pushing your web site visitors to do things he or she would not normally do.

I understand that this is a fine line to define, but I am also providing a practical example of how I have found an effective and ethically correct use for it, right on my site.

On the technology side is interesting to note that these tools allow you to set any text inside the dialog box to be popped-up, and in some cases offer you the ability to set the number of days before the pop-up will be shown again to a web visitor.
You can even decide a different time delay for people that sign-up from those that don't.

Some of the more sophisticated of these tools will also provide you with an effective backend database system that is capable of collecting and storing all of your subscribers.

All of these tools are also very inexpensive, ranging in price from USD $13.95 to $89.