IA and Marketing Sneezers (was Re: [Sigia-l] Site registration

[Listera]

Donna Timara:

> Why asking for registration bad? In what cercumstances?

I follow a category of news that's generally given play in local papers and
various small(er) trade magazines. The way I get these news is through
subbing to aggregators like Moreover or Google via RSS. On a given day, a
piece of such news, say from AP or Reuters, is syndicated in multiple local
papers. So in my RSS reader I see the identical headline (or extremely small
variations thereof) many times, only repeated in various papers around the
country. In 99% of the cases, the content is the same so I can click on any
one of these syndicated items and I'll get the same news.

It so happens that the vast majority of local papers/mags in this country
handle their online operations through a small number of third party
companies and they all use the same braindead register-or-get-lost method.
Best practices, standards? :-)

Living in the capital of the world in NYC, I have no inherent, immediate or
obvious interest in subbing to these local pubs just so I can read a single
story at the moment. If a single BugMeNot attempt doesn't work, I almost
never bother subbing. So they lost me as a potential, interested reader
pretty much forever.

Now I have no way of discovering or developing interest in their pubs. I
may, for instance, care diddly about the affairs of a small coastal town
some place along the Atlantic Coast (remember I live in the capital of the
world in NYC :-) but come summertime I may be interested in summer
activities, beaches, day trips, rentals, etc. I'll never get to explore
those because they've already lost me as a potential reader by insisting on
a register-or-get-lost policy. Further, they'll get absolutely no viral
marketing from me as I will not be sending URLs from their site to my
family, friends, blogs, etc.

In other words, you *earn* readers, you can't dictate to them:
register-or-get-lost is a very blunt instrument. Targeted marketing is not
the same as or dependent on register-or-get-lost policy. It's like
attempting a pirouette while wearing concrete boots. The reason for the
policy is actually more pedestrian than we might imagine: most likely these
pubs are clueless about the impact of the policy, alternatives, ways of
targeting potential readers, progressive disclosure, online incentives, etc.

Finally :-) dropping the register-or-get-lost policy will ultimately force
pubs to explore more meaningful, sustainable and flexible policies to serve
their immediate and potential readers.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba