2 ms·

I'm not convinced at all that this strategy (immediate sign up form) is not yielding more registrations than if they pursued the author's strategy (describe it

I'm not convinced at all that this strategy (immediate sign up form) is not yielding more registrations than if they pursued the author's strategy (describe it in a page and then have you click through to the sign up form). From experience, curiosity is a major emotional driver. And if already there, a good % of average people will probably fill out the form. Now certainly the average Hacker News reader would not. So the question is then whether the average blogger is more like the average person or the average Hacker News reader? It is an empirical test (splash page vs sign up page) that they may or may not have run. Of course, there are other options too: combine both pages into one, varying levels of program description (down to one sentence), etc.

jbenz 18y ago
I'm pretty convinced that they need something that tells you for what you are signing up.
- epi0Bauqu 18y ago
  I wouldn't be so sure. I've run that test before and it has come out the other way.
swombat 18y ago
I agree that my suggestion might not be the optimal solution (only practice can tell you which is ideal), but I can't imagine any way anyone would fill in all those detailed form fields out of curiosity. Even if some people do, they'll be a tiny, tiny proportion. I mean, there's 19 fields on that form! (can be found at https://app.adify.com/Register.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fMemberPages%2fApplyToNetwork.aspx%3fnetworkId%3d1013610 https://app.adify.com/Register.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fMemberPages... )
- epi0Bauqu 18y ago
  Agreed, their form is way too long. They do not need all this info up front, and would certainly increase registration if they shortened it. That being said, now looking at the form, there is another emotional incentive to finish (without knowing what it is): chance of getting money. The one message they convey with this is that you may make money off of it. As Charlie Munger has pointed out (http://vinvesting.com/docs/munger/human_misjudgement.html http://vinvesting.com/docs/munger/human_misjudgement.html), when you start combining multiple strong emotional drivers, you can get some startling results. In any case, I don't think it would be a tiny, tiny proportion. You are making assumptions about the average person based on your beliefs. Again, only empirical results would be useful here. Every case is different.

jbenz 18y ago

I'm pretty convinced that they need something that tells you for what you are signing up.

epi0Bauqu 18y ago
I wouldn't be so sure. I've run that test before and it has come out the other way.

swombat 18y ago

I agree that my suggestion might not be the optimal solution (only practice can tell you which is ideal), but I can't imagine any way anyone would fill in all those detailed form fields out of curiosity. Even if some people do, they'll be a tiny, tiny proportion. I mean, there's 19 fields on that form! (can be found at https://app.adify.com/Register.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fMemberPages%2fApplyToNetwork.aspx%3fnetworkId%3d1013610 https://app.adify.com/Register.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fMemberPages... )

epi0Bauqu 18y ago
Agreed, their form is way too long. They do not need all this info up front, and would certainly increase registration if they shortened it. That being said, now looking at the form, there is another emotional incentive to finish (without knowing what it is): chance of getting money. The one message they convey with this is that you may make money off of it. As Charlie Munger has pointed out (http://vinvesting.com/docs/munger/human_misjudgement.html http://vinvesting.com/docs/munger/human_misjudgement.html), when you start combining multiple strong emotional drivers, you can get some startling results. In any case, I don't think it would be a tiny, tiny proportion. You are making assumptions about the average person based on your beliefs. Again, only empirical results would be useful here. Every case is different.