BugMeNot: one more reason not to require time-wasting, useless, customer-repelling registration in order to see content
Written by amedeo on October 21st, 2007
BugMeNot efficiently bypasses the registration process that, quite mysteriously (I can’t recall giving legitimate, useful info during a registration process), some new sites still require in order to view their content (via makeuseof).
Once again, your customers are in control of their Web experience. Try to force them into behaviors that are convenient to you and they will ditch you or, if they have patience, use a service such as BugMeNot.
Forget registration to view content. It’s a waste of your customers’ time and you get useless data (how many people were born on January 1?).
First off, I no longer advocate registration-to-read schemes.
That said, your arguments against registration are demonstratively false.
BugMeNot users account for almost zero repeat traffic for local news sites.
Second, study and after study shows that newspaper site registration of local users is anywhere from 92 to 98 percent accurate (different numbers in different markets). The vast, vast majority of local readers register on local news sites as easily as I did to post this comment.
The reasons for not doing registration are more nuanced and have more to do with positioning a news web site correctly.
Thanks for the info, Howard. I’m surprised by the 92 to 98 percent accuracy; I’m curious to see the studies. I’m also curious to hear the more nuanced reasons for not doing registration, especially as an indication of how to position a news Web site correctly.