| LED Digest 2521: When Registration Forms Go Bad |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. October 25, 2007 Issue no. 2521 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== The (Non) Usability of Registration Forms ==-- ~ Jacob Flanagin "I just had a frustrating experience that I think all of us as marketers and businesspeople can learn from." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== The Comedy of Spam ==-- ~ Bob Gladstein "You should have a look at the Fresh Spam blog..." ~ Andy Benkert "...a few of my co-workers have taken spam and converted them to poems..." --== Where are all the Female Designers? ==-- ~ Lori Smart "Do not feel alone, and definitely consider your position both a blessing and a curse!" --== Email Privacy ==-- ~ Andreas Huttenrauch "...almost on a daily basis we see [people] send... sensitive information via email." =========== NEW ================================== From: Jake Flanagin Subject: Registration Forms Hello -- I just had a frustrating experience that I think all of us as marketers and businesspeople can learn from. To me there are few things more frustrating than having to fill out a lengthy registration form (in my case to receive a whitepaper), and then having to enter a blurry and intentionally distorted spam preventing code only to be told that the code was incorrect and that I would have to fill out ALL of my information yet again. In this case the organization wanted the works: name, e-mail, organization, website, telephone, address, city, state, zip, as well as several other questions that were starred and must be answered. I understand the value of this information to the organization, but for the love of god please don't make enter it in all over again or you are likely to have a registration from Seymour Buts or Al Koholic :) I'm not a designer or programmer, but I can't imagine it can be that hard to put a temporary cookie or some other mechanism in place to save the info when I click the prompted -- back -- button. Here's to 60 seconds I'll never get back! Cheers! Jacob Flanagin Marketing Guru The Rainmaker Group ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Bob Gladstein Subject: Spam > Someone should be recording these choice [spam > email] subject lines for posterity. I'm sure there's a > thesis somewhere here too. Here's to the comedy of spam. - Adam Audette, LED Digest 2520 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1933/190/ You should have a look at the Fresh Spam blog at http://fresh-spam.blogspot.com/. It hasn't been active lately, but it's mostly made up of paintings inspired by spam subject lines. Bob Gladstein Raise My Rank SEO Services -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Andy Benkert Subject: Spam Adam said: > Someone should be recording these > choice subject lines for posterity. Funny, as a few of my co-workers have taken spam and converted them to poems, or what they have called "Spoems." Here is an example: ---------------------- "Take my next 90-day wealth challenge: Write a concluding preface, for sport, On any subject and mail it in. Make storey for casino players, Lute stringers, rocket scientists- anyone. Just don't throw your ideas into the oddity garbage can- They could be worth a fortune! Over the gaps in your judgement Extend adhesive bandages and press firmly. And remember, if boredom is your ailment, We cure any desease!" ---------------------- ... and another: ---------------------- "I blaspheme like a brick meteorologist Predicting hailstorms of mortar falling upward. All the while, you strive to imperil bluntness As you throw superlative after gerund, Grinding exactitude in the fine powder Of civlity with your muscular molars. You told me once that love is the distance Between reality and pain. Another of your dimestore obfuscations. Reality is pain, and love. There is no distance- Only a gaggle of antisocial stars banished To the universe's remote outpost. They track us, probe us as we gaze in wonder, Contain us in their milky girdle." ---------------------- This could be a book project. Or a colossal waste of time. Depends on your POV. Andy Benkert Marketing Research Specialist http://www.HRmarketer.com ========= Begin Sponsor Message ========= At GetWebContent.com, the price of quality is always right. Not always the same, but always reasonable without ups or extras. Just ask for a free, no-obligation proposal and we'll quote an exact price for precisely what you want. Don't be fooled by bogus fixed-price offers for drag-and- dump generic copy. Visit www.GetWebContent.com/LED where our copy, and our prices, are custom-tailored for you. ========== End Sponsor Message ========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Lori Smart Subject: Female designers > But when I saw the [AListApart] survey results I could > not express the *shock* at what I saw. Not only because > females are *seriously* under-represented in the industry, > but also because probably 80% of what applied to *me* > alone fell in the very low percentages of the questions. - Shelly Cole, LED Digest 2519 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1932/190/ Hi Shelly & Other Ladies! Do not feel alone, and definitely consider your position both a blessing and a curse! I've been in the industry for over 10 years and have had mostly positive experiences, but had a handful of instances that were frustrating, but to be expected. It helps that my business partner is also my husband. When we meet with potential clients, we've got a tag team approach, allowing us to adapt to the clients' preferences. My experience with being a woman in this industry is probably only a small disadvantage in a predominantly male sector. Couple that with the fact that I'm 40ish, and it becomes a bigger issue. I feel that most of my experiences have been positive is mainly because the majority of industries we've worked with are old-school type businesses, and nearly all of the people we work with are 35 and over. Even when we work with a corporate team (as opposed to small business owners), there is rarely a Gen Y member among them. We use very understandable language helping clients feel comfortable, avoiding tech speak that goes over their heads. I definitely feel like a dinosaur in this business, and I'm still 20+ years from retirement! The fact that the survey shows the majority in this industry (over 86% under 38, while 82% were male) I actually see ageism as more of a potential issue than gender, however, our experience and business focus does seem to aid our successes. The good side to that, though, is that we've had many clients come to us when their 'barely out of college' developers have flaked out, and often simply disappeared. Scarily enough, we saw an ad on Craig's List just yesterday in our local area for an 11 year old developer looking for contract work and he even listed a cell phone number! Back to the estrogen issue, quite often, I've found that our female clients are only slightly more comfortable working with me, but in reverse, several men are hesitant to talk with me, and invariably ask to speak with John. This is mainly, though, because when it comes to advanced programming and technical support, that's John's job, while I'm in charge of overseeing the design phases. More often than not, the men want to know HOW the programming works for them, while the women clients just want their site to work, and look nice. I thoroughly understand that, since sometimes John will excitedly tell me about a great script he's written and as he's giving all the technical details, my eyes glaze over and head begins to spin! Along with that, he's a British man living in the U.S. (and seems to be the only one in the state of Oregon!), and we've actually clinched contracts solely based on a woman client falling for his accent!! It's never been a major problem, but we do find an occasional issue arise, and at least we have each other for backup. I doubt we've ever lost a contract due to either issue (gender or age). As for the survey, I believe that most of the questions do not even apply to me or my business, personally, and I would have asked different questions and asked the questions in different ways. Suffice it to say that women working in a predominantly male industry will always face challenges, but that makes it all the more fun! And, this discussion list has a lot of great input from some very experienced, professional women! My gratitude to all of you! Lori Smart InternetDesign.com -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Andreas Huttenrauch Subject: Email Privacy Starting in LED 2511 (Oct 11) http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1923/190/, we had a short thread on Email Privacy. While there can be a lot of debate on if it's right or wrong for the big orgs to read your email, the fact that email is unsecured and can be read by any and all mail servers and hackers along the way, is even more controversial. Yet, almost on a daily basis we see clients / partners / vendors / other_people send passwords, credit card numbers, and other sensitive information via email. Most LED'ers are probably quite tech-savvy, and things like PGP don't cause too much of a problem, but for the vast majority of regular web users, this technology is way too complicated. In an effort to address this, we have created a web-based system for people to send sensitive information without resorting to email. All messages are 256-bit secured, and the system is really easy to use - in fact, if you can use some form of webmail, you can use this system. I invite you to check out http://www.MyMessageSafe.com and comment (online, or off). Andreas Huttenrauch Globi Web Solutions http://www.globi.ca (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money." - Anon. |
