Excepts from JohnAtl@aol.com's comment, posted at 17:45 on  9 Aug 95:

> Registration for WWW pages has been a contentious issue. Few like
> it, but most tolerate it because the model of advertising-supported
> pages--as opposed to subscription-supported pages--currently holds
> sway.

> PS - Eric Meyer, next time I use Newslink (very useful page), I
> promise to register. Really.

Actually, John, I'm not a big a believer in registration myself. I 
did some fairly detailed analyses of NewsLink's purely voluntary and 
fairly simple registration and found that:

* 67.7% of those who visited the guest register, which is our
  first page, didn't sign it.
* 31.4% skipped the register and went directly to the listings;
  presumably, they had visited before and saved a different page
  to their hot list -- or used a link to a different page provided
  off some other page.
* Relatively new Internet users -- AOL and Prodigy domains in
  particular -- are more likely to be included among registrants.

Personally, I tend to register but never remember my password if the 
site asks for one. I also tend to appreciate sites like NewsLink's that 
openly allow you to get around registration. And I am very suspicious 
of sites like the Wall Street Journal's that seem to want to know 
more about me than credit card companies do.

One thing a lot of sites forget is that advertising and circulation 
aren't the only ways to make money on the Web. Just because those 
were the economic models in print doesn't mean they have to be 
on-line.

By the way, I've begun posting stats like those above as part of 
NewsLink. You can get to them from the Get info button or, for those 
of you who'd just as soon bypass registration , the direct URL is 
http://www.newslink.org/stats.html
______________________________________________________________________

Eric K. Meyer            N e w s L i n k             1,710 media links
meyer@newslink.org    Research & Consulting    http://www.newslink.org
______________________________________________________________________

              Now available from NewsLink Research:
  "Tomorrow's News Today: A strategic guide to on-line publishing"

         For a free preview, write to report@newslink.org

------------------------------

End of online-news-digest V1 #292
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From owner-online-news-digest@marketplace.com Mon Aug 14 04:06:47 1995
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