[codegeek]

"When to propose a relationship to your Anonymous Visitor"

How about Never. Let the user decide if they want to have a relationship with you. Getting less conversions with a boring "sign up" form ? The solution is not an overlay. Solution is to make your product better or relevant for that user. If you can show the relevance or benefit, user will sign up on their own. If the user did not sign up, it is either because they are not the right target OR you suck at explaining how your product can give them what they want/need

And not to be a jerk but instead of spending all that time "analyzing" the numbers with overlay, why not make your product better by talking to customers if you can.

[seiji]

Examples:

I started reading reddit the first day it showed up on paulgraham.com. I never made an account. (I stopped visiting reddit years ago. not worth using brain cells on that stuff anymore.)

I started reading HN the first day it showed up on reddit. I made an account as fast as my fingers could type out credentials.

People will do what they want. Twitter went from 100% open to hiding everything except timelines behind login blocks (you can't view followers/following without logging in). Facebook went from 80% open to 99% blocked. expert sexchange went from 90% closed to 100% irrelevant.

why not make your product better by talking to customers if you can.

Because the CEOs view website visitors as cattle who must be pounded into shape. Haven't there been some studies showing most people, when presented with a "Enter your email address to continue" modal, just fill out the form and click okay?

It's all about propping up your asshole vanity metrics. You aren't going to get any actual permission marketing cohesion out of blanket view-and-bounce visitors whose email you "stole."

[codegeek]

"Haven't there been some studies showing most people, when presented with a "Enter your email address to continue" modal, just fill out the form and click okay?"

Perhaps. I do it too if I really want the content BUT like many of us, my email address is "[e-mail]". Heck, if they make me enter my first/last name (some even do that), then my first name = wont, last name = tellu. So the point is, most of those are garbage bogus data anyway. Why bother collecting ? Now if the study shows that the % of garbage data entered is much lower than correct, then we are on to something

[TeMPOraL]

Relevant xkcd: http://xkcd.com/1303/.

[robbiemitchell]

> If you can show the relevance or benefit, user will sign up on their own.

This is naive and ignores the wide gap between what motivated people will do and what people definitely don't want to do.

> it is either because they are not the right target OR you suck at explaining how your product can give them what they want/need

Inertia is a powerful force. One of the core drivers for marketing activity is to lead people to action, not simply explain things.

Politicians explicitly ask for votes because the prodding helps. Electronics sales reps ask if you'd like to buy insurance for your device. Restaurant receipts ask for tips. Sites ask for email signups.

[jamiequint]

"If the user did not sign up, it is either because they are not the right target OR you suck at explaining how your product can give them what they want/need"

This is flat-out not true.

Aggressive signup often increases #s across the board from signup all the way to engagement and purchase. Were these people not the right target? The fact is that aggressive signup leads to increased signups which gives you more time to explain how your product can give users what they want/need (which is always hard to explain to all possible users on a single landing page), ignore it at your own peril.