Under Construction. Or, Grab 'Em While You Have 'Em!

I came across a forum I thought would be interesting to join. It was for writers and offered quite a few resources I thought would be useful in helping me write more, write better, write more regularly (always a problem for the writer who has projects with no deadline). So I clicked the "Join" link.

I got a page that said the site was under construction and asked to check back in a few days.

A few days???

I'll probably forget the site in a few hours, given the amount of information that's being thrown my way through email, online ads and other stuff!

It would have been a simple matter to grab my email addy with a simple form or even a yahoo! group. By asking me to check back or email the webmaster, the site has probably lost a subscriber.

People want buttons. A button that I click to submit my contact info would have given the site my email addy, whereupon they could have sent me a mail as soon as the site was up and running. Asking me to email them doesn't work because it seems too much like WORK to me. I mean, I have to compose an email and then email them and all that stuff.

Note that providing a button does not necessarily mean that I would not have to do all those things anyway. But it would take me to the next step, from there to another step and so on, until my addy was grabbed.

All that remains is to store that addy securely and email me when the site is ready for me to join.

By asking me to come again, the site has probably lost me for a long time, if not forever.

Check your "Under Construction" page and put a button there to capture contact information from all those who get to that page. They've made the effort to reach you, reach back to them.

Deepak