How many times do you log in to a website a day?
Just to get online this morning, I had to spend quarter of an hour telling Holiday Inn Express all about me.
No doubt I have now subscribed to yet more mailings and will be clocking up points towards some reward I will never access.
One of the most noxious features of twitter and linked in is the link that takes you to a security screen. The teaser tweet that promises you a treat , all too often ends up with you banging your head against a pay wall!
Punters are increasingly getting wound up by these teaser links and by the elaborate data capture involved in getting to what they’ve been promised.
Follow this angry thread to see how goodwill not just in a site but in its owner , can so easily be destroyed
Here’s the original teaser from PHIL who owns ifalife and a linked in feeder group which directs traffic his way.
PHILIP Presumably every IFA in the UK is completely dumb struck at this startling announcement
http://www.ifalife.com/forum/replies.asp?ForumID=3&TopicID=7549
Here’s the quizzical response
TERRY What news?!
In comes Trevor with some advice to the site owner….
TREVOR• Every time you do something like this you waste my time and I dislike you for it !
As a marketing man who is primarily interested in purveying yourself, I think you should be interested in this gem of information.
If you really want to access professional advisers without antagonizing us, please please please do something which does not incur my very valuable time in the first instance…. Phil for heavens sake …. please learn something new …. xx
ROBERT joins the thread in support of TREVOR AND TERRY
ROBERT Well Phil , I am always interested to hear what is really going on but please dont hide it at IFA life which then wont let you in. Not good and a bit frustrating. Happy new year
PHIL is quick to respond ..
PHIL Hi Robert and Trevor – I’ve known you both for many years but I’ve just noticed that neither of you are signed up on the main IFA Life site, and this will be the reason why you can’t click through to the thread.
The forums at http://www.ifalife.com are only visible to logged in members, and the overwhelming members of this LinkedIn group are members, hence posting the link.
Over 9,000 IFAs are registered on the main IFA Life site, so I do hope that you will be able to join them soon.
The suggestion falls on stony ground
TREVOR No
PHIL decides to play his trump card
PHIL I remember you very well Trevor – as does my wife. And I enjoyed the lunch you bought me.
Anyway, I hope 2013 is a great year for you.
TREVOR is having nothing of it
TREVOR That must have been nearly ten years ago, and this is silly. New year – new start – time is valuable and can only be spent once. Fish me into the system but give me somthing at the end – thank you.
You might think this is the end of the matter but TERRY is back and he won’t let it lie!
TERRY The IFA Life site is a joke! It is there purely to gather marketing information for you and your colleagues to bombard myself and other like-minded IFAs/Financial Planners with information that is unlikely to be relevant to them.
I spent some time previously looking at the site and considering registration; however when it asks for social media threads and twitter feeds as well as my business address and phone number then I cease registration.
This may work in the US but not in the UK. If you want people to listen to you give them more information so that they can make informed decisions.
Poor old PHIL.
To finish him off, ROBERT is back with some more bad news!
ROBERT sorry Phil but your site just doesn’t like me it wont authorise its own security code. No wonder I gave up in the past. Life is toooooo short to mess about any more. Regards
Martin Lewis does not put a wall round his garden. People aren’t prepared to login to get news and are certainly not going to be led down the garden path to have to pay money or release personal data on the off chance that what’s on the other side of the wall, is worth the trouble.
Gated websites like gated communities suit those who feel they have more to lose than give.
In my book, if you cannot givefreely, you are the loser and it is those who share information freely, like Lewis, who have most to win.
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Thanks for your comments Henry and for highlighting this interesting and entertaining discussion on LinkedIn.
Firstly, IFA Life requires a log in because the users asked for one.
It is not a consumer facing site and its members specifically did not want the forum contents visible to all and sundry, particularly as much of the content is related to personal business development issues.
Secondly, with regards to the security code question at initial sign up to the site, those who have had trouble with the security code (about 12 people out of 9,000) have done so because they did not read the question closely enough.
It also worth pointing out the other posts on the same LinkedIn thread which you have not mentioned, including my own reply to Terry’s “joke” remark, plus those of IFA Life members who are in full support of the IFA Life site (not to mention the many emails and text messages of support that I have received privately).
Having run a membership site and groups since 2004, I can assure you that people ARE prepared to log in for news and information… on the strict proviso that it adds value to their day and does not waste their time. IFA Life (now LifeTalk) has an outstanding reputation within the industry for adding value to the lives of IFAs, evidenced by regular multiple testimonials and the fact that thousands willingly log in every week.
Both Terry and Robert have subsequently asked to be signed up on the site. And within the site, you could not find a better example within the industry of people freely giving their advice, experience and expertise.
Regards
Phil
I have been a member of IFA Life (now Life Talk) for 4 years now and I have lost count of the number of times I have gained helpful business development information from it and it’s very helpful members.
It’s not that much of a task having to enter a username and password to gain access to this valuable community. I know that I personally would not be so keen to share business ideas with my peers if this was NOT a gated community. I have nothing to hide but do I really want my clients and the rest of the world knowing what I am struggling with?
Funny how I am not allowed to post a comment to this article without having to leave my email, name and website though…………..
I really have nothing against IFA life – I am one of the 9000! But I’m quite sure that it would be a better site if it was more open.
For that matter, the pension play pen might be a better site if we made it an open site (which it isn’t)
The reason you need to login to wordpress to comment is the same as bbc.co.uk and almost all other sites – this site gets about 50 times more spam than genuine contributions and wihout the logon we’d probably be locked out of our computers thanks to virus’s.
Even moneysavingexpert expects a login to contribute.
I’m likely to be launching an open site in the next couple of months and am thinking through what needs a login.
Increasingly I’m thinking that the more I need a login, the less I need membership- like Groucho Marx I wouldn’t want to be a member of any club that would have me!
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