You are wasting the precious few seconds of first impression you get asking them to sign up for something they don't even know if they will like yet.
Bring them straight into the flow of your site, and let them signup only when they want to, not when you want to.
You can whet their appetite by showing other people interacting, no need for them to interact themselves.
Take YC for example, I bet there are hundreds of people who just lurk and read submissions/comments, but if they really wanted to reply to one of them, then they sign up.
The key thing that Zepolen points out that I think lots of people miss is your site/business/etc is about what 'they want', not what 'you want'.
Your business is about your customers. Customers don't want to sign-up, they want to explore or share travel (or whatever your site does).
I think i'm in one of the few markets where vistors are telling me they want a way to sign-up and get notifications, but that is after i've given them what they want, now they want more.
Comments
A internet user's attention span is tiny.
You are wasting the precious few seconds of first impression you get asking them to sign up for something they don't even know if they will like yet.
Bring them straight into the flow of your site, and let them signup only when they want to, not when you want to.
You can whet their appetite by showing other people interacting, no need for them to interact themselves.
Take YC for example, I bet there are hundreds of people who just lurk and read submissions/comments, but if they really wanted to reply to one of them, then they sign up.
The key thing that Zepolen points out that I think lots of people miss is your site/business/etc is about what 'they want', not what 'you want'.
Your business is about your customers. Customers don't want to sign-up, they want to explore or share travel (or whatever your site does).
I think i'm in one of the few markets where vistors are telling me they want a way to sign-up and get notifications, but that is after i've given them what they want, now they want more.
Very good feedback, thank you, and point taken.