Online registrations, online surveys - I am pissed off

Let me ramble on for a while:  Newspapers and magazines try to replicate their business model online - publish once a day, charge readers some or a lot of money to read online, and hope that we "buy the model".  Does this show that they got the new economy?  I don't think so.  Once again, I have to nag and say that this is company-centric thinking and what happens is that their subscription numbers are sinking - down, down, down. 

People want to have something that is published more than ones a day - that is why Google's or Yahoo's (others, please excuse that I don't mention them) have constant updates and deliver customised news.  That’s why I read blogs, and read the news linked to them, if I find it interesting enough.  I don't want to read what I don't want to read - and I don't want to pay for it online.  It is enough that I buy a newspaper with 50 or 100 pages, when all I need would be 20 or 30 pages.  Okay - this model is difficult offline, but possible online.  Is it?

I am not sure anymore.  Because I am already "pissed off".  There are so many sites online that require registration.  And not just easy one, like it is the case with Amazon.com with its easy and simple process.  But webpages that want to know everything.  In an online registration process or via surveys.  And most of the time, they are terrible.  Do they really think that I give the right information just to get some gracious 2 weeks trial period only, before they can charge me?  So what do I do?  I "fake information".  I am the 99 year old professor in Afghanistan, earning US$200,000 a year, married with 15 or 20 children.  This might even make me feel good, because once in a life time,  I can feel rich for a short while.

And as for e-mail addresses? I somehow have the suspicion that they are sold off to a third party - or at least get into their hands. Looking at my spam that I receive this must be the case.  So I have a special e-mail address just for those short-lived online registrations. 

Now you might ask - I give the wrong information, and companies produce something out of it – which is than called segmentation or Customer Relationship Marketing, what will happen?  Naturally, the products are wrong, and subsequently I start to nag, since I don’t like them.  Isn't it an endless cycle?  Probably.  But it will last until companies produce something or offer something that considers me.  Which is customer-centric.  Outside in. Worth talking about. I love those companies.  I provide them with information to make their service better, because it makes me feel better.  I tell my wife, my friends, my colleagues about it.  I create a buzz for the companies.  I might even buy shares.  And subsequently be rewarded with a higher shareprice and may be some dividends.  As such, good customer service and outside-in thinking makes the companies richer and better and me as well. A tiny bit richer, and a better person, since I don't need to "lie online" anymore.  What do you think?

I think that this is a great entry - may be my best ever.  Big smile -  made my day.

By the way – for free online registration -  check out http://bugmenot.com