"Killing Two Birds With One Stone" - Not Always Good

After reviewing the email subscription web pages for each of the 2004 presidential candidates, I must admit that I felt overwhelmed. All of the candidates sought specific detailed information in order to become a subscriber and even Dean's site asked for a written description as to why I would support him. To me, asking for a written description about my possible support is asking for too much when all I want to do is subscribe to his emails.

I also felt that many of the candidates tied their volunteer page and subscription page together. Meaning, if I was just wanting to subscribe for the email newsletter, then I would also have to answer questions about how I wanted to help volunteer. While this is a strategic move by the campaigns to "kill two birds with one stone," meaning that they wanted to seek the interest of those subscribers to volunteer, I would have rather have not had those options on the subscription page.

Instead, I would have aimed for a clean and crisp subscription page, with only questions that were necessary about the emails. More questions about how often I wanted emails, or what format I wanted emails are more effective on this certain page. Bush did a good job at keeping his subscription page clean and Kerry was not bad either. But the others need some work.

Keep email subscriptions simple - that way people won't look at the subscription page and think "Naw, this is too much work - all I want are some emails!"