

Ask HN: Should I force users to validate their email address after signing up? - aderaynal

I develop browser extensions that require people to create an account on my website in order to customize the extensions' behavior.<p>A while back, someone told me I should simplify the registration process in order to improve the number of signups. 
So I only ask for an email address, first name, last name, and password. And there's no email validation.<p>Turns out that about 50% of the account created are never used. So I email people a few times:
- after one week to ask them if there was a problem
- after two weeks to offer a free trial of the paid upgrade
- after one month with a short user survey<p>It appears that less than 5% of these emails generate an action from the inactive users.
Is this normal ?
Are most people entering fake email addresses ? Are most of my emails blocked by spam filters ?<p>Should I force user to click a link sent to their mailbox right after registering ?
Would that help my future emails go through their spam filter ?<p>I would love to have your opinion on this...
Thanks!
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idle_processor
Email registration won't always fix retention problems.

In general, if a site forces me to register, and I either (a) don't trust the
site ownership/security, or (b) don't yet intend to become a long-term user, I
will fall back to using a <http://bugmenot.com/> login or sign up with a
disposable email address obtained via a service like <http://mailinator.com>
or <http://10minutemail.com>. In general, I find having to verify email
addresses tedious and annoying, but it's not generally a deal-breaker.

In another post, you mentioned "i do not allow for email address change." That
could be a problem for impulsive users considering making the switch from
short- to long-term use. Churning email addresses out isn't that hard, if one
is so inclined. Ironically, one of the places I think confirmation email might
be helpful, is when changing email address. If you force the user to confirm
from both addresses, you run less risk that they make a typo in their new
address.

That's all personal, though. You may want to search for existing
conversion/retention research or just conduct some A/B tests.

If spammer sign-up is a big concern, and you want to prevent them from mucking
up your data, consider something like <http://www.google.com/recaptcha> to
deter bots.

~~~
aderaynal
Thanks for the pointers.

spammer sign up is not a concern.

I will try some A/B tests. I was ust hoping to get similar data from fellow
HNers...

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andrewjshults
Do you have open/click tracking on the emails? If not you should either roll
your own or use someone like sendgrid who can automate the process for you
(depending on how many emails you send out, even the free tier of sendgrid
might be enough). Open tracking isn't perfect but it'll help you narrow down
where in the process the drop off happens (sendgrid also does spam report
tracking and bounces). They also put a lot of effort into making sure that
your email get through (not affiliated, just a happy customer).

~~~
aderaynal
Thanks for the suggestions. The free tier would not be enough for me, but I
don't mind spending $9.95 per month.

Does anyone have experience integrating SendGrid with a Google AppEngine Java
application ?

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alain94040
Spam filters are a major issue, but it wouldn't explain why only 5% of people
you ask reply.

On the other hand, these are people who signed up, probably curious to know
what your site was about, and then they saw and decided it wasn't for them.
Not much you can do at that point.

Have you been receiving complains from people you email?

~~~
aderaynal
Very few complains, In fact I wish I had more ;) My product is not spammy, It
provides a great service, but I know I need to do a better at educating new
users. It tough to do when my emails do not seem to reach them...

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danoc
It's not unusual to see emails go ignored. According to MailChimp, the
industry average open rate is 19.1% while the industry average action (click)
rate is 4.0% I'm not quite sure where they get these numbers from, but it
appears that your figures are normal.

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calbear81
Do you enforce unique email addresses in your system? What would happen if
someone has already added my email to their account? What if I click on
"Recover password", would I then be able to take over their account by
resetting their password?

~~~
aderaynal
yes, I enforce unique email addresses. You cannot take over an account. i do
not allow for email address change.

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pbreit
If you don't need to confirm email addresses then don't. In many cases it's
really not necessary.

~~~
aderaynal
I don't really need to confirm them.

I was just wondering if it would help future emails find their way to the
user's inbox...

~~~
fieldforceapp
Why just limit communication to their inbox, have you tried Twitter/FB/LI
integration?

