What is co-registration?
Consider the following example of a co-registration process... When a person visits a web site, and decides to subscribe, join, become a member, etc., they will provide personal information such as name, email address, and mailing address. Frequently, after providing their personal information, new members are provided the opportunity to request memberships for other services from the partners of the web site that they are joining. For example, if John Doe is subscribing to a Joke-Of-The-Day web site, he may also be asked a follow-up question like "Click YES if you would like to receive a free Term Life Insurance quote." There are typically dozens of offers, any of which John Doe could choose from. Sometime later, John Doe will begin to receive email, or a phone call, from one of the Joke-Of-The-Day advertising partners, in this example a Life Insurance company. This opt-in process is called co-registration. The advertiser will receive information about John Doe, such as his name and contact information.

• (1) Opt-in co-registration leads
  The person viewing the co-registration ad must clearly accept the offer by checking a YES box or some other call to action. The primary factor is that the person requesting more information is fully aware that they are requesting more information and had to take action to show their interest. They co-registration process is intuitive and obvious. An example would be for John Doe to check the "YES" checkbox to receive a Life Insurance Quote. If he does not check "YES" then he does not receive a free quote. SharpNET offers opt-in and double opt-in co-registration lead programs that can produce from 25 - 1000 leads per day, generally for less than one dollar per opt-in responder.

• (2) Opt-out co-registration leads
  The concept is similar to opt-in, however the call to action (the "YES" checkbox) is pre-checked. If John Doe does not want to receive information from the co-registration advertiser, he must un-check the "YES" checkbox.

The problem with opt-out co-registration is that about 40% of the people registering to join or subscribe to a web site do not realize that they are also opting in to the advertiser's services. They either don't see or don't understand the opt-out process, making the lead quality poor for the advertiser, and may even be considered non Can-Spam compliant. For this reason, SharpNET does not support opt-out co-registration leads. Opt-in co-registration leads are far better quality.

Evaluating co-registration services
Keep this in mind

Price
Co-registration services charge anywhere from $0.25 to over $2.00 per referred subscriber. Make sure to shop around and weigh the price of the subscribers against the methods through which they are collected. Lead quality is a significant factor, and often times the more expensive co-registration lead will yield your best return on investment.

Single vs. double opt-in leads
Some services refer unconfirmed email addresses while others refer only those subscribers that have confirmed their intent via email to join your list. If you maintain a strict double opt-in policy, avoid services of the single opt-in variety or confirm those addresses on your end once you receive them. Also, single opt-in subscriptions should be much less expensive than their double opt-in counterparts.

Beware of Incentives
Some services will offer their visitors incentives such as free "points" or even real cash to encourage them to sign up for e-zines and other offers. Ask yourself this question: Is the incentive that is offered going to detract from the value of subscribers by encouraging people to sign up who are only interested in the incentive and not my e-zine?

Deceptive Sign-Up Practices
Several services mix what they call "opt-in" offers (where visitors need to check a box) with "opt-out" offers (where a visitor must actually un-check a box not to be subscribed). This can cause major problems, especially if these offers are mixed together or presented in an otherwise deceptive manner. Be sure to check out the sign-up process of any co-registration service before agreeing to give them any of your money.

Your Description
Most good co-registration services allow you complete control over your description. Be very precise in your description in order to better qualify the subscribers you receive. Because you're only paying for the email addresses and contact info of the individuals who actually select your ad, you want to make sure that these subscribers are the most interested in your subject matter. How you describe your services may have have a big influence on the effectiveness of your co-registration data.

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