Eric offers the advice
Don’t expect something for nothing.
What are surfers willing to do to get personalized content?
In May, ChoiceStream did an email survey of 923 U.S. online adults, and found that consumers want personalized content, but they are wary of using methods like click tracking to inform the personalization. Not only that, but they are less willing to provide information or allow tracking than they were a year ago:
Not too encouraging. And if 68% of visitors are opposed to using click and purchase tracking in order to provide what many people actually want — personalization — is it any wonder that they don’t see the value in cookies?
Yeah, I think we’re on a slippery slope on this
one. Because we’ve become so enamored of clicks and counts, we forget that
there are people behind them — who expect to get value in return for their
information. As I say at the conclusion of my recent Web cookies report (A
New Cookie Cutter for Classifying Web Cookies), "In the end, the Web is
similar to the brick-and-mortar world — users are willing to offer up
information about themselves as long as they get something worthwhile in return.
Without that equitable balance — if Web visitors live in a world of “take, take,
take” cookies that pull information but offer no compensating ease-of-use in
return — Web users will view the “cookie relationship” as one-sided,
inequitable, and one that should be terminated." It’s clear to me that
users are getting tired of take, take, take.