Visitor email address feature

[geeggee]

My website is http://www.dvdcopies.biz

If only this were possible...I would like to be able to know the email addresses of each visitor so that I could thank them for visiting my site and inquire if I could be of further help.

With the magnifying lense feature I can sometimes determine a visitor's agency and try to contact the agency. But that is a non starter.

So too bad that an address cookie isn't collected. It would be worth paying a good amount for that info.

[Car Guy]

I'd hate to think of the potential chaos if it was possible to collect visitor email addresses when they visit :shock:

Spammers would be smiling from ear to ear.

I would never use or agree to anyone having that ability!

[geeggee]

I understand your point.

However I have caller ID on my phone. A caller can block their number if they wish. And I can refuse callers who block their number. I like to call back dropped callers...and I kind of think that website viewers who don't contact me are like dropped callers. Or PPC click fraudsters!

We are able to add our phone number to the Do Not Call list.

So I guess I would like the same line of logic applied in cyberspace.

Nothing to fear but fear itself. Death and taxes and an empty beer bottle as well!

[webado]

On the web that would be in the realm of nasty spyware of the worst kind. It's against all the internet protocols.

Anyway, luckily browsers completely block this information from being available. It takes viruses and trojans that slip by your antivirus to access this stuff.

You get the IP address, that's it. It allows you to know who the ISP is and the geolocaiton of the ISP's datacenter. Nothing more.

Only the ISP corresponding to that IP address is able to know what user had it at the time your hit was logged. The ISP is not allowed to reveal any information except to authorities equipped with a warrant in the course of an investigation.

[geeggee]

So if we can't get the viewer's email info then this link might be the second best option.
http://www.retargeting.com/about-demo.htm

Any thoughts on this?


The testimonial is interesting because of their claim of 90% of viewers leaving a website with no conversion. Then after redirecting the conversion rate jumps.

http://www.retargeting.com/about-client_testimonials.htm

Car Guy...in another of my posts I was concerned about my traffic being redirected. If this company can redirect your viewers back to you...then isn't it possible that the viewer could be redirected elsewhere through code manipulation?

[FrankV]

From what I can make of the retargeting company, it is nothing more that an affiliate network like Google, Commission Junction or the like. You pay them money and they offer other sites the "right" to post your advertising banners on their site. Then. if you are lucky, some customer that visited your site and left might see your add and click back to your site to buy or look again. Some methods you pay per click and other methods are a flat rate. Either way, you are hoping that some other site displays your add and that a customer clicks on the add to return to your site and buy.

[DSL Guy]

No way for a script on a page to harvest email addys without using some sort of trojan or like what webado explained.

What you need is content that captures the email address. Like some sort of form. Maybe add a poll, or a pop up questionnaire / poll that requests that info.

Take it from me. I have been collecting email addys for about 4 years. I don't sell them, I don't misuse them in any way. I don't even use them to market to the visitor at all.

Still a large portion of these addys are useless because they can not be verified as valid upon submission and as you might guess a large percentage are bogus.

[webado]

With proper scripting you can validate the email addresses to the extent that you can validate the host's server MX record(s) so you will at least know if the email address is likely to exist.

You can also verify the country using some IP-to-county database (lots of free ones) so you can match against what the user may have filled out for his location (assuming you have a comprehensive form that asks for this).

More than that you cannot do anything worthwhile (or legal).

[DSL Guy]

The thing is I would not want my form or the process for visitors to get their information to be any more intrusive than it is. The email address is really not needed except for future contact but is made central to activating the search script on the site.

What is needed is a valid landline phone number to their stated physical address and that can be validated and verified upon submission.

I believe the guys who created this script are now working on how to verify the email addy as well as make it possible to receive their requested info using mobile numbers and voip numbers.

[fathwad]

Extracting email addresses would be an incredibly evil thing to do....

[otldm]

If a user wants to be contacted by you for any reason, they'll give you their email address. Otherwise, you have no business obtaining it without their permission or knowledge. I certainly would never give any company any further business if they did this sort of thing.

[Bryan Alwright]

I can understand your good purpose to say thank you to your visitor. But I agree with otldm that sometimes people felt bothered when their email are collected without their permission. They will cotact you when they need something from you.

[JayJay]

I agree...I dont want my email address made known either...

[webado]

Relax, it is not accessible in any case.

[moosechic]

there is a program you can use that is inexpensive... its legal and complies with internet laws, because it gives the user the option to accept or deny. whereas you may have your mailing list sign up on your front page, but people just over look that stuff, they don't even think about signing up... this program, puts a window right in front of their face that basically says, "hey, do you or do you not want to be on our mailing list?" it can actually say whatever you want it to say... but it forces the viewer to make a decision right then and there, do i or do i not want to give my email address.

then once they sign up, we have an auto responder that immediately shoots them coupons to save money... and we then take a visitor to a customer...

we found our mailing list more than doubled with this feature!!!! i highly recommend it... you can find more info at:

[Car Guy]

I would leave any site that puts a pop-up "in my face" and asks me for information!

[webado]

That's nothing but a form to fill out, though it may be served as an obnoxious popup window. It's not any third party script that snoops around and finds the information. It cannot be done.