Out of a handful of members, only one member was successful in joining our site without me assisting in the process. Right now, I'm looking at less then 10% self-sufficient rate for new members.

Last Tuesday, I was approached for assistance from a woman asking why there was no submit button on our join page. This seems to be the area that trips up most of our prospective premium members. What really got me thinking that something needs to change is when she told me that she is a software engineer, and had a look at our page code to see what was wrong!

Obviously, I can no longer apease myself by saying that we just haven't had any web-savvy prospective members yet.

If a software engineer can't figure out the process, I am seriously wondering how the average user is feeling frustrated, or worse... business we are losing.

It seems there is no fluid way to join a site unless you already have a Groupee assount OR are familiar with the process (Ie, Create a groupee account, LOG IN with your groupee account so the missing submit buttons will appear, then actually join the site.

The engineer suggested having greyed out buttons with VERY BIG text underneath directing you to create a groupee account first.

Please try to take a step back and look from a new set of eyes. When you go to a page and click on "join" you are brought to the EVE/THRIVE page.

The eve thrive page shows the price options for the premium memberships, but then the person is left to rack their brains trying to figure out how to join us!

This is just unacceptable. Maybe our HTML should direct them to the groupee login/join page when they click on JOIN NOW, but that only serves to have then create an account. There would STILL need to be a way for a more fluid self-explanatory method to join a community's premium membership.

I personally can't suggest any constructive solutions, aside from wondering if we can ditch the universal login (removing two steps; creating an account and loging in to the account to make the submit button appear on the important page... the join page)

Please let me know if there is something we can do on our end to make joining more fluid, or if there is something you think might help on your end.

Thanks,
Jay

Hi Jay-

Thanks for the feedback. We are not getting that feedback from other sites/users. We made changes to the login page a couple of months ago that were specifically designed to eliminate any confusion and the feedback we have gotten from other sites is that it worked, especially the fact that the login page does now inherit the style of your site.

Can you tell me more about your site, however? How new is the community, did you have a different login system that your users are migrating over from, etc. Any info along those lines will help us figure out where the complication is for your users.

Thanks!

Our site is http://www.northeastreia.com

We are a new site, since with our official launch June 1, 05.

We are not migrating from any other system, and I was around for the discussion about the look/feel of the login when it was "lightstick" green.

I'm sure the positive feedback was based on the fact that users no longer feel they are leaving the host site. Great job on the ability to morph to the styleset of the site.

We are still however, still experiencing a high rate of new membership failures. Please look our site over with respect to joining.

Ted, do you know how other sites direct new members to join? Do they hyperlink directly to Groupee login? This still leaves me wondering "now what" once I go to the groupee login. .02

Thanks for the quick responce.

Jay

Ted, I do have a suggestion now. Why are we made to create a groupee account before we join the site?

My partner expressed our feelings well on this one. "Why do we want to stay with a (hosting) company that makes a person think 3X before spending money". He was referring to the way with your system, the prospective member is given three times to back out of an impulse purchace of a premium membership.

.02 again. It would be much better for your customers if you didn't foster exclusion within the impulse buyer demographic.

It just seems an industry practice is to take $ (join) then fill out your information (create account).

Jay

On your site, clicking the "Join Now!" link on the left takes you to the premium memberships page. That is different than a standard membership.

In order to become a premium member, you must first be a regular member. Clicking the Login/Join link on the premium memberships page should walk you through each of the 3 memberships (if necessary): Groupee Network, your site, then the premium membership. I suspect that is what you are referring to about the 3 chances.

Yes, it is true that you have to be a registered member of the site and logged in for the Submit button to appear on the premium memberships page. For now I recommend that you add some wording (either to the membership description or the page header) that tells people this. Any suggestions on how to make the premium memberships signup a little clearer are always appreciated.

I'm sure it would take some fancy coding, but it would be great to have a different groupee login join page strictly for the purpose of joining a sites premium membership.

(as you can see, on our site we have a "join now" page which is directing people to our premium membership page, as well as a "login" link directing people to the groupee login page).

I would think a seperate Groupee join page should be made that walks you through the process directly. How about a flash page that customers can point to for premium membership joining. Page one of the flash can have people create an account ONLY. (We don't want people guessing what radio button they are supposed to click on... lets make it surfer-friendly) when you hit submit, it sends the info to the groupee database (or whatever normally happens) as it fades to page two; logging in. (Again, logging in would be the only choice... no radio buttons to contend with) When you hit submit, it links you to the host's eve/thrive page for the purpose of joining.

No directions, no tricky FAQ page, all smooth, self explanatory, and very professional.

We could link to a special seperate page like this with our 'JOIN NOW" link, while linking to the normal groupee login with our "LOG IN" link.

Jay

Well, I decided to follow this post up in the interest of those following along.

You can view my workaround here: http://northeastreia.com/groupee/premium

I decided BIG WORDS prompting users without the "Place Order" button to click on the hyperlink which brings up a new window detailing the premium member process.

I am still interested in something much smoother than the need for a FAQ on how to join! Joining (even the premium memberships) should be the most elementary of tasks for the end user!

I sincerely hope the groupee development team is looking into a real solution. We CAN'T be the only site experiencing this. If there are other sites out there with the same trouble, PLEASE POST SOMETHING HERE. I'm curious.

Thanks,
Jay

We don't have issues with the Premium Memberships, as you do, but many people do find the join Groupee/join our Site thing confusing. Especially verifying their email with Groupee, but then having to wait for approval from us.