Lesson Learned: Account Activation

April 21, 2007
lessons learned, syncd

It's been great to hear from people who have started using LiveTimer.com since it was launched a few weeks ago. Thankfully, the feedback we've received has been quite positive and the suggestions for improving the service have been really valuable.

We're also finding value in the feedback we're not getting.

One anomaly we didn't anticipate when we launched LiveTimer.com was how many people would sign up for our service but not activate their accounts. We had decided upon an activation process which would require clicking on an activation link sent in a "Welcome" email. This would ensure that we had a valid email address for account-related communication, and seemed like a very small hurdle for new users to clear. However, now that we know the number of people who took the time to sign up for LiveTimer.com but then never activated their accounts, we think this approach was a mistake. While some people may have just put their "Welcome" emails aside, we also received a couple reports of these emails being marked as spam. Either way, we're sorry that some people who were interested enough to sign up for LiveTimer.com never got to try the service.

Removing the Hurdle

Starting today, we've removed the activation step from the sign up process. After signing up for a new LiveTimer.com account, you'll be taken directly to your new account's login page. We're still sending out a "Welcome" email, but responding to it is no longer critical.

If you signed up for a LiveTimer.com account in the past week but did not activate your account, please visit LiveTimer.com to log in to your now active account. If you signed up for LiveTimer.com over a week ago and never activated your account, please sign up for a new account here.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and hope that the now streamlined sign up process works better for everyone.