Dear Borrell: No, I will not register at your site.

Dear Borrell:

You just did some research and you asked me if I wanted to see it. You offered me a "free download of the individual social network ad spending projections for 118 sites." Sure, I thought, sounds good. I expected to leave you with my name, email address, and even my phone number in return.

But that wasn't enough. In exchange for the juice, you wanted me to "register" at your site. No way.

I'm not your "customer" and I'm not a "user." I just dropped by to pick up what you said I could have for free. I'm happy to leave you the basics because I understand your need to market to me again in the future. That's a fair trade -- your knowledge for my contact info. But I'm not going to "register" at your site.

Look, it's nothing personal. Well, actually, it's very personal. Do you have any idea how many Internet sites I'm registered on? Wait ... I'm doing a count ... 101 (and that was a roadrunner, finger-down-the-page count; I know there’s probably another 50).

So, why can't you be one of them? Because I'm not buying anything from you, Borrell. I don't need to access your website regularly and we're not friends or colleagues, darn it! Yes, it benefits you when I register, but it means I have to both generate and remember another password. (That process always make me feel a little queasy anyway. You understand; it's one more password "out there.")

So bye, bye Borrell. I probably won't see you later. I’ll miss blogging about your report. I was going to, you know.

-- scrubbed by Marketing Brillo