I mentioned this to Andy in another thread, but wanted to place it here since this is the correct place!

If you've ever visited Seth Godin's blog you know that he talks a lot about the importance of building a 'tribe' when it comes to online ventures. He also talks about how it's important to give things to people that help them, so they will in turn help you. And finally, he talks about the need to deliver an audience (your tribe) to an advertiser. Seth is in marketing…

I have a site that will give the visitor a chuckle, for free, no registration, no hassle. But there will eventually be some advertising that they will have to watch to get the 'free' chuckle. If they want to participate in the discussion, they will have to register. That registration is a critical event for the next step in the process – delivering an audience to an advertiser.

Online advertisers demand specific targeting of the audience so they don't waste effort on non-potential customers. They want to know something about the audience you as a webmaster are delivering. You can ask your visitors later via polls, but the point of registration is really the best time to get that critical piece of information – who is your audience?

So, what we really need is a way to force registrants to give us a bit of information about themselves that is relevant to the advertisers who might support our site. For me, I would want to know their field of occupation.

So finally, I want to ask for custom fields that can be made a required entry at registration. I'd like to be able to offer about a dozen or more choices, one of which must be selected to proceed. I know this seems like a small thing, but it's major huge for anyone who wants to monetize a site via advertising. The internet audience is sliced into thin slivers, and advertisers demand to know the flavor of your particular piece.