Whether as part of a registration form, a payment form, or a contact form, it seems we’re always asking our users to give us information. This could be because the form seems long and intimidating, they aren’t ready to purchase yet, or a host of other reasons. Any time one of these forms is abandoned we lose a potential customer, so it’s in our best interests to make sure as many people as possible complete the form. Sure, some tweaks to those details can make a difference, but there is a much bigger question that we need to tackle first: Why should I, as your visitor, fill out your form? Your visitor will give you their name and email address and in trade you will give them X (replace X with something that is worth a lot). If your software solves a painful problem that the visitor has, then a couple of extra form fields aren’t going to prevent them from signing up. On the flip side, you could have the shortest signup form ever, just an email address, and I still won’t sign up if you don’t give me a reason to. On the signup form for FogBugz Joel Spolsky, a credible source to the FogBugz audience, directly says, "We will not sell or share your email address, period." Patrick Mackenzie says, “I'll never spam you. Feel free to unsubscribe at any time,” on the signup form for his training website. We should be focusing on delivering and showing value long before worrying about how long our form is. I’ll bet many of the form fields you think are mandatory really aren’t. Gumroad cuts down all the fields normally seen on a payment form to just email address, credit card number, and expiration date.