Comments on: Pop-up Mania! Will They Come Back To Vogue?

By: Daniel Scoccoon

Daniel Scoccoon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:51:00 +0000

@Suzanne, yep. On the poll results post I will recommend a plugin that should be able to do that.

By: syringa28on

syringa28on — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:39:00 +0000

For me, we should let the visitor read the content of the website than ‘force’ them to feel their email in the pop-ups. If our content is quality enough, so why should we afraid of losing or not gaining any subscribers?Just my 3 cents.:)

By: Money Making Ideas ~ Suzanneon

Money Making Ideas ~ Suzanneon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:29:00 +0000

Is there a way to make a pop-up come up … like fade in … with a message … and then seconds later … fade back out? Just to send a quick message but not require any action on the visitor’s part? Thanks. *SmiLes* Suzanne

By: Brandon Mendelsonon

Brandon Mendelsonon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:26:00 +0000

It’s all been said by people more experienced than I, but I can’t begin to stress the fright and alarm I felt when considering the post’s question.

By: Daniel Scoccoon

Daniel Scoccoon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:42:00 +0000

@Jacob, you basically saying we should all enable our pop-ups until we can then!

By: Jacob from Group Writing Projectson

Jacob from Group Writing Projectson — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:36:00 +0000

This technique is working because for now, relatively few sites are using it and because it’s javascript-based, typical popup blockers like Firefox aren’t catching it. Yet. But they will soon. When people recognize the success you mention above, these popups will start to appear all over, annoying people until Ffx 3.1 can block them and then we’ll be back to where we were a few months ago.

By: Danny Brownon

Danny Brownon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:21:00 +0000

I agree with #23 SEO Genius. If there was a way to have a single pop up when you visit a site for the very first time, and that was it, then I’d be fine with this. Even have a message on there saying “This is the only time you’ll see this screen” or somthing (who knows, maybe there already is).

By: SEO Geniuson

SEO Geniuson — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:09:00 +0000

I think if a website was to use 1 pop up per new visitor and thats all then it would not be enough to make me leave that website and never come back but if they were to use it every time I came back then I would definitely leave and not come back. Pop ups are so damn annoying.

By: Mike Panicon

Mike Panicon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:02:00 +0000

When John Chow added one and blogged about it, I spoke up against them and questioned how his page views would be affected if more people subscribe to the newsletter and read his articles via email instead of on his site, possibly bringing down his click-rate on ads He basicly said that I should learn a thing or two about marketing.. he clearly missed my point.

By: Daniel Richardon

Daniel Richardon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:56:00 +0000

I don’t mind seeing a popup box, except when the overall site design and the popup thingy blends while stand out at the same time.

By: Rajaie AlKoranion

Rajaie AlKoranion — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:57:00 +0000

Seriously, why should popups annoy anyone? I mean, all you have to do to close them is click on simple button!

By: Bilingual bloggeron

Bilingual bloggeron — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:08:00 +0000

P.S. This debate reminds me of the debate we had previously in this blog about the super-long internet marketing squeeze pages that go on for an eternity before getting down to the info that most people want: the price of the product. However, those sales pages must be generating their marketers serious $$$$ and , otherwise they would’ve gone into extinction by now.

By: Garyon

Garyon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:07:00 +0000

I’d be curious if all the big sites that did it saw a spike in subscribers or if it was consistent over time. If I had to guess, I’d think they picked up the readers they were going to get initially, then it died off.

By: Bilingual bloggeron

Bilingual bloggeron — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:03:00 +0000

I’ve had a pop-up on my blog for the past five months. It only appears once so if a visitor returns to my blog they won’t see the pop-up again, thanks to the cookie.

By: Garyon

Garyon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:46:00 +0000

@Daniel I think you probably could get away with it. I am familiar with the site and if I saw a pop up, I might annoyingly click it closed, but then move on to what I want. The benefits to you (more subscribers) would be big. The downside to me is a slight annoyance. That annoyance factor may be enough to turn someone off to an unknown website, however.

By: Youngon

Youngon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:31:00 +0000

You will be wrong to use the pop up if you are not as big as darren.

By: Daniel Scoccoon

Daniel Scoccoon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:23:00 +0000

@Gary, yeah this is a valid point. I think established and authority sites and bloggers can “get away” with the annoying factor, while smaller ones would be shooting on their own feet.

By: Garyon

Garyon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:21:00 +0000

One thing which hasn’t been mentioned is that the sites you mention in the article are sites with an established base of readers and tens of thousands of subscribers. I assume the popup wasn’t their first exposure to the site or their first visit (maybe it was for a small few). The gains in subscribers was capturing people who were already readers and familiar with the site and its content, not new users discovering it for the first time.

By: AroJoyon

AroJoyon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:15:00 +0000

Daniel i already though this post will be posted soon by ‘U’

By: Daniel Scoccoon

Daniel Scoccoon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:18:00 +0000

@Satish, never say never, but I am not planning to use it anytime soon .

By: Ruchir Chawdhryon

Ruchir Chawdhryon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:17:00 +0000

@ Daniel: The reason people stopped using traditional pop-ups was because most browsers blocked them all by default. They hardly got viewed by anyone and so people stopped using them.

By: BryanKon

BryanKon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:15:00 +0000

OK, here’s the issue that got me to make my first comment here after being a long time reader……

By: Mrio Andradeon

Mrio Andradeon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:14:00 +0000

I really don’t think that’s the way to go.
After such a long struggle agains popup windows a few years ago now top bloggers want to bring them back because it’s good to get readers?
Maybe if they use it for a very short limited time it would be OK but still…

By: Chrison

Chrison — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:11:00 +0000

Popups are an insult to readers.

By: SlamBloggeron

SlamBloggeron — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:08:00 +0000

Personally, I would still come back to a site if the content was worthy.

By: Ajith Edasseryon

Ajith Edasseryon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:59:00 +0000

A popup subscribe form is as irritating as a popup ad… I don’t know how many of these subscribers will end up as real readers of the content! Just having numbers is not sufficient, there has to be good quality readers base. Many of them, after signing up, must be marking the newsletters/mails as spam as well.

By: SATISH — Technotip.orgon

SATISH — Technotip.orgon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:53:00 +0000

BIG no to popups.

By: Mayooresanon

Mayooresanon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:41:00 +0000

I think, new blog users will fall victim to this pop-up newsletter request. but most of the people will get annoy by this and leave the web site.

By: Daniel Scoccoon

Daniel Scoccoon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:36:00 +0000

@Ruchir, that is the question I am trying to find out, if the gains are always bigger than the losses.

By: Ruchir Chawdhryon

Ruchir Chawdhryon — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:32:00 +0000

You shouldn’t really care if 100 visitors of your 100K visitors a month felt annoyed by pop-up hovers. There’s an opportunity cost to everything. If you’re gaining 3000 newsletter subscribers a month and annoying 1000 people with your pop-ups, well you’re still the winner.