Pop Ups On Your Blog
So today is Sunday, I took it easy. Ok, that is a flat out lie, I have been working on making my computer a local server so I can test sites I am working on, so it was very frustrating to say the least. I figured out how to make my computer a server and host sites locally for testing, but I am having other complications and had to quit before I lost it…
After taking a break and watching some football, I decided to go through my Google Reader and comment on some posts, which I sometimes like more than writing an article (some of you probably know that from the long comments I leave on your blogs!). I read a ton of blogs, for many reasons, but mainly because I like to comment on blogs. On my way through the reader, I came across a couple of blogs that have installed an annoying pop up that begs you to sign up for their email newsletter (or something else, I don’t know because I immediately close the pop-up) and it furthered my frustration, so here I am taking it out on you 
.
Why You Shouldn’t Have a Pop-Up:
This is really a no brainer to me, THEY ARE ANNOYING! Please, please please, if you get nothing else from my blog, I 
hope you get this. Don’t ever even entertain the idea of putting a pop-up on your blog. Can’t you remember how annoying pop-up ads were when you were surfing the web in the 90’s and early 2000’s? Weren’t you happy when browsers came out with pop-up blockers so you didn’t have to deal with that annoyance anymore?
If you are not old enough to remember, take it from me, nobody appreciated that, and only people that buy “get rich quick” scams on late night TV ever clicked on them! If I want to sign up for your newsletter I will do it on my own. If you want to promote it by putting it in a “featured” section of your site, I am ok with that, but to send a pop-up at me that I am FORCED to close so you might build your email list up and spam people with a bunch of useless information that id actually free and on the internet somewhere anyway is utterly foolish.
It is so annoying that I now leave these sites and unsubscribe (if I was subscribed) and never turn back. I have entirely too many other useful blogs to read that are actually trying to put quality content out for people to read.
A good example of trying to put content out that people need is Blogger Illustrated, I was listening to Allyn’s latest podcast where he proceeded to commit to changing the way he puts his content out (style wise) and it was very interesting to see how he is actually trying to make a difference and change himself to help others. If you haven’t had a chance to watch his video blog, you missed some great entertainment (as long as you didn’t mind the language). I believe some of his message was getting lost in the parodies and comedy, and he really has some quality information to give, so I am looking forward to the changes he is making, but I would bet money, you won’t EVER find a pop-up on his site!
One Final Rant:
This is somewhat related. There is one blog in particular that seems to send me an email every time I comment. I get enough emails on a daily basis (over 100) and I don’t need to weed through someone thanking me for commenting, thank me in your comment, I usually subscribe to follow up comments on sites that offer it (that is another article). So, I won’t be visiting his site anymore and the content was atually good.
Conclusion:
Don’t let your good content get last in scammy tricks to try to sell something. And I am not talking about putting ads on your site, or getting paid to promote something.
Sorry, had to rant. There are a lot of great blogs I read, and a few seem to be trying to ruin the industry….
Filed under: Blogging
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tI don’t like the pop ups either and when I come across them on a site I just assume the content is strictly sales pitches so I click away.
I like to write thank you emails when someone has done something I appreciate.
But, I think it’s pretty much a given that when you receive a comment on your site you appreciate it.
So a thank you for the comment isn’t necessary beyond the initial thanks for finding and commenting on my site email that a lot of people send out.
As for the server to test sites I am using MAMP on my Mac and WAMP on my PC.
Both are working well although I have had trouble in the past with setting up WAMP.
It’s a great way to “break” a site without really doing any damage to the real site, ha,ha..
Hover in ads (or opt-in forms) had a place in the past, because they worked. Now I think they are merely a frustration or the first time visitor and even more annoying for your repeat visitors.
If you have a newsletter then you should promote it, that goes without saying, but a much better way is to provide amazing content and then add a line at the end of your blog post giving your visitors a link to click to grab your newsletter. Simple and effective!
Another thing with pop-ups is that you can usually program in (or, if you are using a decent service, tweak the options) so it only ever displays a cretain number of times based on the visitor and how many times they have come to your site. If someone hasn’t subscribed by their third, fourth, fifth visit, they probably are not going to subscribe on their tenth visit down the line so why bother annoying them; it could just end up costing you a reader.
Thanks for sharing you thoughts on this Keith.
Karl
Generally I don’t love pop ups on blogs either. I prefer to have the subscription put at sidebar/header or somewhere visible, just not interrupting the reading process. However, I do respect the author’s preference, if the site owner have good reasons to keep the pop up alive due to higher subscription rate etc, then I’ll bypass a few seconds of annoyance just to reach the quality content (Yes, Quality will be the main reason for me to continue subscribing.
Nice knowing your site btw. Best wishes in 2010!
I especially detest those pop-ups that go behind your browser and you find them later when you close the window. Ugh! Sneaky little cusses. I agree with Ching Ya, though, if there is quality then I will deal with the nuisance pop-up. But I won’t like it!
Pop-ups are terribly annoying! I’ve seen a few alternatives, which I don’t really mind. The first is the use of a ad in the upper-right hand corner of the screen. The ad will look like a page being peeled back, and when you scroll your cursor over it, the page rolls back to see the advertisement. Kinda cheesy from a design perspective, but I can understand if its a necessary evil for some.
The other alternative, is the tool bar that pops up across the bottom of the screen with a little message that welcomes first time visitors. I think these often use browser cookies to only display to first time visitors, so, the chance of annoying people more than once is drastically reduced.
I can’t stand pop-ups. Google pop-up blocker normally does the trick to fix that problem.
I tried several (not sure WAMP was one) and ended up with BitNami.
A bigger problem for me is I want to actually build the sites on my machine and then export all the files (pages, wp-content, plugins, etc) to a zip and then upload to host to make it live. I am not an expert with SQL and myPHP and can’t seem to find the files as I customize the design and content. So I guess that it may not work for me the way I wanted it to.
I think it is great to offer newsletters too, but promoting them with pop-ups I don’t like. I plan on starting a newsletter myself and will be researching best ways to promote it, but never will it be through a pop-up.
What would be even better is programming the pop-up to only show on visitors that came from search, that way your regular readers wouldn’t be bothered….
I can say that if your site is really important (and I mean REALLY important) I may put up with it, but i will probably visit less…
Unfortunately Google pop-up blocker doesn’t stop these type of pop-ups yet…
I’m with you Keith don’t care for the pop-ups myself, and I received a thank for your comment from one blogger as well, needless to say I do not comment there anymore. Thanks for putting it so blatantly:)
I hate popups and never read them. I don’t know why people bother. Oh, hang on a sec, it could be because some a lister promoted it saying as how it increased their subscribers exponentially. Well I don’t care and I will never subscribe to a blog who uses them.
Eeek, I hope I wasn’t emailing you as I just installed a new plugin that I haven’t tried out yet. ( Email old commenter plugin.)
Please let me know if it’s gone crazy & started thanking peeps oh & I too find popups annoying.
@Rob Sykes, I have seen the rolled back page before, and a diagonal tool bar, those are not intrusive like a pop-up, so they don’t bother me.
@Dan Hesse, Maybe when I make it big people will take my advice
@Tiger Woods, I like getting emails from you Tiger. I know which plugin you are talking about and that one doesn’t bother me.
I hate those pop ups, they are totally annoying and irritating, and especially the ones that render too low in the browser window and you have to shrink it to find the close button. I understand why people use it, but placing a simple box in the sidebar or at the top of the page is much more pleasing.
I hate hate hate pop ups on sites, especially on blogs. If you can’t figure out a way to be creative enough to make money without pop ups on a blog you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
Na na…I really hate pop-ups. They are very annoying and also quite dangerous to our PC.
I would never add pop up advertising from any 3rd party on my blog…Never.
I totally agree, pop-ups are very annoying. It isn’t just the fact that something has interfered with my viewing of the page, it’s then the fact that a message comes up saying something like “Are you really sure you want to navigate away?” etc.