By Richard Lowe
I'll bet you've visited a site only
to be plagued by one, two, three or even more popup
windows appearing to annoy you. Some poorly designed
sites even pop up those same windows each time you
visit a new page, making simple navigation a horrifying
experience.
Some webmasters believe in popup advertisements.
They believe that their sales or signups (newsletters)
are substantially higher when they use popups. And,
guess what, they are often correct. Sites do get good
responses from popup advertisements. People do look
at them and do respond to offers, forms and ads.
However, I, like many surfers, find
popup advertisements unacceptable and cease to visit
sites which use them heavily. I will put up with an
occasional pop up window, but immediately close it
without reading - for the same reason I delete spam
messages: I will not encourage their use by responding
to them.
Pop-under windows, things that slide
across the screen and pictures that jump out at me
will cause me to immediately leave the site and more
than likely I will never be back. I especially despise
those exit window "services". A horrible invention,
intended to deceive surfers and siphon traffic from
legitimate sites. Of course, programs like Gator deserve
immediate deletion as the are run by the scummiest
of advertisers.
What kind of advertising do I respond
to? I prefer a well-written article reviewing a product
or service with a link to the supplier or order screen,
or a side-bar that I can read, or even a small graphic.
I want information, I want to know WHY I should look
at a product or service.
But most of all, I want a reference
to that product or service. A more-or-less trusted
source saying, "yes, this is worth looking at". That's
the best kind of advertising by far.
To illustrate how advertising on the
internet often works, imagine walking down the street
lined with a bunch of shops. Some shops have very
nice window displays which show off the products very
well. These are the stores which I would tend to visit
as I can see exactly what they sell. The best of these
stores have knowledgeable employees who know all about
their products along with good signage which explains
various facts (for example, coupons with recipes scattered
throughout the produce section). Their advertising
would consist of flyers which described the products,
perhaps a newsletter and reviews by knowledgeable,
respected people.
Other's have someone out front screaming
"buy this stuff!". These people may wander up and
down the street shouting buzz-words that may or may
not attract people into a shop. This is the equivalent
of banner ads. These might get my attention, but if
the shop didn't produce the goods, then I would lose
interest fast. And if shops consistently didn't deliver
what was promised, then I would probably just ignore
these hawkers altogether.
A really clever shopkeeper might hire
someone to run around and plaster brochures to car
windows - these are also banner ads and similar things.
Very aggressive shopkeepers might hire
some very entertaining jugglers to put on shows -
these are the strange ads which do weird things with
the screens. I might look, but I almost certainly
won't buy.These can, however, attract many people
and some of them are likely to find something in the
shop to purchase.
Then there are those shopkeepers which
send out people to stop shoppers on the street and
hold an ad in front of their face (this is a pop-up).
I find this rude (it's happened in real life) and
simply will not buy this stuff. I relate this to the
people at airports (do they still exist?) who try
to sell books for donation. I've never bought one
because I don't want to encourage their behavior.
A pop-under would be similar to the
above, except the ad is slipped in the shopper's back
pocket so they can be surprised by it later.
Gator runs around and with some sleight-of-hand
changes as many ads as it can to it's own as they
are being handed or shown to patrons.
I hope this is helpful in illustrating
how popup advertising fits into the overall promotional
picture. Each webmaster must decide how to promote
his or her site based upon their goals and objectives,
as well as their budget and ethics. Ethical webmasters
will find means to advertise which produce results
without using spamming or other unacceptable means.
Unethical webmasters will use whatever technique works
regardless of the consequences to themselves, their
customers or company and others. They will often appear
to have great results, but those are often temporary
and fleeting.
About the author:
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips
And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net
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