Man, that PopUp Domination really gets your attention, doesn’t it?
I was reading yet another post about list-building for your website and of course the PopUp Domination plugin was brought up.
For those of you who don’t know it off-hand, you’ve probably seen it before. Any time you’ve gone to a site and before you can even start reading a lightbox style pop-up just, well, “pops” into view.
Usually this pop-up is asking for you to sign up for the website’s newsletter or some other offer. In addition, there’s usually a ready “x” button for you to click off of it and not be bothered again.
I know some people have a zero-tolerance policy for that sort of thing. I used to be one of them, myself. If something popped up in the way of an article I was trying to read then I was outta there, never to return.
Then I started getting a lot more lenient -as long as the damn thing didn’t pop up again that is. I’m not sure if some of these are the actual PopUp Domination plugin or what but on some awful sites I’ve had the pop-up keep re-appearing from page to page. That’s way too much poppin’!
If you must use it, it should only pop-up once per session, people. I’d actually prefer it show up right away and not 45 seconds in or some other random interval when I’m right in the middle of the article.
Give the readers a break. Each time it pops up during my visit I’m less and less likely to actually subscribe or take whatever action they want me to take.
But with that said, I don’t begrudge people using it to try to gain more readers and eventually make more money. Not at all.
The only reason I started investigating is because I was considering using it myself. I still am, but I just want to make sure I can control the frequency and annoy people as little as possible.
From what I’ve read, from reputable sources, is that it definitely works. You will get more subscribers, but it could come at the cost of some zero-tolerance readers who might have otherwise stuck with your site.
I’m not quite ready to implement this yet but I’m curious to try it out for a time and gauge the effectiveness of the plugin for myself.
So beware, hapless readers. Anyway, if anyone else had any thoughts or issues with this just let me know in the comments.
UPDATE: Kristi Hines just brought an article that she wrote up about this very issue to my attention. Check it out here: The Case For and Against Popup Opt-In Forms.
i think its very annoying
i never use them and i dont think i will ever use them
Hey Farouk, so do you use any other method to drive newsletter subscription? Or does it just work for you?
I checked out your site and I don’t immediately see where I would sign up for a newsletter. Do you offer one?
Thanks for your comment!
Dude. It works. I currently have more newsletter subscribers than RSS subscribers, and that’s something that’s never happened to me on a blog before.
I personally don’t find them annoying; that’s why I justified putting it on my blog. Any one that pops up and keeps popping up on every page is NOT Popup Domination (there are several other plugins that do something similar); there’s not setting for that. The way I have mine set up is to pop up once a week for people. If they close it, it won’t pop up again for another week.
In addition to that, I know the ebook I give away as an opt-in incentive is valuable. I know the content on my site will benefit anyone who reads it. So if the cost of getting access to my sweet FREE content is a mildly annoying popup once a week, I think that’s a pretty dang good deal for my readers :)
If you have any questions about it, John, let me know. I’m extremely happy with it.
I’ve pretty much decided I’m gonna go for it and just make sure to leave it to a decent interval so the annoyance factor is kept to a minimum.
I’ll definitely hit you up if I have questions. Thanks much!
I’m using pop up domination on many of my blogs and it works like a charm. I’m getting 15-20 subscribers daily. It is one of the awesome plugin to increase your mailing list.
But i think it doesn’t give good results in mmo niche.
Devesh I just checked out your site, it looks like you gained another reader, bro!
I don’t think I can argue with success. I’ll just keep on providing relevant, quality content and I’m pretty sure I’ll only lose the hard-line “zero-tolerance” people.
Thanks for dropping by!
Hmm, the only way to make this viable is to add a huge button “Don’t ever show me this again” that will set a forever cookie stopping the pop up. Then i guess it will be ok.
I don’t know the inner-workings of the plugin yet, but I have to believe there must be some setting like that? I will definitely investigate once I get it up and running. Thanks for dropping by!
Hey there! I’m glad you found my article useful in your decision making process! :)
Hi Kristi. Yes indeed, you provided a whole ton of info from very reputable sources. Anyone considering this plugin would do well to stop by your site and read that article. Thanks for commenting!
Yes, but sometimes I felt the pop up so annoying even it’s get my attention ;)
Great plug in any way. Thanks
I understand exactly what you’re saying. It’s mildly annoying to me, but if the info on the site is good and it’s not too aggressive then I don’t begrudge another blogger looking to build their list up :)
Thanks for stopping by and sharing!