Thanks (or not so much) in part to some meta bloggers, pop-ups have crept their way into the blogosphere. I am seeing more pop-ups on blogs, especially in the marketing, tech and social media niches.\u00a0 Pop-ups are a dated tactic that were thrown out by many design and usability conscious marketers years ago for good reason \u2013 they interrupt a positive user experience on a website and are\u00a0not permission based.<\/p>\n
Unexpected pop-ups or prompts that come up when users enter or even leave a website are always a bad idea, and are not used by the most respected web publications.\u00a0 I would be surprised if you could even find a single\u00a0top 100 blogger\u00a0that uses subscription pop-ups, and none of the top 20 use them.\u00a0 That in itself speaks volumes.<\/p>\n
Pop-ups show a lack of respect for your site visitors<\/strong><\/p>\n Face it \u2013 pop-ups are annoying and disrupt a positive user experience with any website, especially a blog.\u00a0 If you respect your visitors time and want them to have a hassle-free experience on your site, you won\u2019t throw windows in their face reminding them to subscribe.<\/p>\n Pop-ups are push, not pull Think about this for a second:\u00a0 you are asking someone to subscribe to your content\u00a0before they have a chance to engage with it<\/em>.\u00a0 Say someone walks into a coffee shop, and before they actually get coffee, the restaurateur blocks their route to the register and asks them to sign up for a membership card.\u00a0 Yes, a percentage of people might blindly take the membership card, but personally I would prefer to try the coffee first and make my decision on the card later.\u00a0 By immediately getting in someone\u2019s face and forcing them to make a decision (subscribe, or close this window) you are effectively telling people to sign up for your membership card before they have tried the coffee.\u00a0 Attention is a scarce commodity, far more valuable than a coffee membership card.\u00a0 It actually isn\u2019t a light decision for busy people to opt-into a newsletter or mailing list.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get in people\u2019s faces about this, if they want to opt in, they will.<\/p>\n First impressions count<\/strong><\/p>\n If my first impression on your website is a pop-up window, immediately I will make the assumption (even if it isn\u2019t true) that you are going to push other things to me in a hard sell manner.\u00a0 That\u2019s my reaction to it \u2013 yours may be different.\u00a0 But you only get one first impression \u2013 wouldn\u2019t you rather it be your content or a landing page you created, not an attempt to capture an email address?<\/p>\n No one actually likes unexpected pop-ups\u2026in fact, people actively dispise them Why would you ever add a feature to your site that people dislike?\u00a0\u00a0DailyBlogTips ran a poll\u00a0asking users \u201cWould one pop-up offering you a newsletter subscription be enough to make you stop visiting a website? The results are as follows:<\/p>\n 64% (or 101 people) answered \u201cno,\u201d meaning that a pop-up would not make them stop visiting a website. On the other side 36% (or 57 people) answered \u201cyes,\u201d meaning that a pop-up would make them stop visiting the website.<\/p>\n The results might seem encouraging to people that want to try out pop-ups, but are they really? Even if 64% of people wouldn\u2019t mind your pop-ups, there is a whole bunch of them that would. I would think twice before using something that would annoy even 30% of my readers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A few people left some comments over there that are worth highlighting:<\/p>\n David Airy:<\/p>\n I\u2019d think twice about using a tool that annoyed 1% of my readers, let alone 30%. It\u2019s been interesting to see how effective pop-ups are for sign-up rates, particularly on ProBlogger, but for me, I\u2019ll leave them out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The-How-To-Geek:<\/p>\n
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