Popups proliferate like Tribbles, but they’re not as cute.
by Anne R. Allen
Studies tell us the popup is the most hated form of marketing on the Web. A popup is the contemporary version of those phone calls that used to interrupt your life just as you were sitting down to a family dinner. The ones that tried to get you to change your phone provider or buy a “pre-need” burial plot from an annoying stranger instead of digging into that lasagna.
Yeah. They’re that irritating. And that unlikely to succeed.
Here’s what the marketers at 10Twelve Marketing Agency said about popup ads in their April 2017 blogpost “Seriously. Knock it off with the Pop-Up Ads.”
“It is an indisputable fact. People hate popup ads. According to research from the Nielsen Norman Group, when users were asked how various forms of advertising affected their web experience, 95% of people rated pop-up ads “negatively” or “very negatively.”
The argument is “everybody’s getting used to them now.” That is, we’re already boiled frogs, so it’s okay to keep boiling us.
But that doesn’t mean the popups serve any useful purpose.
So Why do such a Scary Number of Websites use Popup Windows?
It seems an awful lot of bloggers and marketers believe the hype that popup subscription windows result in a bigger readership.
But the exact opposite is true in terms of real, engaged readers. Most of those subscriptions are meaningless. They’re like those Twitter followers you can buy from some third world click farm. They might boost your ego, and maybe bamboozle a few clueless advertisers, but they won’t boost your brand one bit.
In fact, they do the opposite.
A popup is harming your brand with every potential reader who leaves your site without seeing your content and never returns.
Think about it: you’re driving away 95% of the potential readers of your books—in exchange for meaningless numbers.
So What’s a Popup?
It’s one of those awful light boxes that now block the content of an increasing number of blogs and other websites, demanding you give up your name and email address before you’re allowed to visit the site.
Recently I’ve visited a number of sites that were blocked by 3, 4, and up to 7 popups. You close one, and there’s another…and another…and another.
No content for you!
How can anybody be so ashamed of their own work that they’d block it with 7 popups? Maybe they think that, like Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi”, they’ll develop a following through reverse psychology.
But personally, I can’t get out of those sites fast enough. (Well, I did stay at the one with 7 popups just to see how many I could figure out how to close. I gave up when I couldn’t close #7. For all I know the guy may have 10 million popups and no content at all. Nobody will ever know…or care.)
I wanted to tell the guy to find another line of work. If you can’t write, don’t. But don’t pretend to have content and then block it.
The Dreaded Un-Blockable Popup
The man who invented the first popup in the late 1990s, Ethan Zuckerman, has even apologized for “creating one of the most hated tools in the advertiser’s toolkit.”
By 2004, when the Web was plagued by popup ads, popup blockers became a thing. For a while, the popup nearly disappeared.
But then somebody invented a new kind of popup that can’t be blocked. That’s because it is technically part of the page, not a different page with a different code. And the dreaded popup was b a-a-a-ck.
That’s why the subscription popups that are the scourge of the Interwebz right now can’t be blocked with a popup blocker. They are not technically “popups”.
They are official “popup light boxes,” also known as “interstitials.”
Interstitials do the same thing as the old fashioned despised popup advertisement: they block content. They don’t follow a victim around the Web like the original popups, but they keep the reader from seeing the content of that particular site unless they do the site owner’s bidding. These days most popups demand you subscribe to a blog or newsletter and a barrage of daily emails.
Some of those emails are the new toxic kind that say “I see you just visited my site and didn’t buy my book. I’m spying on you and I’ll bully you until you do.” Yeah. I immediately unsubscribed and will NEVER go to that guy’s site again. Too bad. He used to have useful content.
Popups Get More Sadistic Every Day.
- Many can’t be closed until you click on a button that says something like “I’m a moron and I never want to educate myself about this subject.”
- Some popups block all content until you sign up for 100s of duplicate copies of their newsletter. You get carpal tunnel injuries just deleting them.
- Others block you from reading beyond the first paragraph unless you give out personal information.
- A creepy new one puts the words “get notifications” into a thin blue overlay that covers the scroll bar on the side of the screen, so if you try to scroll down to read the content, you trigger the popup. Gotcha, sucker!
- Another appears at the top of the screen and says they’ll send you “updates” from the site unless you click “no.”
- Others grab you as you’re trying to escape and tell you you’ll never be a success if you leave this website. Some even have a loud, creepy voice-over that calls you a loser for clicking away. So nice to get when the baby is sleeping or you’re on a break at work!
Popups are a tool for bullying, pure and simple. They say “I can waste your time, because I’m more important than you.”
Do you respond positively to that message?
Me neither.
The Most Successful Retailers don’t use Popups.
Amazon doesn’t use popups.
They invented one-click shopping. If you want to beat the competition, you make it easier for people to buy stuff, not harder.
What a concept, right?
And yet these awful things continue to proliferate, like Tribbles on the Enterprise.
It’s not just that popups irritate people. They are seriously limiting your traffic. Here’s why:
1) Google Downgrades a Site that Runs a Popup.
Popups are annoying on a computer, but on a phone or tablet, they are deadly. They block all the content of a site and often can’t be closed.
Google only wants to send people to valid sites, not blocked ones, so if you have a popup that makes your site unreadable on a phone, you get bumped off the SERP (Search Engine Results Page.) They started doing this in January of 2017.
Google only wants real websites and if you have a popup, you don’t have a website—at least for phone users. You have nothing but a “go away” sign.
2) A Popup Drives Away more Potential Readers than you Realize
Here are some quotes from a recent Facebook thread on the subject, on author Roz Morris’s Facebook page.
“Popups are the spawn of Satan.”
“So many sites have lost me as a potential customer because they want my email before I can even browse their site.”
“There should be a ban on popups. I kind of never sign up to one if they put a popup on the site, out of principle. Get out of my face popups!”
“I’ve never responded to a popup and close them straight away.”
Not one person in the long thread defended them.
I’ve seen websites that pay for expensive ads with sites like the New York Times but when I click on the ad, a popup blocks me from seeing anything unless I give up my personal information—with an unclosable window.
Can you imagine a brick and mortar store where the owner pays for major advertising and then puts guards at the door to block the entrance? How long do you think a store like that would stay in business?
For the nuts and bolts math on how many potential customers you drive away with your popup, see this great post from Web consultant Gill Andrews, For some reason, WP isn’t showing the following as a live link, so here is a link to Gill Andrews’ post
THE #1 REASON TO GET RID OF POP-UP FORMS (BACKED BY DATA)
3) A Popup Subscription Window Disrespects your Current Subscribers.
As author and writing guru Roz Morris said “I don’t mind being asked to subscribe, but once I have, you don’t have to keep asking me.”
I have unsubscribed from blogs where I’ve been a loyal subscriber for years when they installed a popup.
I wanted to quote them an old Girl Scout song I learned in my childhood.
“Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver, but the other is gold.”
In trying to get that handful of silver, you’re driving away pots of gold.
There is apparently a way to make sure a popup is suppressed when somebody clicks through from your blog notice or newsletter, but it’s more complicated and time consuming for the coder, so most people don’t bother.
4) Most of the “Conversions” you Get are Empty Numbers.
People put the dreaded popups on their websites because they’ve seen stat numbers that tell them popups result in “conversions.” (That’s the jargon word for sign-ups.)
But those “converted” people are not subscribing because they want to read your content. They are subscribing to make the popup go away.
Here’s what one marketer says: “They click on the popup or put in an email address not because they are interested or wish to subscribe, but because they want the popup to go away and that seems like the easiest way to make it happen.”
And a lot of people like me have figured a way around the popup that works fine. When I’m forced to put in an email address in order to see somebody’s content I really want to see, I put in a silly fake address, like effU@popupssuck. com.
Yes—they bullied me into giving an email address. Yay! It just doesn’t happen to be anybody’s actual working address.
But these guys don’t care. Because all they want is numbers. Hey, this blogger has 10 million Twitter followers he bought from Lapu-Lapu City just last week! That means he’s really special!!!
…if he’s playing a meaningless numbers game with other meaningless numbers gamers.
But if he’s an author looking for readers, he’s got nothing. Well, less than nothing. He’s got a lot of annoyed visitors who won’t buy his book and aren’t coming back.
5) Your Newsletter (and Maybe ALL your Emails) May be Flagged as Spam.
And there’s another bigger problem that most bloggers don’t hear about. “Subscribers” who have been bullied into giving up their email addresses won’t usually take the time to unsubscribe from an unwanted newsletter.
They’ll just hit the spam icon.
Getting your own email address flagged as spam is not a good thing for your brand. It’s also not good for you personally. Not only newsletters get blocked.
ALL email from an IP address that’s been flagged as spam can be blocked.
If your address gets thrown into enough spam folders, it will trigger gmail and other providers to permanently mark your address as spam. Your website may even get blocked by McAfee as “dangerous.” I know an excellent marketing expert who has fallen for the siren call of multiple popups, and WordPress won’t let me link to her site because it is marked “dangerous” by anti-virus software.
Web designer Pat Barnes says, “Quality over quantity should be the rule for newsletter subscribers. If people don’t read your newsletter, or mark it as spam, then ‘deliverability’ of all your email is harmed.”
6) People who Actually Want to Subscribe After Reading your Content Can’t Find a Way to Subscribe.
That’s because they finally found out how to close the thing in order to read your deathless prose and now there’s no subscription form.
They, um, closed it.
They couldn’t read your content without closing the popup. But now they’ve read your content and liked it, there’s no subscription window.
People who actually WANT subscribers put their signup badge in the upper right hand corner of the sidebar, which is the most prominent spot on the page. It sits there quietly, all the time, so it’s there when the READER wants it, not when you happen to feel like hitting them in the face with it.
***
I let an “expert” talk me into putting a popup on this blog when we tried an ill-advised experiment in monetizing two years ago. It lasted about a week until we got so many complaints I got rid of it.
Yes, we got a lot of “conversions.” But the next week, we got a whole lot of unsubscribes. Almost identical numbers. Hmmm.
If you write good content, why not let people read it and then decide if they want more? If you write bad content, no amount of blocking and bullying will get people to come back, no matter what the numbers-manipulators say.
So kill that popup and watch your real readership grow.
Remember that in the end, the most important rule in marketing is the Golden one. If you don’t like people to do it to you, don’t do it. Period.
Unfortunately, tech is always coming up with new ways to annoy your readers, like pushy “push notifications” for using up your readers’ phone minutes.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Remember what your grandmother told you about catching more flies with honey than vinegar? Try welcoming readers instead of setting up an adversarial relationship with every visitor. Start by killing that popup!
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) September 17, 2017
What about you, scriveners? How do you feel about popups? Do you belong to the 5% who love popups to slow down your Web browsing? Do you leave a site that has a popup? Or do you put in a fake address the way I do?
IN MEMORIAM
Our dear friend Paul Alan Fahey died this week after a brave battle with cancer. His February 2014 post for us on How to Write a Novella has consistently been one of our top posts.
His hilarious, heartbreaking memoir just launched this month with MindPrints Literary Press. The Mother I Imagined, the Mom I Knew. Do give it a look.
Available at Amazon
PARTY OF THE WEEK
***
Party Next Sunday, September 24th!
We’re launching four new mystery novels set on the Central Coast in a performance at local indie bookstore, Coalesce at 845 Main St. in Morro Bay. (It’s the model for Camilla’s bookstore in the Camilla Randall Mystery series.)
Four actor-authors, including Mara Purl, (Darla from Days of our Lives) are going to be reading scenes from our latest books. Sue McGinty, Victoria Heckman, and moi. I get to play busybody Mrs. Lime in Mara’s new novel, Where Otters Play, the loopy New-Ager Beryl Foster in the Queen of Staves, and…role of a lifetime, I get to be Pele, the Volcano Goddess, in Victoria Heckman’s Kahuna. The others will read from Sue McGinty’s Murder at Smuggler’s Cove. (I can’t wait to read that one.)
We’ll be accompanied by the multi-talented Mr. C. S. Perryess who wrote a guest post for us on how to get your books recorded on Audible
There will be wine. And other goodies. AT 1 PM.
It’s HERE! The New Camilla Randall Mystery
Why does everyone think Camilla has the lost Portuguese crown jewels? And what has turned polite little Buckingham into an attack cat? Can Camilla keep her boyfriend Ronzo safe? Or will the murderous Mack Rattlebag find out Ronzo faked his own death?
It’s one surprise after another in this warp-speed comedy-mystery where a too-perfect doctor may or may not be in cahoots with a bunch of homicidal New-Agers. Will Camilla and Ronzo, and the tarot cards, solve the mystery?
It’s #6 in the series, but can be read as a stand-alone
At all the Amazons (ebook FREE in KU) Now available in paper!
OPPORTUNITY ALERTS
Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Published or unpublished work. $12 entry fee per poem. $1500 prize for any style poem $1500 prize for rhyming poem. Submit online or via snail. Deadline September 30th
CONSEQUENCE MAGAZINE WOMEN WRITING WAR AWARD $10 ENTRY FEE. The contests are open to women and those identifying as women. Entries must capture the nuances of the cultures and consequences of war; the topic is not limited to military matters, but includes social, political, and cultural subjects. Prize is $250 and publication. Deadline October 1, 2017.
WRITERS AT WORK FLASH FICTION CONTEST $10 ENTRY FEE. Prize is $300 and publication on the website. Submit a flash fiction piece up to 1,000 words. Deadline October 15, 2017.
Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards. Write Romance, Thriller, Crime, Horror, Science-Fiction, and Young Adult? Short fiction: 4,000 words or less. $20 fee. Grand prize $2500. Deadline October 16th, 2017
Looking for editors, designers, marketers? Writers Boon.com is a FREE discounted marketplace for writers where editors, designers, course providers, book marketers and you get a 15% discount or more on their services. Writers Boon also helps you pump up the buzz like a pro with 3 unique and powerful book discoverability tools that get you out there.
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Amen! Most I am able to close out and they go away, but if I can’t, I’m gone. Most of the time, they come back the next time you visit the site no matter what though. I like your idea of a fake email. I just might start doing that.
Alex–I had to resort to the fake email out of necessity–I needed to read the blocked site for research–but putting in that snarky address felt kind of empowering. Finally, I wasn’t submitting to the bullying anymore.
I’m with you. The pop-up equivalent in the brick-&-mortar world would be a Wal-Mart greeter who approaches each person entering the building & delivers a resounding slap. Really brings in the shoppers, eh?
CS–Haha! That’s a perfect analogy! 🙂
I have wondered about pop-ups. I usually exit the site or click the X to get it out of the way. They are such a nuisance. What you have written makes perfect sense to me. But, I think block-outs (pop-ups) are here to stay.
Ann–The ones that have an “x” in the upper right hand corner aren’t so bad, but these days some designers are hiding them in sneakier spots. Those are the ones that send me running. I have hope that once people realize that popups are a useless fad, they’ll start to take them down. When Google doesn’t like something, it usually has an effect on the marketplace.
Yes – pops-ups make me go away instantly. Even the ones that turn up after a delay. Nobody writes well enough for me to have to go through the hell of pop-ups!
Jemima–The ones that come up after a delay can be even more annoying. You’ve just got into the post and are reading it carefully and then…wham! So you never finish reading and just go away. As you say, nobody writes well enough to get me to stay after that.
Hey Anne,
I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who liked popups, except the marketers who push them. I worked with a guy who ‘discovered’ popups and put them all over the company website, claiming it increased the subscription rate 10-fold. Funny, I didn’t notice any increase in business. In fact, they went out of business.
I hate them. Not just because they are annoying and prevent you from reading the content until you surrender but because they are startling. You know, you’re traveling around the interwebz and you see a link and think, ‘wow, I need to know about that’ or ‘this looks interesting’ – but instead of seeing what it’s all about you get smacked in the virtual face with a giant block. And not only is it often impossible to close it unless you sign up – it is remarkably similar to the popups that have viruses in them – so it’s scary. And have you ever noticed that the x or whatever it is that allows you to close it is so faint, small or hidden you become convinced that there is no way to close it. I’ve even had experiences where I couldn’t click away from the site and had to literally close the browser to escape the pop up.
Now they have a special block up too for ad blockers. I use two of them and by and large it makes life much easier for me, while on the web. But often you get the same treatment as with popups – they try to shame you for using an ad blocker. Like how dare you not expose yourself to our ads. What’s wrong with you? You don’t deserve to read our content because you are denying us a living by not letting us barage you with ads. Worse that plain old subscription popups if you as me.
Also thanks for explaining push notifications – I had no idea what they were but I always say no.
Thanks for all the info, Anne. Maybe it will convince some site owners to dismantle them. Like you, I don’t bother trying to read the content, I just look for an alternate source for the info or just decide it’s not that important. Funny…my life doesn’t seem to have suffered any.
Annie
Annie–You gave me a real LOL moment with “In fact, they went out of business.” You’d think people would learn!
I don’t like the “turn off your ad blocker” popups either, but they do serve a purpose. I realize that newspapers need a source of revenue, so I’ll turn off the ad blocker for news outlets I read often. Although when I’m a paid subscriber, I resent the things. Vanity Fair is so relentless with their ads that I often have to give up and read the paper version, which has its own obnoxiousness: perfume. Cough, cough. 🙁
But I think your example of the guy who put popups all over the website and the company promptly went out of business is the perfect illustration of my point. Thanks!
Amen to the disdain for ad-block shamers! Or if you’re dealing with Forbes, they just won’t let you read their content if you have an adblocker on. Forbes articles have sticky headers and footers, popups embedded mid-article, an obnoxiously loud video playing in a sidebar… it got to the point where there was so much crap on the page, it used up my phone’s data and battery when I’d click on it. In the end I decided I don’t need to read Forbes quite that badly!
Irvin– I agree about Forbes! They work so hard at driving you away that I don’t link to them. I don’t want my readers to have to go through that. Usually another outlet will have an article on the same subject–usually about the Forbes article, so I’ll link to that. If Forbes wants to cut down on their readership, they sure are doing a great job! 😉
So YOU’RE the one who’s spamming my personal email box! I just happened to choose effU@popupssuck. com. I wondered where all this drek was coming from…
The Tribbles comparison is hilarious though of course unfair. “Near as I can figure, they’re BORN pregnant”. Hey, if a popup ad could help me distinguish a scam publisher from a legit one, the way a Tribble picks out a Klingon, they might have a useful purpose.
Will–Hahaha! Yes, Mr. effU–it’s all my fault.
Yes, I realize I’ve been unfair to the Tribble community. They’re not only cuter, they’re more useful. I apologize .:-)
Oh, I hate those popups and sometimes they’re difficult to get rid of. I didn’t know it could hurt Google’s rank.
Susan–I hope spreading the word about the Google downranking may help a few bloggers rethink the popup. I do see that some prominent bloggers, like Nathan Bransford, who had popups for a while got rid of them recently. I hope it’s a trend.
So glad you’ve tackled this, Anne – and great choice of picture! Thanks for the mention.
Roz–Your FB page thread inspired me. (And yes, I had fun with the Tribbles.) I did some research and found out they really are as useless as they are annoying. Time for the popup fad to be over!
Ditto with the fake email. Fun to think it up + actually gives me a sadistic thrill. 🙂
Ruth–I’ve got to admit I got that thrill too. I felt like a badass!
Totally on the mark Anne! Love the reference to Tribbles – the Trekkie in me appreciates 🙂 Maybe we just need to do a better job of spreading the word about Google’s thoughts….or let the bloggers with popups wallow in their ignorance….hhhmmmm
Barb–I’ve noticed this blogs Alexa rating is getting better and better, and I wonder if it’s because so many other bloggers are driving away their traffic with popups. In which case, maybe we shouldn’t tell them about Google…? Haha. Not really. We’re all in this together. and I’m sure most bloggers who use them just don’t have the info about Google. I hope this will spread the word.
The second I hit a website that has annoying popup, I exit the website, never to darken their doors again. This is usually a given, except for one website which i’m allowed to view at work (my job doesn’t allows to surf the web unless it’s work related, so I only have three websites I can visit at work) which has a few nasty popups.
I don’t know why people would put pop ups on their precious website. if you don’t like it being done to yourself, why be stupid enough to inflict it on others.
G. B. As I remember, you’re a member of my generation. We are used to people at least pretending to be civil to each other, so I think Boomers especially hate that kind of in-your-face marketing. Internet marketers need a little refresher course in the Golden Rule, that’s for sure.
YEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!! From the title on, I was silently shouting “Yes!” with every sentence.
I’m on the point of unsubscribing from a well-respected blog that’s full of great information just b/c she incorporated popups. I complained and she gave me the “it increased my subscribers tenfold” excuse. OK, but I’d subscribed years before, and the damn things still pop up. Surely her tech guru can figure out a way to identify subscribers and exempt them from popups.
Thank you, Anne! As usual, you say publicly what the rest of us think privately.
Debbie–I think I know the site you’re talking about and I unsubscribed too. She had the whole thing redone by some tech guru who bamboozled her with all that techspeak. But the “increased my subscribers tenfold” is nonsense. They keep saying that phrase in exactly those words. But it doesn’t happen. I’m sure she has fewer actual readers than she had before, and her site has been downgraded by Google. Nobody mentions her blog anymore in round-ups of “best blogposts of the week” or whatever. She killed off her own blog.
Sad b/c she offers great information. I’m hanging in b/c I know her personally. If I didn’t, I’d have unsubscribed months ago.
BTW, forgot to mention your “show” with pro actors reading the parts. What a terrific idea, sure to sell books.
Debbie–I don’t know if we’re talking about the same one, but I just checked the website and….NO POPUP!! I re-subscribed. Her Alexa rating wasn’t good, so maybe that’s why she changed her mind. 😉
Right, Anne.
Marketing gone awry. And some won’t close unless you put something in. I’ve used similar email addresses.
A similar thing I’ve run into – some sites became so loaded with video advertising, they took ages to load and occasionally even hung my browser. So I put in an Ad blocker. Now, I do understand they may be paying for their site via ads. The more polite sites just have a simple reminder. If the advertising isn’t obnoxious, I can turn it off for their site. But some of the worst large sites have a pop-up blocker that won’t let you in until you allow their flood of ads. They’ve lost my traffic.
David–I agree 100% about video ads. Advertising can be discreet and appealing. I’ve clicked through book ads and clothing ads on websites and actually bought things. But NEVER when it’s a video. (Or a GIF!!) They take so long to load, you never get to read the content, and they’re so distracting, you don’t want to.
I usually go away when people demand turning off my ad blocker, too. If they ask nicely, I will, but not if they block the content. It’s rude.
Hi Anne,
The moment I saw your newsletter in my inbox, I couldn’t help but click. I’m also very passionate about pop-ups (about not using them, to be precise).
I’m 100% with you on all the points.
BUT… I’m afraid the arguments “it’s a bad user experience” and “studies show users hate them” fall on deaf ears, because there is data that seems to disprove it – the case studies from Buffer, BuzzSumo, Entrepreneur, etc. show that pop-ups work, adding many new subscribers to your list who wouldn’t have been there otherwise.
It’s hard to argue bad UX against increase in new subscribers. The clients you may have missed don’t bother you, because you don’t see them. There is no numbers that represent the missing opportunity.
So one can say 100 more times “it’s bad user experience”. As long as there is no data that measures the negative effects of pop-ups, people aren’t going to listen, I’m afraid.
That’s why I did some calculations and now have solid data for your point #2: A Popup Drives Away more Potential Readers than you Realize.
There is a way to measure in numbers how many potential readers you may alienate. Not only in general, but with *your* pop-up on *your website*.
For example, on average for small/medium business owners (and I would say most bloggers and writers fall into this category) you need 1319 (!) people to see your pop-up before you get one subscriber who will click on a link in your email (which is why you are using those pop-ups in the first place, so that people click on a link in your sales emails later).
You can also calculate it individually for your website using this formula:
# of people who need to see your pop-up before you get one engaged subscriber =
100/pop-up conversion rate (%) x 100/email click-through rate (%)
If you don’t have a pop-up on your site yet, you can use an average conversion rate of opt-in interstitials, which is 3%.
I wrote a post about it a while ago, “The #1 Reason to Get Rid of Pop-Ups (Backed by Data)”. There, you’ll find more solid data that supports your point as well as some alternatives to growing your list without a pop-up.
Sorry for a rather lengthy comment. Did I mention I’m very passionate about pop-ups? 🙂
Thank you for your post (did you know that bloggers arguing against pop-ups are a minority?) and have a great evening,
Gill
Gill–Thank you!! I’m just a novelist here, and mostly a cybermoron. I just know that every single person I know hates popups and won’t read sites that are blocked by them. But on your site, you’ve got the actual nuts and bolts tech stuff and MATH to supplement my anecdotal data.
So I’ve linked to your post in the text above (in section #2) I hope people will click through and read it!! Thanks a bunch!
Haha. I’m sure you are not a cybermoron, Anne! 🙂
In fact, before I wrote my post, there was no data supporting the anti-popup point of view. But I thought that there must be numbers that reflected all the surveys about how much readers hate those pop-ups. And as I happen to love both, math and words, I decided that I must find it.
Thanks so much for adding a link my post! I hope more website owners will learn about this and won’t get fulled by the pro-popup case studies of the big websites.
“If you are a small/medium business owner, pop-ups harm your business.”
Sincerely,
MATH
😀
Gill–LOVE that quote. Just tweeted it. 🙂
“Hate” is not a strong enough word for how I feel about pop-up crapola. I’ve used all of your avoidances. I’ve also noticed some websites that either don’t have an unsubscribe button or have one that doesn’t work, both of which I believe are not legal. It seems that the new normal is: “It is our God given and law-given right to frustrate others, particularly if it is in the pursuit of profit.” Wonder when that started.
SK–You’re right that some of this stuff is illegal. A mass email with no unsubscribe function can cost the perpetrator $11,000 PER email. And yes, people do get fined. It’s not that they think they have the God-Given right to frustrate you. They think they have the right to steal your TIME. The only thing we really have in this life is time, so people who steal it are like mini-murderers. I agree that they’re greedy and selfish. And since this stuff doesn’t even work, they’re also stupid.
Totally agree and never have used them. Sometimes I click away if one appears. Crazy and disturbs your brain if you were trying to read something!! Wish I could attend your Moro Bay event.
Beth–They do disturb your brain don’t they? Even if they don’t block the content entirely, they make it tough to read anything in depth. So you click away before you read the whole post. Maybe that’s the point?
I don’t do many in person events anymore, but I think this one will be fun. But they’re always a big financial loss. Not the best way to sell books, IMO. 🙂
Yessssss!!!!!
Nina–I was pretty sure you’d agree with me on this one. 😉 Maybe we should write an etiquette book for social media. It’s like they all have the manners of 13 year olds. Sigh.
I’ll be honest, I DO use popups, but mine is a scroll box that elegantly slides in from the side once you’ve read 80% of a post. I don’t like the ones that don’t disappear until you click something because 9 times out of 10, you can’t find the X to get rid of them. With the scroll box, you can keep reading the post and utterly ignore it if you want to, but it does convert to subscribers – probably because if you’ve read 80% of a 1100-word post, you’re more likely to be interested in a free collection of short stories based on the topic you just read about. It’s also set to not reappear again for that visitor for 90 days. There are ways to use popups that ARE effective, it’s just most people don’t use them properly and they’ve ruined it for everyone else.
Icy–There are non-aggressive popups and yours is one of them. I didn’t know you could set them to not reappear for a particular visitor for 90 days. That’s a big plus. I’m sure 90% of bloggers who use popups don’t know that.
Mostly they seem to be making them bigger and harder to close, so it seems most bloggers are actively trying to drive away visitors. I’m not sure if they knew they could do what you do that they would. I think most bloggers think being cruel to visitors is part of the game, unfortunately.
I link to a lot of blogs and many of them, unfortunately, have popups. I’ve had several extremely visually impaired writers over the years tweet me in frustration when they couldn’t figure out how to close a popup to read an article. I’ll never use one. Plus, as a curator, I find them *incredibly* frustrating. Many of them are set to pop up when a cursor is heading up to close the window–but in my case, I’m heading up to my Hootlet extension to *share* the post. The popup means that I must stop the process of scheduling a share and instead close the popup. Sometimes it makes me think twice about sharing!
Elizabeth–Thanks much for weighing in. I know you visit 1000s of sites in order to put together your Twitterific curated lists, so popups probably steal a whole lot of your time. Maybe if people knew they might miss out on being on your list because of an obnoxious popup they might think twice. But maybe not. They’re getting downgraded by Google and that doesn’t faze them. I think they mostly use popups out of sheer aggression. Being a “badass” is more important than having a readership.
And thanks for mentioning how hard those things are on the visually impaired. Which is pretty much everybody over 40. Everybody who isn’t young has trouble with tiny fonts and hidden “x’s”. Again, I think this is on purpose. “Go away, old people! I’m too special for you.”
I’ve heard albeit beginning authors say that they want a popup because they think it makes them look more professional! Their site is important enough to have a popup. Groan….
Melodie–Ack! But I’m not surprised. In fact I visited the blog of an unpublished writer last week who had the entire screen blocked with an unclosable popup. He’ll never get an agent or a reader, but he doesn’t care. He’s a badass with the meanest, stupidest popup in town!!
When I see a popup the second a site loads, I’m thinking, “How do i even know I want to follow you? I just got here!” It’s the equivalent of a store having a greeter who says, “You better come back here every day!” Very presumptuous. Make it obvious there is a way to sign up if I watn to. Don’t scream it at me the minute I arrive.
Renee–I agree. We’re being asked to buy a “pig in a poke” as old farmers used to say. I figure if people won’t let you see the merchandise before they demand you buy it, the merchandise is probably pretty iffy.
OMG, yes! It’s annoying enough on my laptop, but I do a lot of reading on my iPhone. I can’t tell you how many pages I’ve had to leave or reload multiple times just because I got a stupid pop-up ad that was clearly designed for computer screens. It’s too big for my little smartphone screen and I can’t reach the X button, if there even is one, and it’s just a barrel of frustration all around.
Normally, I’ll just leave the page when that happens, but if I really need the information, I’ll just reload until I either don’t get a pop-up at all, or I get one that I can at least close.
I’ve noticed that most of my problems are with advertisements, not sign-up demands. Most sign-up demands I’ve encountered, although definitely annoying and time-wasting, at least seem tailored to the website and can (usually) be closed easily enough.
Sorry for the rant, but when I saw this post, I felt like you were reading my mind 🙂
Sarah–Those ads are the worst. I have a little Kindle fire tablet that has the same problems. I just tried to read a Vanity Fair post at lunch–and I have a paid subscription–and they blocked every article over and over with huge ads (and subscription windows–those came up three times in 5 minutes.) I kept rebooting, but finally I gave up and turned off the tablet and read a book. They don’t know how many people they are driving away.
Yes, yes, yes! Finally, somebody said what needs to be said. Thanks!
Missi–We have to spread the word! Popups are a pointless, silly nuisance. Down with Popups!
A zinger of a post Anne. You hit the points bang on! I find those pop ups one of the most annoying things when visiting a blog. I’ve seen many of the tricks you’ve mentioned, including a pop up that covered half a blog and didn’t even have an ‘x’ anywhere on it to close it. I just leave. I don’t have time to play games trying to read a blog. Like you said, if you want people to read your content, write good stuff and don’t cover it up. Why force your way into luring subscribers who didn’t want to subscribe in the first place and then end up unsubscribing anyway? Right on! 🙂
Debby–Yes. All popups do is waste everybody’s time for no reason. They don’t get more real subscribers. They get un-subscribers. Haha.
Lol. I’m with you Anne. Even though it seems the ads catch subscribers, I’d have to agree that it’s a matter of time before they hit unsubscribe or they stop reading, it’s a natural progression. Regardless, those huge pop ups that obstruct reading to see if you even want to continue reading, are a big pain. 🙂
Alas, we are all boiled frogs. What’s a little hot water to us now?
Well. I hesitate to say this because there are so many blogs I follow (that I actually like) whose owners use these. And they insist, with all good will, that I use them, too. That I MUST, MUST, MUST get an email list and this is the way to do it. All that to say, I can not stand these blasted things. (Sorry, all.) I can’t. And, while I’m on the go and trying to read on my phone, I get, like, blog rage or something. I agree, Anne, phone pop-ups are the worst. I can’t find the blasted “x” or it’s so small I can’t close it. I wind up battling with it and lose every time. But so do they because I don’t read the post. I can’t see it. I’ve yet to come across a blog with more than one but, honestly, one is enough.
Sarah–Your friends are wrong. They’re listening to the wrong people. Direct them to the link to Gill Andrews’ post on the subject, where she does the math to prove that popups hurt small and medium businesses, and why.
Also, this morning I ran into a list of the 13 things that a person with integrity does. #1 on the list: they don’t waste other people’s time. Popups waste people’s time. If you have integrity, you don’t use them. Full stop. Plus what they do to phone readers is vicious. And for what? It does not get more subscribers–it only drives them away. Stick to your guns!
I have a pop-up on my site, but I try to limit its appearance to only my general about my books page and only if you’ve hovered for more than twenty seconds. If that’s not the case and it is appearing on my blog’s main homepage, hopefully someone will let me know as I am not interested in turning away readers for all the reasons you mention.
I share a number of other blogger’s posts on twitter, but I will not share a site that makes a reader go through hoops to get to the actual content I want to share.
Allie–Why not have a static subscription form on your home page where everybody can see it and stop blocking access to your book page? I’ll bet you’ll get a lot more subscribers, and you’ll sell more books. That popup is very likely driving away potential readers. A delayed popup just says, “Caught you looking into my books! Now go away before you decide to buy one. Can’t have that!!” 🙂 Seriously. Why not welcome readers instead of blocking them?
I tried, but I am not self-hosted and the embedded form didn’t work properly. The built in pop-up widget however was only too easy to use. The only other option I had was to use a link to send interested parties to a separate signup page, but I’d rather they stay on my main site.
Allie–Thanks so much for that insight. That explains a lot! The host forces you to use popups, and you don’t have the choice of a simple signup widget. Their bad. I hope they change their minds. Now I understand: you had to choose the lesser of to evils. That may explain a lot of popups: the bloggers have no choice. Ack!
Yes! OMG I hate those things. Thanks for a terrific post!
Jean–Thanks for stopping by!
Thank goodness for this post, Anne, and for saying what so many of us think. I really hate pop-ups. Yet, I still see so many advice sites or articles suggest you use the pop-ups on your blog or website. To this day when I see a pop-up, I scream. It’s so annoying.
Have a good week.
Murees–I hope a few bloggers will take notice and turn their subscription form into a static badge. Those are so much more effective because they don’t drive away your traffic. Usually your subscription service will just give you a code to put in your sidebar and it only takes a minute. MailChimp does. I had it on our old Blogger site with no problem.
I have gotten those pop ups that try to guilt trip me! They’re funny.
For a few days on my website, I had a pop up. It was through Sumo.me and I hated that fact, so I went in and saw I could put the sign up form in a banner at the top that disappeared when people scrolled down and reappeared when they scrolled up. It doesn’t pop up in the middle of the screen. I know lots of people who use Sumo.me, so I don’t know why they don’t do that instead of the pop up window.
Patricia–That sounds really cool. A banner that disappears and comes back when you want it. Good for Sumo.me! Thanks for the recommendation.
Yes, yes YES! I just went back to add a link to this post from an older one in a similar vein, “Are Internet Marketers Today’s Smarmy Used-Car Salesmen?” EVEN if I like their content, I already get waaaaay too much email, so their push marketing won’t even be seen on the email account that might as well be a dead letter box. If I like their content I’ll follow through the WordPress Reader or bookmark the site – unless they insult me by trying to turn me into one of the numbers in their game.
lol – I do the fake email address thing too – but ONLY when the content is more research-based. I don’t want to read about *anybody’s* day (or books or other musings) enough to push past their rudeness. I close the tab. PRONTO!
Jumped over from Henrietta’s reblog and post (also linked now) where I left a long comment I won’t repeat here. If my readers tolerated reblogs (and they don’t), this would be one I would reblog myself!
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
ADD/EFD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
“It takes a village to transform a world!”
Madelyn–I agree 100% on the smarmy sales tactics of Internet marketers. They’re like used car or snake-oil salesmen, not upmarket advertisers. Thanks for weighing in!
I don’t know about Henrietta or the reblog. I usually get Google Alerts when people mention me, but I didn’t on that one. Do you have the URL for that site?
The fake email addresses are kind of empowering aren’t they?
You haven’t enabled pingbacks or they aren’t currently working? Sorry, either way, for my assumption.
In trying to find Henrietta’s link I discovered that the post with your link didn’t appear when I searched for it by title – even though it is in the related content at the bottom of the one that DID appear (which you read and commented upon, thank you very much!) Another WordPress.com “improvement” no doubt. Here’s Henrietta’s reblog link:
https://allaboutwritingandmore.wordpress.com/2017/09/19/want-to-know-the-truth-about-pop-ups/
~~~~~~~~~~~
ALSO: Part-2 is info about the following link to the Senior Salon (trying not to cover the “post” button here). It is the link to the “gateway” to this week’s Salon, which you might want to know about. (They all look the same, btw.) Scroll DOWN and click on the frog to see the links and/or add your own. Well worth doing. It’s an excellent way to feature older posts that never got the traffic you believed they warranted. Makes it easy for folks to find your posts, especially useful for self-hosted sites.
https://haddonmusings.com/2017/09/18/senior-salon-2017-27/
xx,
mgh
Madalyn–I get pingback notices regularly, but I didn’t get this one. Also found a mention on the Reading Ape I didn’t know about, so maybe the latest WordPress “improvement” messed that up. I’ll talk to my webmaster about that. Thanks for the link!
Madelyn–I discovered the problem. Neither Henrietta or Jeanette linked back to my post so you could finish reading it. I do prefer if people reblog that they link to my original post. But maybe that’s a Salon thing.
Senior Salon Part-2
~~~~~~~
I follow Bernadette to be able to jump on her reminders from my Reader – and try to remember to check her site each week – jumping over from the link I leave at the bottom of each post I share there, then clicking “Senior Salon” from her top menubar.
The Salon’s been offline for a while now after the death of Bernadette’s son, but she just resumed hosting this week. It used to be every Wednesday – and she used to activate a new one at about 1AM NYC time. I’m not sure how she will handle it now, since this one was posted on a Monday. Later additions are possible for a bit, btw, but many folks don’t continue to check through the week.
People are fairly good about visiting the other posts, and I’ve met some wonderful bloggers through their shared links. — many I now follow.
The “instructions” are mostly for folks who want to start their own ‘salon’ of some type. btw – instead click ‘add’ and fill in the prompts to save a TON of time. Hope to see you there.
xx,
mgh
Thanks for all the info about Salon! I’m launching two books this month and next, and one isn’t finished, so I’m absolutely stretched to the limit, but I’ll keep them in mind. We’re lucky to have a large, loyal readership, but it’s always good to get more.
Yep – especially when you’re launching a book! I truly understand about “stretched” however. Ditto.
xx,
mgh
Re: reblog notifications – come to think of it, I haven’t gotten them either lately. Found my reblogs thru the reader. I’ll ask the WPress “Happiness Engineers” (really?) about that and request they UNDO whatever it is they’ve done. Yeah, good luck with that, right?
xx,
mgh
“Happiness engineers” ? Haha. They have to put that on their resumes? My webmaster says the new changes are causing big problems all over WordPress. It was a security fix and obviously it “fixed” more than security.
Happens ONLY every time they “fix” or “improve” much of anything. Taking a page from Gates’ book, I suppose: just release it and let your consumer complaints ID the crappy code.
Never really liked Gates’ biz practices, starting back when he made a few tweaks to dos and made MS-DOS proprietary to be able to make his fortune. Always empathized with the original guy who put dos in the public domain!!
RE: resumes – those who work for Apple are “Geniuses” — so I guess they get demoted to ex-geniuses when they move on. lol 🙂
xx,
mgh
How tragic to be an “ex-genius.” As things come to light it’s clear that both Jobs and Gates were as ruthless as any robber barons of the Industrial revolution. But I’m glad Gates has turned out to be more Andrew Carnegie than John Jacob Astor. He’s using his ill-gotten riches for good.
Hi Anne,
This might be the most thorough anti-popup post I’ve ever read, and that’s coming from a guy who made a good chunk of his living in email marketing.
The thing is, exit intent popups have never really bothered me, so long as they aren’t paired with noise or anything like that. If I’m moving my cursor to close the tab, it’s almost amusing to watch marketers pitch me a last-ditch effort to subscribe.
But all in all, popups are irritating for all the same reasons you’ve described, even though I have found them (statistically) very effective in the past. I no longer use them on my author website, though. If a reader doesn’t want to join my list, I’d rather not try to strong arm him or her into it.
Great post.
—Brent
Brent–Thanks! You’re right that the exit popups aren’t so bad, but they’re horrible with sound. I think people need to look at the reality behind those stats that say popups are so effective. I forget who said “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn lies, and Statistics.” But it’s still true. Those stats not only include all the people who unsubscribe immediately, dump your mail in spam or leave an effU fake address, but they also don’t examine engagement. And now there’s such overkill with the popups, there’s a much slimmer chance of any “conversion” at all. People are fed up.
Thank you, Anne! I hope authors listen to you. There is nothing more annoying than hitting a site with a pop-up, even more annoying when you can’t find the faint little ‘x’ to close the darn thing.
Char–So true! I just Googled something, got to a website and they blocked me with an unclosable popup. So I went to Wikipedia and got probably better info. So I donate to Wikipedia and hope the blogger with the popup gets zero hits and has to close down. Creepy bullies don’t deserve a readership..
These are exactly the reasons why I’m so annoyed and frustrated with what’s happening with my blog, or involving my blog http://www.whatblogshermind.com. My readers receive ad notifications using the name of my blog, and I don’t know how to disable it. What is more irritating is, these ads are not even related to my blog, they are simply clickbait like lottery, and worst, dating and porn sites and I hate it. I hope you have the answer for this.
clyde–That’s a new one to me! I’m not a tech person, but it sounds as if your blog has been hacked. Try changing your password.
Hi Anne, Thanks for the post. I wish I had seen your post before.
I’m actually a start up with my website/blog. Let me give a brief account of what happened after an air head convinced me that a popup will increase subscription to my site. Well… the only thing that increased was the bounce rate.
Before the damn popup the bounce rate was decreasing every week, which meant people were staying longer on my blog. After the damn popup the bounce rate went from a nice 40% to over 70% really fast.
Popups again? Definitely not! Lesson learnt.
Wow. That does prove my point, doesn’t it? I’ve never had actual stats on how much damage a popup does, but now I do. 🙂 Thanks!