Popup opt-in forms are not new by any means to web surfers and blog readers. There have been several plugins built for WordPress, and designs by email marketing services available to manually install a popup form to greet visitors to your website asking them to subscribe to a newsletter or mailing list.
Popups Sweeping the Blogging World
The latest incarnation of popup opt-in forms seem to have hit websites by storm. Popup Domination creates visually appealing lightbox forms that increase your opt-in rate substantially.
And when I say hit websites by storm – I mean that I come across a blog using them at least once a day, and sometimes five times a day or more while perusing new articles from blogs I enjoy visiting.
The Survey
There are many sides to the argument – those who love it, those who despise it, and those who are in between. I have asked several website owners who use either the latest plugin, or another form of popup opt-in form, why they use them, and also the opinions of those who feel strongly against them. Here are the results of this survey.
The Case for Popups
First, let’s start with those who use popup opt-in forms on their websites. I received the following answers from the following bloggers and website owners about why they use popup opt-in forms and their results.
- Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner
- Hesham Fathy of Famous Bloggers
- Mark Thompson of Stay on Search
- Paul Cunningham of Blogging Teacher
- Justin Germino of Dragon Blogger
1. Why did you choose to add a popup opt-in form to your website?
Because it dramatically increased our optins. ~ Michael
First of all, I do a lot of testing on my blog, and I choose to have a popup to increase my newsletter subscribers because I was not getting any great results by displaying the newsletter subscription form on sidebar widget, and to be honest, I didn’t take this step till I saw some blogs using a good looking popups that encouraged me personally to subscribe to their newsletters! ~ Hesham
To increase the percentage of visitors who opt-in to my newsletter. ~ Mark
I decided to test popups on two of my blogs to see if I could bring more attention to my free resources and therefore increase the signup rate for those mailing lists. ~ Paul
Testing the same mailing subscribe that I saw was being used by Famous Bloggers – they claimed to have great increase in subscriber rates from it. ~ Justin
2. What plugin do you use?
We use Aweber. ~ Michael
I am using the Popup Domination plugin for WordPress. ~ Hesham
Popup Domination. ~ Mark
I’ve been testing two different plugins, Popup Domination and Action Popup. ~ Paul
Popup Domination. ~ Justin
3. How have your opt-in rates changed since installing it?
Yes, they went from about 50 a day to more than 200 on average. ~ Michael
My opt-in rates changed by more than 400% and I got about 200 subscribers during the first 10 days. ~ Hesham
Yes, they are up about 40% (only had it live for about 1 week now). ~ Mark
There has been a positive change. The popups perform about 3x better than the normal sidebar signup form, but not as good as the signup forms on the actual free resource pages themselves.
My two blogs are getting different results though, which only proves that different niches are suited differently to these types of methods. ~ Paul
Only been using it for 1 week but already saw 17 new subscribers since I installed the mailing list popup. Previously I averaged only about 1 subscriber every 3 or 4 days. So this is a vast improvement. ~ Justin
4. Are they “quality” opt-ins?
Absolutely, our unsubscribe rate is very low. We get 30 to 40% open rates on a DAILY email to 32,000 subscribers. 23,500 of our subscribers came from the popup! ~ Michael
I can not give a perfect answer regarding to the quality yet as I am still in an early stage, but let’s say that I was able to make some sales after sending my first newsletter. I also got about 5 people to accept my invitation to register to my site and publish their guest posts after a few hours from sending my second newsletter, which I think is a good thing. ~ Hesham
Haven’t not had a chance to send to many email campaigns yet. Currently I am around 60% open rate. ~ Mark
Probably too soon to tell for sure, but I haven’t seen anything that concerns me about those stats yet. ~ Paul
Not enough time to tell, but I can tell you that many of the people who subscribed were people I knew in BlogEngage and Twitter and who have been following my blog for a long time. For some reason they never joined my mailing list until I put the popup on it, even though I had a clear button on my site that said “join mailing list.” ~ Justin
5. Have you received any complaints? How do you respond?
Very few complaints. We only have the form show a single time (the first visit) and we make a cool offer (free Twitter marketing video tutorial). ~ Michael
Not even one straight complain yet! probably because I set the popup to pop every 7 days. ~ Hesham
No complaints as of yet, however I am sure it is obtrusive. ~ Mark
I’ve not received a single complaint about the popups. I’m being careful not to annoy my visitors with them. For example, a visitor who closes the popup one day won’t see it again for a few weeks. ~ Paul
One regular reader told me I joined the dark side, how could I do it. I told him that the cookie sets so it shouldn’t trigger but 1x every 7 days, and that I am testing and reviewing the popup for a review on it (which I am). Bottom line is that people will use methods to increase opt-in rates to their mailing lists because mailing lists are where the money is for affiliate sales (or so I have been told). I have yet to experiment and see any of this for myself, I just provide a monthly newsletter and want to offer out a new method of providing information for my readers. ~ Justin
6. Do you feel popups hurt your content?
Absolutely not. ~ Michael
My simple answer to this is “Not at all!” ~ Hesham
I don’t think its hurting my content, because I only have the pop up showing every 7 days. So it is not hitting them in the face every single time they come to my site. ~ Mark
No all of those metrics have stayed strong. Some of my best traffic days are when emails go out to my list so logically you would expect those spikes to increase as the lists get bigger too. ~ Paul
It has only been one week, but in comparing the week previous to the week after the popup my growth on Google Analytics is 11%, and my total is up 48% for the month. The popup hasn’t cut traffic at all from what I can tell.
Most of my traffic is from Google organic search, which are 1st time visitors anyway. I have over 65% search traffic and it used to be over 75% until I installed a new traffic exchange banner. ~ Justin
7. Any other thoughts, opinions, defense for the popup?
The trick is to have an awesome offer and only show it one time. ~ Michael
I really don’t want to defend the popup form, but it’s working great for me so far, and I think it’s all about the way you use it and introduce it on your blog. For example, I created a special unique design for the popup that matches my blog design 100%. I have sold this plugin 17 times now to my blog visitors, what else can I say?! ~ Hesham
I am not 100% sold on the popup method, however I felt I should try it to see what kind of results I get. There is def a lot of hype recently about this method, so I wanted to give it a shot. ~ Mark
I think it is definitely something worth testing. Start by analyzing your niche to see if others are doing it. Look past your own like/dislike of popups and see how some sites execute them very well, with nice designs and strong offers.
If your niche seems like a good fit then try one or two plugins, test different offers in the popup and always make sure you measure the results so you can be sure whether they are effective or not.
If you look at popups as a way of drawing attention to something of value that you are giving away, and you consider your list a way of building relationships and delivery quality content to your subscribers, then the idea of popups seems far less evil than some people make them out to be. ~ Paul
Sometimes banners, ads and links to offer out your mailing list just aren’t noticed and especially for first time people to the site, it is a way of grabbing attention. As long as it is restricted to not happen more often than 1x per week, it should be considered a viable option for increasing your mailing list opt-in. ~ Justin
8. What suggestions would you have for those who are installing this plugin?
Never overuse the popup form by showing it everyday or every time your visitors land on your site – every 7 days is not bad at all. Use the options to change the given message every one or two weeks, and finally, respect feedback from your readers. ~ Hesham
Don’t have it show every time someone comes to your site. Try to set it so it shows up once in a while, this way you are not annoying them..too much. ~ Mark
Test it on a test blog first. Try a variety of different screen resolutions and browsers to make sure the experience is still good. Use the browser’s “private mode” or “incognito mode” to make it easier to perform multiple tests without having to clear cookies all the time.
I like to set my popup delay to around 30 seconds, so that people have time to get deeper into my content before they are shown the popup – why show it immediately to someone who hasn’t yet been convinced that you’ve got interesting stuff to read?
And as always test, measure, tweak, repeat. ~ Paul
Test it thoroughly from multiple browsers, I had 8 blogs and the Popup Domination had problems with 3 of them, 1 required manual code inserted into the footer.php one where the close button wouldn’t work so that a user couldn’t ever cancel it. I had to remove the popup from this blog site and work with developer to find fix.
YouTube video’s also stand on top of the popup and you have to use different embed code, or the email subscribe form goes behind the video and nobody can actually subcribe to your list from the popup.
Make sure you test on Chrome, FireFox, IE8 and Opera. There are different behaviors on different browsers. ~ Justin
Middle of the Road
Before I get to the people that are flat out against it, Francisco Rosales of Social Mouths just wrote about 8 ways to grow your mailing list. His opinion is in the undecided area about popups.
First I gotta say that I’m very impressed with how the Popup Domination plugin has spread so fast. In just a matter of days I’ve seen it on many of the blogs I frequent which brings me to my first point…
Is it annoying or intrusive enough to drive your readers away? I find that while I always thought it was, as a reader, it didn’t bother me when I found it been used by guys like Dave Navarro, Lewis Howes or FamousBloggers. Perhaps this is due to the reputation and trust these individuals have built around their brands.
I also see how it could become a problem if every time I visit the same blog I will have to close the pop-up first. I also feel that it could be too upfront for a first-time visitor, I’d prefer you give me the chance to see who you are and read your content before deciding if I want to commit at level.
My second point is the design. While I think it is a very good looking alternative, specially if you compare it with what services like Aweber have to offer, I think when you look the same as everybody else you lose a couple of points on the first-impression department. It’s like that great looking WP theme that has been used a thousand times, everybody knows you spent $29.99 on your site…
I’ll be honest, I purchased the plugin to run a test and see how it affects my performance but… I’m not sure if I’ll run it. ~ Francisco
The Case Against Popups
Now, from the other end of the spectrum, here from those who are definitely not fans of the new wave of popups.
Seth was the person who really inspired this post after leaving a comment on a post I wrote on lowering bounce rate.
Domination Doesn’t Require Pop-Ups
Successful bloggers work very hard to create a positive image for web business. With so many con-artists, fly-by-night websites, and phishing scams it takes a lot of work to convince people that the web is really a safe place. When I first started seeing pop-up ads used in the “blogging tips” niche I started to worry. What happens if everyone starts using the same system to reach visitors? What long-term effects would there be on the blogosphere? My strongly negative reaction stems from this concern for the nature of blogs.
Blogging is a beautiful mix between static and dynamic content, great design, and insightful marketing practices. When a new or returning visitor clicks on a link and ends up on a new site the last thing the internet needs is for that site to have a pop-up ad. To address the efficiency of the pop-ups I would argue that very few sites currently take advantage of non-obnoxious design opportunities currently available. Look at the in-post textual ads of SmashingMagazine.com or the other successful subscription sign-ups of major websites, they don’t use force or coercion because of the negative effect on visitors. If you are looking for the easy sell, pop-ups might be it. If you are looking for a long-term, internet friendly solution its time to be more creative in how we interact with our readers. ~ Seth Waite of Mr. Seth Waite and formerly Blogussion
Seth feels quite strongly about this issue, and will write more about it on his new site Alpha Launch Coach.
I dislike popups of any kind. Pop-unders are slightly less annoying. I particularly dislike pop-ups you have to respond to before you can see what you came for and those that have no obvious method for closing them instead of doing whatever they want.
Sites that ask your opinion of their site with a pop-up before you’ve even seen it could not possibly be gathering useful data. At a minimum they should have an option to tell them it is your first visit and you can’t answer their questions.
I’m sure they work but how many do you run off – that can never be determined.
There are some blogs I visit regularly that have a popup every time I visit – you would think they would at least set a cookie to prevent that.
~ Gail Gardener of Growmap
Leave it to Gerald to throw a humorous analogy into the mix…
I find auto “join my mailing list” popups to be extremely invasive and they create an incredibly bad user experience. Expecially when I start reading somethign and then out of the blue BAM an auto pop asking me to join a mailing list interrupts my reading. How the hell do I know if I want to join your mailing list if you don’t give me a chance to read anything.
It’s the equivalent of walking into a bar and pulling up a bar stool next to the hot blonde on the end and sayin “would you like to have sex with me?” Whoa slow down speed racer.
95% of the time I hit the back arrow when I am rudely interrupted by the auto pop. The one exceptiion will be if I’m friends with the site owner and I’m willing to overlook sometimes if that’s the case. ~ Gerald Weber of Search Engine Marketing Blog and the Bad Ass SEO Blog Contest
Finally, Ileane Smith of Basic Blog Tips did one better than just responding via email. She sent me a video!
A simple, yet effective message!
A Good Alternative
Andrew Rondeau of We Build Your Blog and the Income Blogging Guide Course, said the following about popups.
I wouldn’t use pop-overs like that. I feel it can lose visitors in the long run… plus I am comfortable in building my own designs.
Outside of the IM niche, I think pop-overs are much more acceptable and pop-over domination would be an excellent investment for those who want a quick, professional looking pop-over.
He, instead, uses a plugin called Subscribers Magnet which allows you to add opt-in forms to your sidebar, at the end of posts, as a pop-under in the footer, in the comment form, and included in an email sent to first time commenters.
His opt-in rate increased by 205% after installing the plugin, and it even gives you a breakdown of which location on your site converts to a new subscriber. Definitely something to consider as an alternative to the popups. You can read more on his thoughts about this plugin in his review of Subscribers Magnet.
My Thoughts and Suggestions
I’m not a fan of the popups – as you may notice, I have a mailing list, but the form only is in the sidebar and on its own page. There are a lot of great reasons to use them in the quest of building your mailing list, and I’m sure that if your mailing list is done the right way, it may help build loyal readers. But I think that these similar looking templates might lead to the “ad blindness” effect – personally, I end up closing them before I read them because the reason I came to the site was to read the content.
As far as some suggestions, here are some things I would like popup users to think about.
- Test on all browsers – As mentioned by some of the site owners above, be sure to test these popups on any and all browsing platforms, including and especially mobile phones. Having a mobile theme for your website is not enough – there is one well known blogger’s site using Popup Domination that I can’t read at all on my Droid because the popup takes over the whole mobile screen and you can’t scroll to close it out.
- Tell people what they are getting – I don’t mean just the free item. Are they going to get a weekly newsletter? Periodic updates? Nothing but affiliate links? Ok, no one is going to admit to the latter, but you should let people know what they’re in for after that freebie product. I guarantee you that I will NEVER sign up on an opt-in form when it just says “give me your email address and name” and nothing more.
- Reduce the frequency displayed – For people that don’t keep their cookies, they are probably going to see the popup every time they come to your site. But for those that do, they will probably appreciate it if the popup doesn’t appear every time they visit, especially if (lucky for you) they come by daily.
- Check your website stats – While the bloggers surveyed have seen great results, this may not be the case for every website, especially those that do not have strong content or a large following to begin with. Keep an eye on your Google Analytics and bounce rate – compare your stats before adding the popup to your site vs. after, and make sure that the rate visitors are leaving is not increasing.
- Check your mailing list stats – Services like Aweber allow you to see how many people are confirming their subscriptions, as well as how many of your emails are being opened. If recent subscribers are not confirming their subscriptions or opening their emails, although you are getting more opt-ins with your popup, they are not really interested in your content (and may be subscribing in hopes that the popup goes away).
Using Google Adwords or StumbleUpon Ads?
As mentioned by James of Better Start Blogging in the comments, Adwords does not allow popups on websites in their sponsored listings.
I have also received information from a StumbleUpon Community Manager that they do not allow popups on sites being advertised through their ad program either, and as far as sites added by community members, you will want to make sure the popup is user-friendly and easy to close, otherwise the page may get a thumbs down by other members.
Your Thoughts on Popups
Do you use one of these popup opt-in forms for your website? If you would like to answer any of the above Case for Popups questions in the comments, that would be welcome.
If you are not a fan of the latest in pop-up mailing list sign up forms, please share your thoughts as well. Particularly, I’d like to know if you subscribe, just close the popup, or leave based on whether you know the blogger or if they are offering a freebie. Plus let us know any suggestions you would give website owners who use them.
About Kristi Hines
Kikolani covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers to succeed in search and social media marketing. Kristi Hines is a 
This is really great Kristi,
I wasn’t a fan of popups myself until I realized what a fool I am. I have been using it and my traffic is increasing (at least from what I see) and my subscribers is also increasing.
What matters is your content.
It is also important not to use just any popup because people tend to get angry but if you use beautiful ones like popup domination then you will get more results.
Onibalusi Bamidele recently posted 48 Keys To Success
Content definitely makes a difference, both on your website and in whatever you are mailing. You may keep a subscriber, and never know that they are filtering your messages and not reading them after a few that didn’t catch their interest.
Agreed completely.
Honestly, as a reader I am not a fan of pop ups on the whole. But pop up domination seems to have unoffensive ones and I honestly am growing to dislike them less. I will put up with pop ups if the content is top notch!
Stacey Cavanagh recently posted How Fed Up Is Your Life And Other Facebook Quizzes
Theirs is definitely the most visually appealing, and actually allows people to explain what signing up has to offer, as opposed to those small boxes that just ask for your info with no other details.
Onibalushi,
Great point that content is what matters. I think if you are going to have a popup, you need to have a GREAT offer and a reason for the person to sign-up. If you just have an offer like “Sign-Up for my Newsletter”, that is when it can be annoying to the user. However if you are offering something of value, that is when it becomes just another way to highlight your quality content.
Don’t think of it as a lead capture tactic, but as a way to promote quality and premium content!
- Mark
Mark Thompson recently posted Response cached until Thu 12 @ 14:39 GMT (Refreshes in 51 Minutes)
I have just bought this plugin and I love it, because it is eady to use. Regardless of your landing page experience, this pop-up feature is very handy.
The lightbox effect is very creative to capture peoples attention. I’ve used the lightbox feature on a number of websites. But this is a great piece of kit.
A majority of blogs need something that captures attention and this does the job.
If anyone is using Google AdWords to promote their blog and you have this great plugin installed your site will not be allowed for AdWords as Google forbids pop-ups.
That is a good point – there are certain networks that do not allow sites with popups. Interesting to know Adwords is one of them. Does it affect Adsense publishers as well?
Hello Kristi,
I am not entirely sure about AdSense, I am only guessing here, but I think thats ok. Google Adwords doesn’t allow pop-ups because it is seen as an unfair advantage.
Google pay you for Adsense, and when you use AdWords your paying Google. Logically, it should be ok, but I’d double check that.
Excellent showcase of people who are for and against popups, it is all a matter of preference and perception. Some sites can use it ineffectively and intrusively and others work it more or less seamlessly into their site.
Justin Germino recently posted Water Reflection Effect for Paint Dot Net
Thanks Justin, and thanks again for sharing your opinion. I wanted to give everyone a little info to think about – why people use it, why people don’t like it, and hopefully there will get to be a balance that will help website owners increase their mailing list and website visitors to not run away.
Hey Kristi,
Wow! lots to chew on. At some point I thought you were going to stay out of it but I’m happy you stated your opinion. I admitted not to be sure about running the pop-up even after I purchased it and after reading some of the other opinions and reactions, I’ll just stick with what is best for the reader even if that costs me to develop things in slow-motion.
I’ve made decisions in the past such as having a simple design or always making sure I’m writing for human beings before writing for Google, just trying to put the reader first. I think it shouldn’t be different in this case and I’ll probably leave the pop-up for special occasions like a product launch or stuff like that.
Thank you Kristi for the great content (as usual) and for inviting me to participate.
I think my opinion comes from the good old days of web design where popups were a huge no-no. That and because I know what they are, I end up closing them right away. I am developing my mailing list quite slowly too, but I figure I’d rather have a small list of subscribers that are always opening my emails vs. a large list (that I pay more for) that are not.
Thanks again for sharing your opinions!
I loathe pop-ups and pop-unders. I think they are smarmy. Fortunately, most browsers now have settings to supress those nasty things. PopUp Domination particularly annoys me because it has been engineered to avoid those settings, but does the same thing as other pop-ups. If it is a new site, I leave and do not return. If it is a familiar site, I certainly curtail my visits., especially if the thing comes up every time I visit. And while in one case I did sign up for the newsletter, it was because that was why I was visiting the site, not because of the popup. Grumble, grumble. Good for Miss Ileane and her video.
Stephanie Suesan Smith recently posted Cheap Seeds Are Expensive
Her video was quite amusing! I really wish I could get a screenshot of my Droid to show what some websites look like when mobile browsing – I have been on a few that I can’t view at all thanks to the popup. These programs should have a feature that turns it off automatically for mobile browsers.
What an awesome post, I didn’t expect it will be great like this, I feel like I need to read it over and over
I can see that some people is really annoying by the popup while the most happy people is those who are using it on their blogs!
Nice Video Ileane, I got the message! and now.. I wish I can prevent the popup from popping for people who already subscribers!
Hesham recently posted Give your Blog a Little TLD
Yeah, it was much longer than I had expected, but I wanted to get all sides of the story in.
It would be nice if they could incorporate a way for people who have already subscribed not to see it – and maybe even an option for people to choose whether or not they want to see it again, ever. I guess it’s all based on cookies, and once those are cleared, any settings are lost anyway.
Hey Hesham, I hope you know that no Pop-Up could ever stop me from hanging out at Famous Bloggers! That was all in fun. What’s even funnier is that I was on another blog this morning that had 2 different Popup plugins installed. So it was a Popup within a Popup!
I laughed so hard I forgot to tell the blogger to turn one of them off!! Oops, I’d better go and do that now, he’s a great friend of mine and I’m sure he forgot to deactivate at least one of them.
Ileane @ Basic Blog Tips recently posted How To Install CommentLuv on Blogger
I leave a site when I see these, unless I know the site has info I need. If they are willing to throw some annoying popup in my face, they’re also willing to use my email address for their own purposes, since they are in collection mode.
Lists. meh Most of all emails received from these lists is crap. You name the person, Chow, Rowse, whoever…all crap.
Wayne John @ California recently posted Megan Mahoney Horse Training and Riding Instruction
I am on a few mailing lists that are pretty good… the ones that are all text and ALWAYS about some new affiliate product are pretty awful though. That’s why I made mine a newsletter. Sure I promote things like Blog World Expo, but there is much more content that is not targeted towards someone buying into something.
I agree, I hate those text with affiliate links emails, and it ends mostly in my spam folder, and that’s why I think we can use the newsletter or email list some times to say hi to our subscribers or maybe lead them to some useful content, internet marketers should understand that they don’t have to insist too much!
Hesham recently posted 6 Reasons Why You Should Start A Blog Before You Start a Business
While I can’t say much about traffic as a whole, anyone using pop-ups on a blog will lose at least one reader: me.
YogaforCynics recently posted Roadmaps for the Soul
Sure!
That is great!
I losed one reader as a result of using popup and I gained an additional 10 – who loses, me or the reader?
If a reader loves my blog then my use of popup won’t be an excuse, after all the “x” button is so visible that you can easily close it. What matters most is your content, your design and the type of popup, believe me – put this in place and everything rocks
Feel free to let me know what you think
Thanks so much for commenting,
-Onibalusi
Onibalusi,
I find this quote rather strange:
“I losed one reader as a result of using popup and I gained an additional 10 – who loses, me or the reader?”
Sounds / feels like you are just out for for yourself and not your customer.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide recently posted Do NOT Buy Rapid Video Blogging Course
For me the pop-up boxs are annoying (cons) but I know that can be very effective (prons)
The ideal balance is to show one-time to the same reader when she/he returns. Which is the case to say the same person “subscribe here” again and again if you are already subscribed?
Cheers,
Gera
Gera @ Sweets Foods Blog recently posted 11 Mistakes and Ways Why Your Social Media Fails
One time only would definitely be nice. I think the key to that is to have the same opt-in on your sidebar – that way if someone wants to sign up later, it is in the same colors / layout so it is easily recognizable at a later time.
One time is actually the best choice to go for!
Although, the popup can be used in some different ways, like pronouncing something new happening , especially if you have a good offer that you really wants everyone to know about it, maybe running a contest and want to make sure everyone land on your blog know!! (just some thoughts)
The popup forms do exactly the same job like the SMS, it’s the best marketing message in the world of Today, when you SMS to a cell phone, you just guaranteed the message is delivered, the person has to open it, and the popup do the exact job!
People think about things in several ways, because they have different minds, and probably there are people who are in love with popups exists somewhere on the internet!
Also, some people need a reminder from time to time to take the action they actually want to take, so a little push by a popup will help!
mm.. I rarely join newsletters -personally- I subscribe only when there is something I am dying for it, not because a popup window!
Hesham recently posted 6 Reasons Why You Should Start A Blog Before You Start a Business
I hate going into a retail store where a clerk comes up to me and tries to steer me towards the day’s offer. That’s what these things feel like to me–an annoying salesclerk that won’t just let me browse. I have eyeballs. I can see your newsletter and offers. If I want them, I’ll sign up. If I don’t, I won’t.
Plus, I like to increase the text size on my screen when I’m reading a lot, but when I do that, I can’t see the ‘X’ to close the ‘unobtrusive’ PopUp Domination box without zooming out. Odds of me doing that? Zero. Odds of me unsubscribing? 100%
Jean Sarauer recently posted 14 Tips to Turn Bloggers Into Friends
Interesting – probably another thing for these plugin owners to test. I zoom in and out of sites all of the time and see some interesting design flaws on my own page thanks to that.
That is a really good overview of the issue from both sides Kristi!
I purchased Popup Domination, and ran it on my blogs inside and outside the MMO niche, and eventually I ditched it from StandOutBlogger because it caused poor optin quality and quite a few complaints. However I feel this is because it is becoming to saturated within this niche.
Because I still have it running on blogs outside the making money online niche, and it is converting well, with no complaints.
Thomas Sinfield recently posted How To Let The ‘Fear Of Failure’ Drive You!
Thomas
We think very much alike!
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide recently posted Do NOT Buy Rapid Video Blogging Course
I will agree with @Jean. I don’t really feel free when someone is trying to sell me something in the store. I am still kinda person who hates pop-ups. I would only like them if it’s really a special offer which saves money in real. i.e. on DELL website, sometime pop-ups are worth looking at.
I also hate blogs when you type in a url and a modal pop-up appears and ask you to sign up.
The important thing is to control the pop-ups. Many sites run on the once every seven days philopsophy. Which is a reasonable amount of time to hit people with pop-ups. When you get it everytime you hit a page, it gets annoying fast
Steve recently posted 13 Steps to Perfect Landing Page Design
I agree with Stephanie – smarmy is a good word to describe them. They annoy me and honestly, I usually close them before even reading what they are for. Admittedly, I am fussy about my browser and I don’t even like it when links open in a new tab or window – I want to decide to do that myself with Ctrl+Click so I’m probably not the a typical user.
I can see how they do get more sign-ups though …
Kim Woodbridge recently posted How I Live Car-Free
Hi Kristi
New to blogging and so found this article very helpful. I don’t like it when I visit sites and you can’t get access unless you do the opt in form. Usually leave if it’s too intrusive. When I did a survey just after I set up my new blog, most people said they would leave if there were popups on the site or banner ads. So probably won’t even contemplate them as I want readers who will return when I publish new articles and hopefully get to know them. Like you, would rather build a list slowly than have heaps of ppl join and then unsubscribe straight after.
Patricia Perth Australia
Been involved with ADWORDS on a day to day basis. Google will terminate your advertising (Quality Score) if your landing page has popups. I have no evidence this will affect your SERPS, but I’d put my money on it.
If Google is making a decision about pop ups being a bad thing. I tend to agree with them. Perhaps in the blogging world this is a good thing. For E-commerce and Sales this is the Kiss of Death.
This is a very interesting arguement. I don’t think my blog has enough traffic on it how to warrant me having popups all over the place. A new blog with popups probably REALLY would turn people off.
Wayne Howard recently posted Why Everyone Hates Your Blog
Personally I find pop-ups annoying. With that said; in my own testing my subscriptions quadrupled when using a pop-up on one of my sites.
Interestingly when the video in my pop-up is set to auto-play it converted far better than when the visitor had to click a play button to watch the video.
I use the free wp-popup-scheduler plugin.
That is another thing that makes me leave immediately. I have hearing problems and if the website makes noise without my telling it to, I immediately leave and never return. Videos, especially those annoying 3D people, are really bad, but the music some people have is not good, either.
Stephanie Suesan Smith recently posted Spinosad- An organic insecticide
Kristi,
Many different ways to build a list and many different views!
Thing is there is no right or wrong way.
Whatever we do on our blogs, some visitors will like and some will detest and never return.
But over the years I’ve read about more people complain about pop-up’s than anything else.
The whole point of my blog is to share my knowledge and if people think ‘this is great…I wonder if there is a free guide’. They will find it and opt-in. They don’t need a pop-up to ‘plead’ with them.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide recently posted Do NOT Buy Rapid Video Blogging Course
Hi Kristi, I am not a fan of optin popups because they tend to interrupt the users surfing experience, so I am advising my clients against the use of this method.
Well, I disagree! “This plugin creates visually appealing lightbox forms that increase your opt-in rate substantially.” HAH? I think these things are a nuisance, they screw up page loading via dialup (and on some mobile phones) and give a visitor an extra reason to leave your page in a hurry and never come back (most people figure if there’s one pop-up on your page, there’s more ) – ALSO::: some services prohibit pop-ups, consider them TOS which is reason for TOSSING YOU AND YOUR BLOG OUT of whatever program it is – so check adsense, entrecard, etc. to make absolutely sure you’re not gonna get banned or deleted!
Kristi,
Great job with gathering all of the research on this topic. It has been a heavily debated topic recently and I’m glad someone put together some ideas and thoughts around bloggers who have been testing it out.
To further add to my answers above, I think for blogs it is important to have some sort of lead generation tactic. For many users, they will hit your latest blog post and then leave after reading it. Using the popup tactic will provide a way to try and entice that user to leave their information, so that you can try and keep bringing then back via E-mail marketing.
I strongly believe that you need to use in moderation and don’t overdue it. As long as you are providing quality content and the rest of your site is not filled with tons of ads, it seems that the pop up capture form is ok.
Thanks again for putting together this summary. Great work!
Mark
Mark Thompson recently posted Are You Optimizing Your YouTube Videos Properly
You know what? I think that if the pop-up comes up straight away then it would not be a problem, the reason I dislike them is because the majority of them sort of appear slowly and magically just as you are getting into reading an interesting blog post.
Dean Saliba recently posted 3 CPM Ad Networks That I Use
I am with Andrew Rondeau and I use Subscribers Magnet – it’s much less invasive and just as effective.
I am absolutely blown away for the quality of your post, Kristi – the most thorough analysis on the topic I’ve ever seen!
Thanks for doing all the work for us, bloggers, and make our decision-making that much easier.
Ana @ Blog Traffic Generation recently posted How To Rank Well For Your Inner Pages
The pop-up forms have become more and more used lately. I kinda do not like them as they seem to ask me the same question every time I visit. What’s really annoying is when I’m being asked to subscribe when I am already a subscriber.
Colleen@Kennewick Homes recently posted West Pasco Washington Homes For Sale
Ok these pop-ups do help with building a list, but, on the other side of the fence they can be annoying, if you’ve already signed up to one, why would you want to see it keep asking you to sign up, the problem is that a lot of these types of systems don’t use cookies to say “hey this one’s been here X amount times already, they haven’t signed up so let’s leave it at that and stop showing them!”
As for pop-up domination, I see those damn things in my sleep!
Karen @ Blazing Minds recently posted Marketing Your Business With Twitter Via The Aid Of Tweetons
Hi Kristi,
Another popup lover here.. This feature can really increase you blog/site’s traffic in a matter of days. First time I installed it, my visitors increase by almost 5%. The next days I got 20 new subscribers to my newsletter. This is great stuff and every blogger should also try it.
Thanks!
Good stuff Kristi!
I say popups are cheap, rapid and efficient means of promoting your business or products. This tool actually help a lot of bloggers double their subscriptions and dramatically increase profit.
I see popup opt-ins so often now I am starting to close / ignore them, just as I do with advertisements. I don’t use them as my site is not “at that point” yet, but I can definitely see how they would increase sign-ups and subscriptions. My suggestion to anyone using one: please only display the popup once, when the visitor initially opens your blog. Don’t keep it coming back to stalk your visitor.
I for one dislike popups, and choose not to use them. Personally I think the popups can work, but it’s only a short term gain, and long run loss. Some of the popups are poor programmed and keep reappearing even after you filled them out, eventually I believe you will gain some of those readers as a result of the annoyance of the popup. I think a well placed subscribe via email box on a website is more than enough to gain the readers.
Till then,
Jean
used tires recently posted Is it good to buy used tires
“Popup fatigue” is similar to the recent spate of “launch fatigue” that went around the blogging/IM niche.
Of course you’re seeing these new popups everywhere, someone just released a pretty good new plugin for it.
They’ll die off again. For me the default 7 day repeat and instant display was too aggressive, and I tuned that down quite a bit and still get good results.
If you’ve got blogs outside of this niche and those audiences are well suited to mailing lists then you should push aside any blogging/IM dislike of them and test them for yourself. The results might surprise you.
Paul Cunningham recently posted Are You Paying Attention to Gideon Shalwick
Kristi — nice post. I like that fact that you showed the good, the bad, and the somewhere in between.
Personally I’m annoyed when I go to a site that has these popups, while I’m almost convinced by the PRO group, I just can’t get past the fact that as a reader I’m hit in the face with a pop-up. I find that I never sign up, I usually never read them, and unless I’m a follower of the blog, I most likely won’t read what I came there for to begin with.
Andrews Subscribe Magnet sounds like something worth checking into.
Just call me old school I guess, but I’m still in the old country where Web Sites are Web Sites and Blogs are a whole different animal.
CJ recently posted Online Help Subject – Part 2
I don’t want to pick on Mark, but his comment about complaints kind of sums this topic all up for me “No complaints as of yet, however I am sure it is obtrusive. ~ Mark”. Is it effective? Looks to be so; however, is the increase in subscriptions worth poking your readers in the eye when they come to your site?
I try to follow the golden rule and I clearly don’t want to see a pop up when I log onto someone’s site, so I will not put them on mine. If people are not signing up without the pop up then perhaps your call to action isn’t strong enough. Redesign your opt in boxes, create a post asking people to opt in, even add one of those corner peel-away ads like Michael Hyatt has on his site.
If you have a pop up on your site, I’m done with your site – period. If your content is that great I will subscribe through a reader but I won’t visit your site. As far as your email list is concerned, forget it. If you’re willing to be annoying on your site I am sure not going to provide you my email address.
Anyway, my two cents worth on the subject. You did a great job laying out the pros and cons. Thank you for not having a pop up on your site.
Brad Harmon recently posted The Worst Commercial Ever
I love this article. This is actually a subject I have been back and forth with on my own blog.
As a reader I honestly don’t appreciate pop-ups. They normally hit as soon as you enter a website. Let’s be honest, do you really know if it’s a site worth subscribing to if you haven’t even had the chance to read one word?
As a writer it is hard to argue with the results. Just look at the numbers listed in this article. In the end the numbers don’t lie. It may be time for me to push aside my personal gripes and give them a shot.
Thanks for the extremely informative post!
Brian@Charleston Marketing recently posted 7 Twitter Tools for New Twitter Users
I dislike popups, popunders, and of course obtrusive toolbars. I dislike those floating things that follow me as I try to read through a blog post because it keeps distracting me from trying to read a post.
I can believe there aren’t a lot of complaints because to complain means you’re leaving a comment on a post that has nothing to do with the post, and we know that’s a no-no. I just leave and, if I go back and it continues to irk me, I never visit that blog again. I’ll risk missing content that might be good if I’m irritated too often; there are so many other good blogs and good writers out there to not have to deal with it.
Mitch recently posted What Message Are You Trying To Project
it is too bad as I have tried popup domination too late
I think as many other said contents matter and I do hate popup ads too. However, the popup domination works best that is unlikely annoying ads 
Thanks
Tinh recently posted Affiliate Links Cloaking Is Ethical to Your Readers?
Great post Kristi, as it happens I just (like an hour ago) installed popup domination, so I found the comments especially interesting. After being frustrated with the design limits of aweber’s lightboxes I decided to give PD a try. I have it set to show a full 60 seconds after someone lands on my blog and it is set to show only once every three weeks. I have been split testing aweber forms for a few months now and it will be very easy to compare the results. I’ll let you know what happens.
Jonathan – Advanced Life Skills recently posted Can You Allow Appreciation to Change Your Life
They always say “never say never” but I am pretty strongly against popup opt-in forms, so I’m going to say never. I will never ever use these on my sites. I’d rather have a list of zero subscribers than put a popup opt-in form on my sites. They really really annoy me, and if they annoy me often enough, it’s very possible I’ll never return to the site – even if I like it otherwise. They may increase subscriber rates, but I can promise they’ll never get me to subscribe.
DazzlinDonna recently posted Ways To Make Money Online
Great post Kristi. I am not sure whether I would use pop up subscription forms on my blog. They are way too intrusive I believe. Still when Hesham first started using the Pop Up Domination Plugin I really didn’t mind it because it looked nice.
Still I would rather take the route Andrew has taken. I believe you can easily increase your subscription rate through other things such as using the Subscriber Magnet plugin.
personally i find pop-ups annoying but i’m prepared to be open minded about it.
this post has certainly created a great diversity of opinions so i’m sure the general public – the potential subscribers – will also have a love/hate/couldn’t care less opinion.
probably a bit like politics – very subjective
i think we will just have to live with them until they either die a natural death or become part of the furniture – time usually sorts these thing out – just have a look at the history over the 10-15 years
it’s great when a post invokes such discussion
allan
Allan *OzzyAce* Riley recently posted Building a List
Although the fact that your subscribers or something like that will increase amazingly, I don’t use any popups because I know that my readers will be upset and feel annoyed.
Huynh Tho recently posted 5 Reasons Why Blogging Can Improve Your Life
I too feel it bit annoying everytime it pops up in front of the screen. Some sites do use it n number of times by displaying it on every page.
This is indirect way of asking users to go out of the site. I really appreciate the research you have done to compile this great title as an article.
Robin recently posted Online Text to Movie Software- Make Xtranormal Movie
I don’t use Popup Dominate but I just design something for myself and try it. The only thing I use in this is subscribe for my feed and it seems help me to increase subscribers so many. Gain back a lot of traffic.
Tony @ Android recently posted Verizon has released the Samsung Gusto- with two display
Hi Kristi,
I don’t like pop ups but I can tolerate them when they cover only smaller part of the page and can be closed easily.
I close them right away unless already know the blogger. In that case I just check what they have there very quickly.
I think that you are really writing about pop overs. Pop overs allow you to see the page you came to in the first place. Pop ups I think are really those that take you to a different page. Those I absolutely hate and so does Google.
Vance
Vance@Can Mac Be PC ? recently posted Should You Buy A Mac If You Also Need Windows 7 Can Mac Be PC
I personally don’t like Pop Ads, because it distract me. Why one should add such pop up forms in his/her blog just to increase there mailing list. When they can increase there mailing list by providing the quality to readers.
Why some one will blindly enter his/her email in a popup form, before reading some of the blogposts of a blog.
Bilal Ahmad@WP Content Plugins recently posted Broken Link Checker- Monitor Your WordPress Blog For Broken Links
I’ve never tried using a popup, but I also don’t really have a newsletter subscription outside of just the standard Feedburner opt-in form.
I’ve never had much success with accumulating subscribers either via RSS or email for Feedburner. I remember one time where my Feedburner subscriptions shot up by about 500 over the course of three days and I was pretty excited. Sadly, it was some type of glitch and the number dropped back down again.
Often, I get people who subscribe, but don’t end up confirming their subscription. I image that this is from the confirmation email ending up in the spam folder.
Jarret recently posted L-carntine l-tartrate to reduce muscle soreness
Wow, fantastic post. I’m going to have to against Popup Domination though.
It may be pretty and appealing but now that everyone uses it, its annoying… It upsets me when I see it now… I prefer letting people decide whether or not they want to join an email list.
I’m not a pop-up lover regardless of how it looks and feels. I’m of the same opinion as Gerald and I will outright hit the back button unless the blog I am visiting is already part of my trusted community, like FamousBloggers. Don’t get me wrong, I see why people use it and understand to a certain point hwy they think it is a good method of racking in opt-in subscribers. I think that this can work well for some and won’t work for many. I will eventually subscribe to your mailing list if I find that what you have to offer is valuable and won’t spam me with affiliate links or sales promotion of some kind. But before that, please do give me get chance of reading first before slapping my face with subscribe and get free something. Why would I want something for free from someone who does not offer any value anyway. Most likely they will be another free ebook crap.
All in all, if they follow the guidelines herein, there might be a slight chance that they can get away with it. Bottom line.. If I am visiting a blog for the first time with a pop whatever, I leave. If I have been around your blog for a while, it won’t annoy me. If there is a work around that, no problem. Fantastic post
DiTesco recently posted Design Your Business Logo Cautiously
Wow what a great post and I am surprised I missed it
awesome to see so many great bloggers adding their opinions
I don’t even bother going on the site once I see a POP UP
I think they are for bloggers that are desperate.
Sadly there’s plenty of desperate bloggers out for self that may even work
and often does so it becomes a question of doing what is right or what works
I try to blend the two somewhere.
Very cool post Nice Kristi win the contest 22k you rolling
I think the best way to use popups if you have an event or a special product that you are promoting. It gives your regular users a hint that something exciting is coming up and you want be the first to have it kind of thing. Instead of having a pop up just to gain hits.
Cindy recently posted Scott Pilgrim Now on iPhone and iPad
I have heard that they good response from them but honestly I hate them they are annoying.
I really enjoyed this post. I can objectively see that pop-ups can increase your leads, but I still can not bring myself to put them on my website. I think this is a cheap trick to get more people to sign up for whatever you are selling. Your best customers are going to be the ones who read your content and make the decision themselves. I have never filled out a pop-up form. If I see them I either leave the page, or I continue with extreme caution. I want my visitors to feel comfortable and engaged without involving high pressure sales tactics. I treat my clients the way I want to be treated and I will continue to do so.
Trevor B. Reed @Charleston Marketing Firm recently posted 7 Twitter Tools for New Twitter Users
Hey Kristi,
I’ve been visiting a LOT of blogs over the past couple weeks and I have to say that I find the pop ups to be rather annoying. In some cases obtrusive.
I visit a blog to read content and if I like what I read I subscribe. Simple.
Lesley
Lesley “Wes” Klatt recently posted Week 3- Generating Traffic
I checked out the links for the pro-pop websites. I personally don’t find anything wrong with popups and I even think most of them look really good.
One site though, had a very slow page load time, and the popup appeared half way (text only) while the page was still loading… I think you should make your popup the last priority behind page load speed, design, and layout. Make sure your site is rock solid, use caching to make your pages load faster, then implement the popup.
Matt Dunlap recently posted How to get Google to index your pages faster and more often
This is a fantastic round up of information. In my own experience, I’ve found some blogs with great content but I’ve added them to my personal block list because they use popovers to solicit optins. I also stopped promoting their content through Twitter and Google reader. Perhaps that doesn’t have any real impact on their traffic but that’s my own $0.02
Dave Saunders recently posted Skip the meetings and collaborate online
I liked Trevor B Reed’s comment. If you treat others as you want to be treated is a pretty good guide I reckon to finding and starting relationships with like minded people.
As for pop-ups, I have an extreme dislike to them. I find them annoying, intrusive and ‘in-your-face’ marketing. If you have an RSS subscribe feed on your site and I can get more from you the next time you post to your blog, I am quite likely to sign up to receive your information and usually stay subscribed.
Pop-ups that try to force me to sign by not allowing me into a site until I have signed up will only send me away fast. Besides, why do that? If you ‘force’ someone to subscribe to your email list and then expect them to click an aweber (or other autoresponder email) to confirm your subscription, why would anyone click that email to confirm when they never wanted to subscribe in the first place?
I hate pop-up forms. As a matter of fact, all that “tricky”, high tech stuff, I can’t stand it. A lot has to do with my computer and loading speed. It slows things down and when someone slows things down for me, I am not likely to visit them again.
Cheryl Jones recently posted Pages
People are seeing great results using Popup Domination, but I just don’t know if I could use it.
Like I was telling Justin on his post about this over at Dragon Blogger, I always close pop ups without even looking at them. It’s a learned behavior I have developed since most pop ups truly are annoying.
That said, I don’t mind pop ups to the point that I would stop visiting a website or blog. But the effort would be wasted on me and other’s like me since I don’t take the time to read what’s on the pop up!
I was planning to check out pop up domination to see if it can be configured to display on exit rather than entrance… or, to display only on single post page rather than index.
Then again, now I am concerned about its use with Adwords.
Tia recently posted Top Web Hosting Companies for Blogs
This is a very timely post for me because I am now using the Aweber lightbox on two of my sites but none of the others. It has increased the subscribers for both, but I definitely see that a lower percentage complete the double opt-in.
Tricia Meyer recently posted Wayback Machine More Than Trip Down Memory Lane
I strongly dislike popups and they do turn me off sites quite regularly, especially when they keep popping up on every page I click.
I read with interest in your post that some people see dramatic results in sign ups. But I still wouldn’t put something on my site that I find so irritating when I visit others sites. Also, having asked many people, I have never heard anyone say they really like pop ups when they visit a site. They seem to be at best tolerated, at worst hacking people off. So it seems pop ups are all about getting something out of folk rather than adding value or serving them in some way.
Whilst I want people to sign up at my site, how they expierience it is also very important to me. After all, the site is for them. This maybe naive on my part, but it isn’t all about squeezing every last possible sign up out of folk at any cost.
Hey,
The problem with popup domination is the size of the graphics.
Go check them out! The close button (top right) is a whopping 164k png… i changed it to a 4k gif and it looks identical! Same goes for all the images – they are transparent pngs – most around 160k… the total size comes to around a 1mb. You’ll notice when the thing first loads it comes in slowly… well turn everything to a combination of gifs and jpegs and the popup flies in, looks the same and comes in around 80% in file size.
I would def optimize the images before you use popup domination.
The generic popups that most bloggers used before really annoys me because it doesn’t have a good looking template and good control of popup intervals.
But since the launched of popup domination, it change way of understanding popups. As you see, PD got the looks and complete control.
I guess, Michael saw the lack of the generic popup.
Thanks for sharing this information. You really put an effort on doing interviewing those people above…
- Blogging Access.com
Felix Albutra recently posted Amazon Twitter LinkedIn Facebook
Hey Kristi thanks for reviewing Action PopUp and other popup solutions.
The big point everyone is making here is that you need to adjust your popup settings every now and then, so that your repeat visitors not only don’t get annoyed from your ads, but also don’t become blind to them.
Every month or so, change the size of the popup, change the offer, change the delay, switch between exit/entrance, that kind of thing.
I use my own popup plugins and that’s why I’ve bundled “non-popup” lead capture tools for your blog. You can also collect emails from your comment form (add a checkbox for them kind of like your “notify me of followup comments” box only it’s “subscribe to updates”), your sidebar, inside posts where filling out the form keeps them on the same page… that kind of thing.
I hate pop-ups.
I need to use them on my site to build a list.
I read Andrew’s review of Subscribers Magnet and it sounds great, very flexible. It gives me hope that I can capture leads without being obnoxious. But their site says they arent’ taking more subscribers now. I don’t know if it’s for real or a marketing ploy.
Thanks for a great discussion here.
Lincoln Kern recently posted How to Stop a Barking German Shepherd
I am not a big fan of the pop up op it form. I understand why people use them, but I find them rather annoying.
Lincoln, if S.M. is no longer available then you should get Action Comments (my plugin) which has been around longer has more features. They actually bought my version and decided to make their own expensive knock-off.
I don’t like pop-ups myself, and I have thus far resisted the urge to use them. Here is how I react, so I assume many others do the same.
1) I see so many of them now I just expect it, and as soon as they pop I click the Close X. I never even see their message.
2) I have opted in to so many that their emails are all filtered straight into my “marketing guys” folder, never to be seen again. I have received over 4000 of their emails since May. This is not an exaggeration; i checked before typing this comment.
If they pop only once I don’t take issue. When they pop afresh each page, I make a mental note and don’t return.
The core point is that they have become “invisible noise” now. We will just have to see if they are just another passing fad, like those silly big animated pictures of yesteryear that took so long to load on our slow modems.
Rick
Rick LaPoint@Internet Marketing recently posted Are You Confusing Your Markets
I think it is amazing how fast popup domination exploded on the market. As soon as I saw it I had to have it. I had been struggling for years to get a decent popup manager that would allow me to control a cookie.
I agree with what you have said here. I recently did a post for the ethical use of PopUp Domination with a screenshot of my settings. The popup is only an opt-in and not an ad and it doesn’t even show until you have been on the site for 120 seconds and then it won’t show again for 7 more days.
I personally hate sites that try to scream at me as I enter them. Number one most pop-ups are going to steal page load time and most people are just going to leave if there is pop-up after pop-up, I do.
Richard recently posted Ethical Use Of Pop Ups Using PopUp Domination
What a great, comprehensive rundown.
Popups? I hate them with a passion. Really. Hate. Nasty. Did I mention hate?
Alison Moore Smith recently posted Top 10 Gifts for New Bloggers
I’m in the hate popup group and when I see them or other in your face ads, popups, popunders, too large roll overs etc I just drop the site a note and say thanks but let me know when you drop the junk and maybe I’ll be back. Way to much good content on line to put up with pushy “in your face” junk. I don’t use it and I don’t go to sites that do but ONE time. It’s just to easy to use side bar forms and besides I like using Google and other advertisers that have policies against popups.
Hey Kristi, I re-read this post 3 times before making a comment. I was always against pop ups but had no clue they were converting so good for these bloggers.
On the other hand I love Ileane’s video because it shows my opinion exactly. I get pop ups on blogs I read daily and have been subscriber for months. It is annoying.
I have never tried pop up although I have been thinking about trying one out, but I would definitely put a delay on it, like 45 seconds or more maybe… I think that might be less annoying and would give the opportunity to people to actually start reading (and hopefully liking) the content.
I think, since so many blogs are using pop ups (especially pop up domination plugin) that is what made us all blind or annoyed. However, if you would put it on a blog that has nothing to do with internet marketing, like pets, cooking or anything similar and offer something interesting as an incentive, I believe that would work pretty well.
This was a post I missed before (I wasn’t even blogging when you posted it, lol), but glad I ran into it. Gotta love people sharing and tweeting old posts, it brings up some oldies but goodies
Brankica@Blogging for beginners recently posted Turn Commenters Into Newsletter Subscribers With 30 Seconds of Work