Add to favs

[dougie]

Hi all,

Has anyone got a code please, that would popup 5 seconds after someone enters a site, that prompts them to add the site to their favourites, but not if they have already done so.

Any help appreciated.

Sev.

[valder]

No, but I do got some opinions on it. :D

Why on earth would you do that? That's a sure way to piss people off and avoid traffic on your site. Is your site really that good? It must be like something I've never seen before, since you can be so sure that everyone wants to make it a bookmark. I'm sure it's such a wondrous site, but if I should accidentally visit your site some time and it pops up a window like that, I can promise you I would never ever visit it again.

Please don't do that.

[tedster]

I agree that this doesn't seem wise to me. But if you feel you must, you'll need to use cookies when someone does bookmark your page (and remember that bookmarks are by the page when you construct your cookie code) - you can't directly look at their bookmark files.

Other than that, a time-delay pop-up javascript is easy to find through a search, and the code for bookmarking (IE only) is even easier.

So it's a combination of things, not just one code.

[Dexie]

Many thanks for the comments.

Fully aware that it *can* be annoying, but trying to do it as inoffensively as possible, if that's possible ;-) When asking some of the people I teach, they say they invariably forget to bookmark a site, even when they visit a site they really like.

How about a 'reminder' code that just popped up a few seconds after they arrive at the website and was only displayed for a couple of seconds?

[valder]

A suggestion:

Perhaps you could add a link somewhere visible that says "Bookmark this page", that would show up an informational site which describes how to bookmark it in various browsers. The page could also include a button for IE users to click to have the site automatically bookmarked.

Ctrl-D is used by several browsers, isn't it? (not sure about this) If it is, you could tell people that.

IMO, this would be much better than an automatic pop-up. :)

[tedster]

With the widespread use of pop-up blockers, your efforts will reach only a fraction of your audience today. How about a small call-out box somewhere on the page with the link to click?

I think the negative reactions are mostly to the idea of a pop-up. Heck, we've got another thread going right now where people are quite negative about target="_blank" for a CLICKED ON link, and a pop-up is more intrusive than that.

One of the issues here is that the great majority of your visitors may not want to bookmark - I know that I am very picky these days about what gets a bookmark. Even if I appreciate a site, make a purchase, sign-up for a newsletter, etc. that doesn't mean I want to add to my bookmarks, which always seem to be right on the edge of "out of control".

So I think a small suggestion on the page itself is a better idea than a pop-up which will get blocked by many, and be felt as too aggressive by others.