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I have seen some site that are working and the pop-ups are popping.
My first computer was in '86 -- a True Blue 286 for - get this - $6,000!
I took it over a trip to Europe. Kinda dumb now that I look back....
I LOVE POP_UPS
-kpaul
I LOVE POP_UPS
WebChicken, are you running any sort of programs to prevent popups? NIS (Norton Internet Security)? Google Toolbar? Anything?
P.S. Since you love popups, that domain is available (ilovepopups.com). Hurry, get it before someone else does. You can then compete with the ihatepopups.com site. ;)
Pop-ups are the same sort of marketing technique as a door to door sales visit or dinner time sales phone call. It's just plain intrusive. The fact is that anyone who is willing to buy when you invade their space, is also willing to buy if you DON'T. Get it?
If you force a new screen to open up, blocking my view of what I visited your site to see, forcing me to close it, more than likely just to have it pop open again as soon as I click one of your links, AND I BUY FROM YOU ANYWAY, you could pretty much sell to me if I was in a coma. Someone who buys under these circumstances is BEGGING to buy. So why not approach them in a courteous, non-invasive way and make the sale instead?
You've (Webchicken) insulted those who have not been doing business on the web for 6 years like yourself. Your experience may make you wiser than other webmasters (although this thread makes me doubt it) but surely you don't think your age and experience make you wiser than your USERS? Surely you realize, after 6 years in the business, that the real value of the web lies in the fact that it is user controlled? If you want concrete control over what your users and readers see and experience, get off the web and start a magazine.
For my part, I immediately leave any site that forces a pop-up past my pop-up blocker. WHy? Because I BLOCKED the damn thing. Hello? If you're not going to respect my wishes as a visitor/user/buyer, don't expect me to respect you as a webmaster/owner/businessman.
cEM
I use pop-ups because they make money. Pure and simple. that is the reason I have not been here for quite a while. Too busy making money. My web dude does not know how to program around PU's.
FYI, AOL9a comes with the default as blocking pop-ups.
What browner? Lastest IE. Latest Nortan antivirus. Running via a network so no need for a firewall. Don't frequent porno sites - so, I really do not get the gazzillion on one site like you all do. Have been on Comcast since day one - I was a beta testor - so I can close'em before they even become a problem.
You morons using the GoogleToolBar - WITH A 15 YEAR COOKIE! 4 former NSA's on the BOD and or Officers of the corporation? And you are worrying about security?
ROTFLMAO. And you are webmasters? Hello!
BTW, pop-up blockers also malfunction Comcast online mail, Suntrust Internet Banking, and EBay to name a few....
Basically, if people choose to block - fine. It is the default setting that piss me off...
Do not have time for any flame wars - got my answer and the code...
While I don't see anything wrong with popups for those who accept them, it is more than a bit presumptuous to assume those with an active popup blocker should have popups imposed upon them. I would therefore reiterate my advocacy of providing alternate, non-popup content for those with popup blockers.
I fear you may be trapped in the "We've always done it that way!" mindset. People bite on spam (in appalling numbers, I might add), but do the spammers establish a sustainable business relationship with those clients? Evidence would suggest not. Indeed, if overriding a client's wishes regarding popups were effective, wouldn't Amazon do it? (I've heard a rumor that they know a thing or two about web sales.)
btw: what's the name of your site/company?
I fear you may be trapped in the "We've always done it that way!" mindset.
That's just what I was thinking.
An interesting fact by a research company found more than 50% of interviewed business owners that had gone bankrupt states that they didn't understand why they went bankrupt - they had always done it that way.
They failed to move with the times.
I know a business owner in the UK who had a Japanese rep visit their premises - he tried to guess their turnover by looking at their business premises. The guess he made was about 15 times greater than the real turnover figure and he was shocked. The problem? They run the business like they are still in the 1970s.
1996 in internet businesses is older than the 1970s for a brick and mortar business, in terms of advancement and progression.
Fail to move with the times and you will be left behind. Quickly. And potentially lose a lot of money.
Other than "pageoneresults" I have never seen your names before.
The end of pop-ups has not done that much to my sales. I have employed a great free eBook (that I wrote) and it got my newsletter subs back to where they were. (Actually, they have increased.)
I use one pop per visit per site. "Join my newsletter..."
They are my sites. I pay for them. I wrote them. I decide my user experience on MY websites. they can leave if they want - but they do not. 40% of my unique visitors come back in 48 hours.
I know what I am doing.
I have been a FULL TIME internet marketer since 1998.
I now own a brick and mortor with 22 outlets.
My sites are now retirement/traveling money.
I have sold one site to a public company.
Get a life. They are my sites. I decide what my users experince. The net is not free.
I have a problem with spam. I hate it. Pops are not spam in any sense of the word. They came to my site on thier own accord. (Thru great SEO, BTW.)
That is the bottom line. Later.
[edited by: rogerd at 4:38 pm (utc) on Dec. 15, 2004]
[edit reason] let's all remain courteous... [/edit]
The title of this thread is "Getting Around Pop-up Blockers" which means that you really have no regard for the experience of your users. If they have a blocker in place it is to protect their experience, and it is NOT your business to subvert that. If you want to put up popup adverts that is your business, but it is not your right to circumvent the users ant-popup measures under any conditions.
Methinks you need to read up a little on current thinking on the subject of usability. Here's a good starting point: The Most Hated Advertising Techniques [useit.com]
From an online glossary:
"Spam (or Spamming)
An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list, or USENET or other networked communications facility as if it was a broadcast medium (which it is not) by sending the same message to a large number of people who didn't ask for it."
Given that the web is a "networked communications facility" and not a broadcast medium like television, and given that people don't ask for your popup adverts, then it is very reasonable to argue that you're spamming them. we could argue this for ever, it seems, but the bottom line is whether popups are dictionary-defined spam is irrelevant because the end result is the same - people hate them.
[edited by: rogerd at 4:35 pm (utc) on Dec. 15, 2004]
[edit reason] URL [/edit]
Did you notice that I joined in 3/2001?
To my mind, your join date means you really ought to know better. You ought to know better than to treat your users in an abusive and hostile way (insisting that you have lordship over your users experience is hostile; and foolish, since there's literally NO way to maintain it). But moreso, you ought to know better than to ask the folks at WebmasterWorld for advice on a subversive and questionable internet practice.
I have been a FULL TIME internet marketer since 1998.
I now own a brick and mortor with 22 outlets.
My sites are now retirement/traveling money.
I have sold one site to a public company.
Nobody here is questioning (or even asking about) your success. Who cares. It holds no relevance to this discussion. You came here asking for advice on how to literally hack your way past a user's computer settings and force your pop-up (I don't care if it's one or one million) onto their machine. This is widely considered a user-unfriendly, spam-like practice. Successful or not, veteran or not, it is frowned upon. You really shouldn't be surprised by the reaction your posts have garnered.
cEM
". . . internet marketer." is not the same as a web design professional. One wouldn't expect a plumber to have a full appreciation of the ethical constraints governing the actions of a doctor, nor should you expect a marketer to be fully conversant with considerations faced by a professional designer.
While WC's uninformed condition is excusable, his/her vituperative attacks on those offering their views, simply because those views are not what he/she wants to hear, are not. Unfortunately, that has led to this thread becoming a rancorous exchange, bereft of real value.
It would appear that WC's listing of accomplishments and his/her attacks on others stem from the same origin: insecurity. Someone truly secure in their knowledge and actions would have simply accepted the comments of others at face value and not spent so much time trying to justify their position.
(It is likely that this statement of the obvious will probably provoke a further display of the behaviour it describes.)
internet marketer is not the same as a web design professional
Well put! The sticking-point in this thread does seem to be the specific "marketing mentality" being displayed; i.e., that one's desire for money justifies any and all means by which one pursues it.
In which case, this really is a hopeless thread, because there's no way someone coming from that perspective is going to convince those of us who are not, and vice versa.
I just think it's a shame the "marketer" got what he wanted before the ethics discussion took over.
cEM
[edited by: createErrorMsg at 3:53 pm (utc) on Dec. 15, 2004]
While WC's uninformed condition is excusable, his/her vituperative attacks on those offering their views, simply because those views are not what he/she wants to hear, are not. Unfortunately, that has led to this thread becoming a rancorous exchange, bereft of real value.
well said.
nice use of "vituperative" - i had to look that one up, but an apropos remark nonetheless. ;)
