Notifications

[browndog]

Sorry if I'm posting in the wrong forum, I couldn't find anywhere else. Does anybody use web-notifications on their site? I used to find them quite annoying (you get the pop up asking if you want to receive notifications), but see them more and more and decided to install a plugin on my site.

As I work (out of the house) Thurs-Saturday, I don't add content, so have not actually used it yet (except on myself), but already I have 166 people who have signed up for notifications. Not a huge number, but my site only gets around 8,000-9,000 visitors a day. Considering I only have about 10 newsletter subscribers (also new), I was surprised by those numbers...as I only installed the plugin 3 days ago.

Would be interested to hear if other people use this and their views?

[keyplyr]

Does anybody use web-notifications on their site?

Notification coming from where? Your own code or from some Social Media API... since you posted your question in the Social Media Marketing forum?

I think any type of notification would be most useful if the user either posted content or had some other interactive role at the site.

[browndog]

The plugin I’m using is OneSignal. So it automatically send updates to subscribers when I add a new article, or I can send one if I want to announce something.

I’m now at 170 subscribers in 3 days. I’m really surprised that people seem to be embracing it.

[NickMNS]

By using a service worker (PWA) you can send push notification directly from your website. The downside is that iOS doesn't support service-workers yet.

[tangor]

If you're asking if it's a good idea or not the only way to find out is to do it and see what happens. Site and content also make a difference and some folks just want to know everything all the time. :)

[browndog]

I guess what I am asking is has anybody else tried it, and how did they find it? What do people think of the idea in general?

My number one priority is content, I genuinely enjoy writing good articles, and that will always be my main focus.

I decided to try the notifications because I noticed they are becoming more prevalent, and less annoying (because I'm obviously getting used to being asked). I don't want to annoy my visitors, but wanted to see how it would be received and am pleasantly surprised. I've had an additional 33 subscribers since I started the thread.

NickNMS: I'm not the most technically savvy person, but when I tried setting it up for Apple, it said I had to be on a Mac computer, which I don't have.

I usually stick to the Google forum, but have shifted my focus from pleasing them, to finding other ways to get people to visit, or return to the site. This gives me a way of letting subscribers know when new content goes up.

[keyplyr]

I haven't ever used notifications, I don't have those types of sites where users interact.

But from a user's perspective, I personally hate them. They feel "nagging" especially if they are frequent (more than once or twice a month.) I always turn off all push notifications on my devices.

That said, in your scenario where users sign-up for subscriptions or membership, I would assume there are valid reasons of notifications and that the user accepts that going in.

[browndog]

Yes, I used to hate them too and would think 'why would I want to sign up and be nagged by a random site'. In my own experience, I only ever receive one request, I hope my site doesn't do that more (will check with the developers). But lately I've found them less annoying and just click 'no thanks', and carry on reading.

I am signed up with a couple of my favourite sites to receive an email when they add a new article, so this is the same, just bypasses their email address (which I know many people are reluctant to hand out). As a bonus, if necessary, I can send them a message 'world recall on XYZ which has toxic levels of ABC'. I'm not one to spam people, so even that's unlikely unless it is truly warranted.

I guess another surprise was how few people signed up for the newsletter compared to notifications. I put it on out of interest, thinking I'd remove it after a few weeks, but it's proven to be more popular than anticipated and an easy way to let people know when a new article is published (which is usually 4 days a week).

[Travis]

Personally ,I don't know like them, and more generally , I don't thin this is a good user experience, to pop anything at the face of the visitor, especially as soon as he arrives. When I visit a site for the first time, it's sure that I am not going to subscribe to anything before even knowing the quality of the site. The worse is that popup banner which are asking you to subscribe to the a newsletter, while you didn't yet have seen the page.I don't get it.

[browndog]

I detest newsletter popups which flash up right over the text you are reading. I have a 'subscribe' box on the right hand side, that's all. The notifications does pop up, but it's at the top of the page.

I have had an additional 35 people sign up overnight.

[tangor]

All of these signups.... have you validated they are humans and not bots?

[keyplyr]

Did you have your robot ask them if they were a robot?