Popping Out of Control

By Debbie Solomon
Posted Friday, June 25, 2004

Are Pop-Up Windows the wave of the future or an annoyance that is just getting out of control?
I remember when you could go to a site and you would have a little pop up window that would
promote the business- a new feature or subscription to their newsletter. This was great.
It was kind of a stand-out promotion for the business' main resource that they were offering.

Pop-Up windows are now out of control though. Are you being hit with 3 or 4 or even 5 pop-up windows on every page when you go to various sites? You can't even get to the page you want to because of all these pop-up windows in your face, and most of the time they have nothing to do with the site that you are at. These windows are now being used for advertising and extra promotional avenues. Businesses are doing joint ventures by trading pop-up windows. Some businesses are actually selling pop-up windows on their site.

Just the other day, I was interested in visiting some graphic sites. It was a complete nightmare. It got to a point where I did not know which site that I wanted to go to. I would type in one URL, and a site would come up along with so many pop-up windows, I literally felt dizzy. I got fed up and just gave up on searching graphic sites.

This is turning into total chaos. People want to visit a site without having tons of promotions thrown in their faces. If you want hits to your site where people will actually stay and research your site, then get rid of the pop-up windows. Leave just one small one. Not the pop-ups that take up
half the site and have nothing to do with your product or service.

The original concept for pop-up windows was to promote a certain product on your site. It was a nice technique and it got a lot of attention. Keep it simple. Real professionals will never have a site filled with pop-up windows from other businesses. It is a distraction to their own business,
and the true professional knows that. Be a true professional and if you do have this
annoyance on your site, get rid of it.

Do you want to continue joint ventures?
Were you making money on all these pop-up windows?

There are other ways to cross promote without abusing pop-up windows:

- Try a Resource Center on your site. Do link exchanges with other businesses. Even charge some money for a leading sponsor of your resource center. You can promote this on your main page, or even have one small pop-up window reminding your potential client to visit your resource center.

- Design your site with a column to the left or the right that you can trade links with other businesses and add them to your main page on the columns. This is eye catching, and much less annoying then tons of pop-up windows

These are just a couple things you can do to get rid of those pop-up windows. Do you realize how many businesses are losing customers by abusing these pop-up windows? It will astound you.

If you DO over use pop-up windows, please get rid of them, and if you don't use them but are thinking about it in order to gain promotion, DON'T DO IT.

We all want to attract customers and get them to surf our site. The best way to do this is to keep it simple. Have easy navigation and no distractions. People know what they want and what they are looking for. That is why they are at your site in the first place.
Do not make it confusing for them.

About the Author
Author: Debbie Solomon
Debbie is the Creator of The HomeSource Arena,
which is The Leading Source in Certified Home Employment,
and owner of The Online Exchange Ezine, a Top Rated,
world renowned Ezine. The only Ezine that will give you
FREE Access into an Exclusive Members Only Club, just
for subscribing for FREE to The OnLine Exchange Ezine.
Please visit her site at:
(http://www.marketingtrendz.com)
editor@marketingtrendz.com