Popups, Unders and Overs

In a word – please stop using them.

They’re visual spam, and only serve to distract and annoy your visitors. Imagine if you walked into a store, and the clerks handed you flyers as you walked in the door, out the door, and up and down every aisle. Pretty darn annoying, no? Would you go back? I sure wouldn’t.

So why is it suddenly OK to do it to your website visitors? It’s not – it reeks of desperation. “Please, PLEASE, look at this special offer – if you don’t buy NOW, we’ll be out of business!!” Not someplace I want to establish a long-term relationship with.

And it confuses a lot of people who don’t realize that extra windows are popping up all over. Instead, put your specials in a well-created graphic on your home page (or every page). Write compelling copy, and draw visitors to your specials by offering them all the great benefits of your products or services.

If you’re so desperate for advertising revenue from these third-party services, you should probably not be in business, as your own services are not compelling enough. Take your website out back and put it out of its misery, and then call in a professional website development firm, who will craft a website that informs, entertains and drives sales to you, all without those damn pop-ups!