What’s Your Opinion Of Newsletter Pop Up Boxes?
I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers have started using Awebers pop up forms for their blog newsletter. Zac Johnson, John Chow and Chris Garrett are just some of the high profile bloggers who have started using this method to increase sign ups to their newsletter.
The pop up comes up when you load the page and the visitor has to either enter their name and email or close the form. They can then view the blog page.
Here’s an example of what the pop up looks like (screenshot taken from Chris Garretts blog) :
From what I have read, these pop ups do greatly increase the sign up rates to a newsletter, but at what cost? I am aware of the power of email lists and how some people value newsletter subscribers higher than RSS subscribers because you have their name and email address and can contact subscribers directly whenever you want. They are also a fantastic way of driving traffic to a product or service you are selling.
However I still believe blog readers should be a bloggers main focus and I personally find these pop up newsletter forms very obtrusive. What’s your opinion of these forms?
Do you think that it’s maybe worth annoying your blog visitors a little bit if it means that you greatly increase your newsletters sign up rate?
Written by Kevin Muldoon from WordPress ModsPosted on December 5th, 2008 and filed under Blogging
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30 Responses to “What’s Your Opinion Of Newsletter Pop Up Boxes?”
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I hate such pop ups, if I find it on a blog for which I am visiting for the first time, I simply close the whole tab rather than closing the popup.
Actually, it’s really annoying for me. But I think this is quite better than the older ones that follow me like a shadow, when I scroll up and down.
I’m glad I seldom see that one now.
It’s irritating. That’s all I can say.
I can’t stand them. I got into a small reply war with John Chow about it as well, where he basicly told me that I didn’t understand marketing because my feelings are they will drive regular blog readers away as they will be getting the content in their emails. We both have points, I personally as a reader can’t stand pop-ups and think they are as bad as spam. Meanwhile, John Chow and other popular bloggers like Darren from Problogger have said that you can set it to show up15 seconds after a viewer is on the page and only show it once. The problem is, that doesn’t work either. I rarely read John Chow’s site anymore, it’s just fluf with no real content, but every time I visit, it shows the stupid ad. Furthermore, while I haven’t signed up for his newsletter, I’m in the understanding that even if you do sign-up, it doesn’t stop showing you the pop-up when you re-visit the site. That’s poor marketing design.
You didn’t want to miss Darren Rowse in that list
I know these popups popup after a defined number of seconds so only those visitors who have not bounced away get these. That said I think they make sense to people who are interested in the content there. They are gracious and yeah, less obtrusive.
I think these pop ups are great ever i am not using them on my new blog due to my blog topic but was using before for different sites.
There are few reasons for it: First is how many people are visiting your blog only once and don’t return anymore. This pop ups can make your blog first time visitors loyal.
Second. How many people are looking for subscription options ever you have them in visible place. Not a lot.
Third aweber pop ups don’t affect traffic so much if to configure them right.
Hate’em. I leave a site IMMEDIATELY no matter what the content is. And I’ll even unsubscribe sometimes if I’m already signed up. Permission marketing baby!!
Of course we all hate popups… but as a blogger and site visitor, I am ok with these “ONE TIME” newsletter pops. As a blog writer, it’s really important for us to gain subscribers, so if you can increase your chances of a first time coming back to your site, why not throw them a free ebook or something and maybe they will subscribe. The proof is in the numbers… if high profile name blogs weren’t still running these, they wouldn’t be working.
I do see the logic in that i.e. getting one time visitors to subscribe so that they return to the site. However, these pop ups don’t seem to be one time for me. For example, the last few times I have visited Chris Garretts site the pop up has come up, and I find it incredibly annoying.
I don’t clear my cookies often so I’m not sure why it’s coming up every time. I just think that it’s dangerous to annoy your regular visitors in a quest to gain more subscribers.
I hate popups. They are obnoxious, invasive, and reflect poorly on the site they are thrown from. If I am going to subscribe it will be based on the content, not some nag screen. I am far less likely to subscribe to a site that uses popups, and more often than not, I just “bounce” once they appear.
It’s irritating. That’s all I can say.
They’re highly irritating, and definitely put me off when I visit a site.
I think the pop-ups are great because they work. I’ve seen a 400% increase in subscibers since using them on a few of my sites, and so far not one person has unsubscribed, and my bounce rate has stayed exactly the same. I think a lot of people are not sure what subscribing means, so they skip over the traditional form. The pop-up allows you to educate them about the option.
Newsletter pop-ups are not spammy at all. If someone hates them so much that they leave right away then they are obviously not that interested in the content on the page. I suspect a very small portion of people leave because of them (except maybe a few other bloggers and webmasters who find them annoying). It might be good to post this kind of question to average web users to see what they say.
I think you should refrain away from pop ups. They are really annoying for me and I put myself in my readers’ shoes and I’m sure they would find it annoying as well.
I finally blocked them via Ad Block Plus in firefox because they had become so annoying. Initially they didn’t bother me, but I don’t need to see it more than once or twice per site.
Actually you can thank Mr. Rowse for starting this latest craze. A single post after he employed the pop-up, turned HUNDREDS of blogs (if not more) into instant popup machines.
Well it is a good tactics to increase newsletter sign up rates..to sell and promote affiliates or own products..good tools for make money online bloggers
But if i am a website reader, i am not comfortable with the annoying popup. If the message is located between left or right hand side of the navigation bar, it is still ok…
Do check out my blog about love and relationship at http://www.cupidblogger.com
Every time I come upon a website that does this I just close the window – I can’t stand these.
Looking at the comment links so far, it appears a majority of the opposition to these popups comes from webmasters. If your website is about web development and a large portion of your audience are webmasters, then it looks obvious that using popups is a bad idea. Why annoy your audience?
That said, if someone is willing to ‘close the page’ just because of a self-promoting pop-up, are they really worth having in your audience? I’ve had many visitors tell me that they were glad to see the popup, because they wouldn’t have known about the subscription option otherwise. Go figure…
Alex, you did made a correct point as well in regards to visitors is not aware about the subscription option..hence, it is really depends what type of visitor or blog niche you are in
Well said Cupid. I think a lot of users don’t even know what RSS is, which may be why it helps some niches better than others.
If you are OK with shooing away your first time visitors hoping that at least some of them (even if they are just 0.001% of the total visitors) would eventually sign up for your news letter then you can give such pop-ups a try! Personally for me, they are very very IRRITATING! I would never have them on my blog nor would give your blog with such pop-ups very high value unless you are among those rare breeds of bloggers like John Chow. But hey, if you are John Chow then I am already subscribed to your news letter. What is the point in offering me with something that I already have?!
I do realize that newsletter pop up boxes are enabling increased sign-ups to blog newsletters. However, those newsletter pop up boxes ARE EXTREMELY ANNOYING.
I find them very annoying. I think bloggers should stop using the pop up boxes and instead they should provide a place up above the fold of their blog for RSS and email subscriptions as well as for newsletter signups.
I cover a lot of sites in a day as part of my daily read. Slow me down a few times and you are no longer on my daily read. It is just that simple.
I really hate those! If I like the blog and decide to sign up, I think I can find the sign-up form, thank you!
I hate HATE them, on par with auto music, or sites that send you emails if you make a comment.
First, I close the window. Then, I go unsubscribe. I didn’t mind these popups so much at first, because they looked like they’d only show up the first time I visited, but then I noticed that several blogs I visited continued to use popups over and over — even after I filled out the popup form! Frankly, I just don’t have the time to deal with extra steps like this, especially for services I’m already subscribed to.
There’s a reason we saw a big decline in popups back in the late 90s. They are annoying!
While these pop-up forms are certainly effective, they are beyond annoying!
annoying as it is … same as blog which visitors need to log in before we can read it’s content …
While I don’t like these popups (I find them distracting from the content, which is generally why I am on the page in the first place… I will admit that I in some cases I have filled out the popup form, and returned to the site in the future.
As long as I only see them once, I’m okay with it. I’d like to see more “Do not show me popups like this again.” options, though. The only time I get really annoyed is when I get the same popup every time I visit it, whether I accepted the offer or not. Not being able to opt out is annoying.
Maybe having an option like that in on a user preferences page for logged in users would be worthwhile? Let people opt-out/in?
So no, I don’t like them. But the work, and rarely bother me enough to drive me away as a reader. Though, there are some sites I only read by RSS now because of these.