Is it a good or terrible idea?

Nobody likes pop-ups, they can be pretty annoying especially when you are halfway through reading that article. Fortunately we’ve come a long way from the internet of the past which used to open about fifty windows (remember that?)  Now most pop-ups just bounce up as you enter or scroll down or go to click on the close of the page without opening a multitude of windows.

They are making a comeback though. And actually? You might want to join them and this is why?

Pop-ups for email collection

The perspective in which pop-ups seem to be making something of a comeback is in their use as a list building method. If you go onto many relatively big blogs (and some not so big – Adminaholics included) within a few minutes of being there, you’ll often be greeted by a pop-up window inviting you to hand over your email address, hopefully there is an amazing incentive to engage you to do so as well.

This includes the websites of some of the top bloggers who have an email form that either pops up or shows at some stage while you are reading the blog. With most of these pop-ups you won’t be able to continue reading until you add your details or hit cancel. Okay, so it’s not a separate window but it definitely has the potential to annoy and certainly makes you either subscribe or cancel. What do we realise from this?

Pop-ups for list building

Well to begin with, this should tell you just how important these highly successful bloggers, businesses and websites think it is to collect email addresses.  Most bloggers know that these pop-ups are potentially annoying and essentially feel guilty in some cases for using them. Nevertheless, the benefits of having them drastically outweigh the cons/guilt! So is this something you should consider as well?

Are you really against pop-ups?

The answer to this question will depend on how you feel personally when your own reading is interrupted by such a pop-up. The key point to remember is that the bigger bloggers have millions of regular readers who aren’t going to be put off by such tactics, but pop-ups can still annoy so if you make them generally unobtrusive until you get more comfortable, it will allow you to build your list without driving away too many future visitors or put them off of revisiting your site.

An important tip!

The most important tip. If you do decide to use pop-ups, then don’t make them too irritating. Make sure they don’t keep popping up, make them easy to close and make them generally as simple and unobtrusive as possible.