| The intrusive use of pop-up windows can make your | | | | not revealed until visitors get the information they |
| customers pop on over to another website. | | | | need and are ready to leave. By then, they likely |
| Once upon a time, pop-ups were a novelty in | | | | already have formed an opinion about your business. |
| Internet marketing. Nearly every website seemed to | | | | * Avoid using pop-ups on multiple pages, or more |
| open with a great offer or a link to another site. | | | | than one on the same page. Too much of a good |
| Today, however, most people either enable their | | | | thing can be a bad thing. |
| computer's pop-up blocker or click away as soon as | | | | * Make it easy to escape. Visitors should be able to |
| an image appears. | | | | quickly close unwanted pop-ups. |
| Marketers who continue to use pop-up windows in | | | | * Use cookies. This allows you to control the |
| their web design walk a fine line between being | | | | frequency of how often guests will see a pop-up |
| aggressive and being annoying. The best advice is to | | | | window instead of one appearing every time. |
| proceed with caution. Here are a few ways to make | | | | * Make it pay. If you do use a pop-up window, make |
| them work to your advantage within your web | | | | the message appealing, such as a sales incentive. Also |
| design: | | | | use a large headline that conveys those benefits |
| * Delay the effect. Why not surprise visitors with a | | | | clearly and quickly. |
| pop-up ad as they leave your site instead of when | | | | In other words, don't be afraid to pop, but proceed |
| they enter? This technology is known as "pop-under | | | | with caution. |
| window", which open behind your web page but are | | | | |