|
First Generation - The Popup
Popups, if you’re somehow,
strangely, not familiar with the term, are those little windows that
open when you visit certain sites.
Popups are secondary browser
windows that are opened up using JavaScript code. The properties of
this new browser window are set in such a fashion that the new
window does not have a address bar, status bar or the menu.
Until about a few years ago – the
popup was considered to be the biggest breakthrough in
advertising on the web.
When they were first introduced
they were a great success and click-through rates went through the
roof.
Exit the banner ad - enter the
popup.
Web marketers could interrupt
whatever a visitor was viewing, by launching a secondary window on
top of the first – to draw attention to his advertisement or opt-in
list or any other item that he wished to get the attention to.
After a while like most good
marketing tools, popups started getting abused. Popups would open
secondary popups and eventually by just visiting page that has a
single popup in it, you would end up with a barrage of say about
15-20 popups. This was exploited by unscrupulous marketers to the
fullest, especially those hawking porn sites.
Of course, webmasters who were in
tune with the sentiment of visitors, soon began to use cookies to
track if the popup was already shown and ensure it was not shown
more than once per visitor.
Frustrated visitors soon began
complaining about popups.
Popups are your problem? - Get a
popup blocker.
Looking at the need of website
visitors, software companies soon came up with popup blocking
software. These applications read all the code that's going to the
browser and if they find any JavaScript in the page code that's
trying to open a window, BAM, it deletes that part of code. So Bye
Bye popup!
Generation Two - The PopUnder
Not to be left behind, web
marketers came up with another version, the popunder, which
still launched a secondary window but placed it below the primary
window. In most cases, the visitor didn’t even notice this popunder
until they closed the primary window.
Of course this was less intrusive,
but a pain nonetheless and you don't get an award for guessing what
happened next.
Yes you guessed right, the popup
blockers soon started blocking popunders as well.
Generation Next - Enter
Hover Ads
What the beejeezus are Hover
Ads? They are floating ads that popup blockers can't stop.
The technology that creates Hover
Ads is not new. In fact, it’s been available to web designers for at
least 2 years now as DHTML (that's Dynamic HTML to
those who don't know).
These ads cannot be seen by older
browsers like Internet Explorer 3.0. But since most netizens are
using browsers (IE 4.0 and above) that are capable of displaying
this code this type of advertising has started enjoying a rise in
usage.
Hover Ads are DHTML layers which
can be selectively moved and displayed over the primary page that's
being displayed. The basic code is still JavaScript, but since a new
window is not being opened, the popup blockers can't figure out that
an advertisement is being displayed.
These layers can be animated, moved
around, made to appear once per session, shown after a delay, etc.
So that makes you ask "Why should
I switch from regular popups to Hover Ads?"
The one and only compelling reason.
Popups can be blocked! Hover Ads can't.
So the bottom line is, if you use
popups as a part of your online marketing strategy you’re losing out
on a lot of potential revenue, coz what they can't cant see they
can't buy!
Some statistics that make Hover Ads
a compelling technology to use:
- The Alexa Toolbar can now block
pop ups (10,000,000 Users not seeing your AD).
- The Netscape 7.0 Browser
has a built in popup blocker( almost 52 million users never seeing
your popup ad).
- Earthlink provides its
users with a popup blocker( prospects who cant see your
ad:5,000,000.
- AOL released version 8.0
with Popup Blocking capabilities. (Total Subscribers: 35,000,000).
Bottom line: 40 million
customers never see your advertisement!
Hover Ads, on the other hand cannot
be stopped by blocking software. Their technology is regular
JavaScript that runs well in all modern environments, so they
are relatively safe to deploy on your site.
"So how can I add
Hover Ads On my
Website?"
If you are looking for a free way
of doing this then there are freely available JavaScript snippets
that you can put to use on your site today without buying any fancy
software.
A sample of code can be obtained
from
CodeLifter.com
The drawback here is that you would
need in depth knowledge of JavaScript coding, which not many people
know about.
Another approach is to use high end
HTML editors like Dreamweaver which have DHTML scripts included
under the "Layers" menu. Then again, Dreamweaver is an expensive
software.
Any other easier option you ask?
One software that quickly automates
the creation of Hover Ads, using a simple 3 step interface is the
Hover Ad generator.
The Hover Ads created using this
software can be fully customized and are very professional looking.
I especially like the opt-in style
Hover Ads which lets your prospects sign up for your opt-in list by
simply clicking a button. You subsequently receive a mail with their
name and email-id.
I'll let you look up the other
four styles on your own.
Summary…
If you use popups on your website,
chances are pretty good that they are being screened away by some
software or another. Perhaps even by your visitor’s ISP - without
any active attempts on your visitor's part to block them. You’ll
need to do something about this situation – and soon.
"So, what choices do I have?"
1. Do nothing. Pray that your
content is good enough to attract visitors.
2. Visit
CodeLifter to get your FREE layer generator script. You
will be stuck with one style, though, if you just cut paste. If
you know JavaScript you can modify it as per your liking.
3. Use Dreamweaver or your HTML
editor, if it has layers support.
4. Check out Hover
Ad Generator . They offer a FREE trial.
About The Author
Satyajeet Hattangadi is the Owner of
Novasoft Inc,
a software solutions provider, who specialize is affordable
customized software solutions.
This article may be reprinted as long as this resource box is kept
intact
|
Syndicate our articles
 |
Back to Article list
| 
