The Power of Popups (was Re: The advertising industry brought the banner ad down.)

From: Michael Martinez <Michael_at_xenite.org>
Date: Mon 14 May 2001 14:40:01 -0500

DENISE TURNEY <RCampb3422_at_aol.com> WROTE:

>I've hard that pop-up windows are effective at getting
>click-throughs. I'm not convinced of this though, because
>whenever I see a pop-up window, I usually leave a site
>or close the pop-up window (I close the window so fast,
>I think only my subsconscious is aware of what was on the
>ad).

>Do any of you have success with pop-up ads or have you
>heard of businesses that have had success with pop-up
>ads? The only way I could see them being effective
>would be if they popped-up as a visitor was leaving a
>site.

Before eUniverse dumped its affiliate network, they
renegotiated my contract with me to pay me higher CPMs
if I would accept popups. I was an unhappy camper for
reasons we don't need to go into, so I felt it was
generous of them to make the offer. Unfortunately, I
was only just beginning to get the popup code onto a
substantial number of pages when they announced in
February that the affiliates were being dropped.

The payments I have received for popups since then
(I'm not being paid for anything after March 15) have
not only been dismal, they were less than the payments
for the traditional banners.

I feel for the networks that are struggling to keep the
cash flowing, but despite all the hoopla I've seen over
popups in various fora, I'm just not convinced they are
as effective industry-wide as people say they are. The
most enthusiastic support for popups that I have seen,
which I feel are credibly representative of a broad
spectrum of sites, are those from people who say they
use popups to encourage subscriptions to their
newsletters.

I admit to signing up for a few newsletters that way
myself. I think that is about the only kind of popup
I'll respond to positively. If the newsletter signups
are factored out of the happy equations, what is left?


Michael Martinez
 Science Fiction and Fantasy info_at_xenite.org
  Visualizing Middle-earth, a book for all Tolkien fans
   http://www.xenite.org/



Received on Mon May 14 2001 - 14:40:01 CDT