Although I no longer need this plugin here on my blog since my current theme includes popups, Popup Domination is still one of the best out there. I strongly recommend you read this review and consider buying this plugin if you want to grow your email list. — Yaro
There are only a handful of plugins for this blog that make a direct bottom line increase to income.
Popup Domination is one of them, and they just released a brand new version, Popup Domination 3.0.
This plugin is all about increasing the number of people who opt-in to your email list. The more people on your list, the more traffic you control and thus the more money you can make. The money is IN THE LIST as they say (and it’s true!).
I am rarely so openly positive about a plugin for fear of sounding over-the-top-hypey, but in this case, the results match the claims.
How good is it?
I can tell you as I write this my blog is NOT running Popup Domination.
Why? Because we just switched designs and turned off the plugin for the change.
So what difference does it make not having the plugin?
We are currently getting about 75 optins a day on this blog, where previously with Popup Domination it was averaging 150 a day. That’s a 50% drop. Ouch.
Obviously I’m not silly, Popup Domination won’t be turned off for long. The reason why pop-ups are currently not running on my blog is because I’m working with my designer to apply the brand new 3.0 version of the plugin, which allows me to do some very cool things, including –
- I can SPLIT TEST pop-ups.
- I can use different pop-ups on different pages (this is a KEY feature I was hoping for – and I’ll tell you why in a moment).
- More detailed analytics on how my pop-ups are performing.
These are all new features that are only in the 3.0 version of Popup Domination.
My Previous Complaints
I had two major complaints about the previous version of Popup Domination. These are significant enough complaints that for a time I considered developing my own pop-up plugin to use instead.
Those were –
- I couldn’t easily split test pop-ups to know which are performing best.
- I couldn’t pick and choose to place different pop-ups on different pages.
That second point is really important.
I know pop-ups annoy some people (heck they annoy me!), but as stated previously, they have worked well on this site and I want to continue using them — just a little differently this time (which is why I switched the plugin off temporarily).
Previously I didn’t like that my site is a magazine with a broad spectrum of content featured on the homepage at any given time, yet the pop-up would present a specific offer not necessarily related to the reason people came to the site.
In short, I wanted to better target my pop-up offers to “speak” to the reason a reader come to my page.
Here’s what we are doing at EJ HQ to increase opt-ins and reduce friction (user complaints) using the new 3.0 version of Popup Domination…
The 80/20 Rule Of Pop-Up Application
Looking at the Analytics for this site, as I suspect will be similar for your site, a handful of articles are responsible for the lion share of traffic.
It should skew to something close to an 80/20 Rule, with 20% of your articles accounting for 80% of your traffic. It may not be 80-20, but it will be a minority of content delivering the majority of traffic.
For EJ, we are going to start with the top 10 (roughly) articles according to Google Analytics traffic data, and place specific pop-ups on those pages.
Those pop-ups will be specific because they will have designs with offers related to the content of that article.
For example the top 10 articles currently focus on subjects like…
- How to make money with advertising
- How to buy and sell websites
- A list of top 10 methods for making money online
- And my post on the 80/20 Rule
These articles have thousands of readers coming from Google search to read them every month. Collectively, these four articles get as much traffic each month as the homepage of this site, and most of them are first time visitors, perfect for attracting on to my email list.
Using Popup Domination 3.0, we are going to apply a different pop-up to each page to entice people on to my newsletter, using language and an offer that speaks to the subject of that page.
(If you want to find your top 10, or even top 500 performing articles, make sure you have Google Analytics running on your site, then go to the data in the “Content” section.)
Discounted $77 to $47 For One Week Only
For the release of the 3.0 version of Popup Domination you can purchase the plugin for $47, down from $77. You can order here –
The new version is the only version with Split testing, Analytics and Multiple Popups, so you will need it to apply the technique I wrote about above.
At the very least you should be testing a popup on your blog to see what the results are. Give it a month and I suspect you will be pleasantly surprised.
In most niches a well targeted pop-up with an offer that “makes sense” to the reader, is not annoying – it’s a value add, and of course it will increase your email subscription rate as a result.
When you buy the plugin you get a bunch of other stuff, including pop-up themes and a training course from Michael Dunlop, one of the creators of the plugin. Honestly though, the plugin is what you want, the rest is just extras.
I’ll leave you with my original full review below of the previous version of the plugin. Note the price says $77 below in the review, but it’s $47 when you get to the page if you do so within the 7 days deadline.
To lear more about the plugin, go to –
http://www.popupdomination.com/live/
******
Popup Domination Comprehensive Review
For a long time I had a rule for my blog: no pop-ups.
I considered pop-up banners one of the most annoying things about surfing the web, especially during the early days before pop-up blockers became standard in browsers. If I didn’t personally like them, why would I subject my audience to them?
Things have changed. Pop-up technology has become more subtle, with the lightbox pop-up becoming the new standard (and also able to bypass pop-up blockers). If the pop-up displays an on-target offer and is presented infrequently and has a professional design, I consider them a viable option with a potentially very positive impact on your email list growth.
So are you ready to start using a pop-up on your blog or website? Do they actually work or do they just annoy people?
Let me help you make that decision by revealing my own results.
My Lightbox Test Results
A few weeks ago I broke my rule and began testing the PopUp Domination plugin, the brainchild of my blogging colleague, Michael Dunlop from IncomeDiary.com.
Michael and his development partner James Deer came up with the following lightbox that you’ve probably seen pop-up on this blog recently –
I can report back that by adding this lightbox to my blog I’ve increased the number of opt-ins I get each day by about 50% (that equates to about 30-50 additional opt-ins a day). Gideon and I also run a lightbox on the Become A Blogger site, and he runs the PopUp Domination plugin on his GideonShalwick.com site.
Lightbox pop-ups definitely have a positive impact on your email newsletter growth rate, and thanks to this new plugin, it’s a lot easier to install one on your blog or any website.
So should you consider adding a lightbox to your blog or website?
The short answer is a definite yes.
In almost all case studies I’ve heard, the lightbox pop-up increases your opt-in rate quite significantly. Some people have even reported as much as a 1,000% increase, though I suspect they must have had some fairly under-optimized methods for building their email list prior to adding the lightbox.
The next question to ask is whether this plugin is the best method to implement a lightbox on your site? Read on and let me help you decide…
My Money Comes From My Email List
The majority of people who will read this blog post will come from my email newsletter because I sent a message about this review. Chances are that is how you came to read this.
Most of the money I make in my business comes because I have built a large email subscriber base. I foster relationships with my subscribers by offering lots of great content, and when appropriate, I make money recommending great products, including my own products, or like this case with the PopUp Domination plugin, products created by others that I review using my affiliate link.
Since the popup domination plugin has a direct bottom line impact on your most important business asset, your email list, I have no problems recommending it to you. I’ll explain exactly what it does in a moment, but understand, in terms of improving the performance of your blog or website to add more subscribers to your list, this is one of the single best tools available today.
You can grab the plugin for $77 from here –
The Plugin Gives You Options So You Don’t Annoy Your Audience
When I first began testing a lightbox on this blog I received some feedback that people couldn’t close it, thus it was stopping them from reading my blog content. That is definitely not a good thing.
The team who created PopUp Domination fixed most of the bugs, and the latest 2.0 version seems to have eliminated the issue with the lightbox not being able to be shut down. I haven’t received any negative feedback since I upgraded the software, so that is a good sign.
The great thing about this plugin is that you can determine how often it shows up. At the moment a person who comes to my blog will only see the opt-in every seven days as long as they use the same browser/computer. The plugin allows you to set this up for any duration, so you could have it show up only once a month or even once a year.
If you’re really conservative and worried about annoying your readers, just set the plugin to show the lightbox once a year. At that setting there’s a good chance they are only going to see it once, yet that will still result in a hefty increase to the number of people who opt-in to your list.
What Other Things Can This Plugin Do?
The development team have come up with nice list of features, here are some of the cool things PopUp Domination can do –
- The template designs that come with the plugin are elegant and professional, a perfect blend of eye-catching design without being too in your face. You can customize colors and change all the text elements to match your offer, and upload an image of your product. This is the key reason I believe this plugin has performed so well and so many bloggers have purchased it – it’s simple to set-up and very polished.Here’s some example templates, any of which you could have running on your blog or website in a matter of minutes after installing the plugin:
- If the templates don’t do it for you, there is an advanced editor where you can play with the HTML and CSS to make a custom lightbox.
- You can set the lightbox to appear only on certain areas of your blog, for example just on a page, or just on a category within your blog or only on the frontpage of your site.
- The plugin can delay the appearance of the lightbox for a duration of time or when the mouse leaves the page (that can be annoying, but is a nice feature to have for sales pages as a way to capture a lead as an exit call to action).
- You can use the plugin with any of the major email autoresponder services like AWeber, GetResponse, iContact and Mail Chimp, by copy and pasting the code directly into the plugin admin area.
Are There Any Issues With PopUp Domination?
I’d like to see a feature where you can split test different lightboxes, although that might over complicate this plugin. I’ve been told the function is in the works.
Services like aWeber come with built-in lightbox generators that don’t cost any additional money, but they don’t naturally integrate with wordpress as well (providing all the customizable options for delivery), or have template designs as nice as PopUp Domination.
The main problem with this plugin, which isn’t really a fault of the script, is that you do reduce the usability of your site when you use it.
That’s the nature of using a pop-up, they do annoy people, so you have to assume although you will attract more subscribers to your email list, you will also turn some people away who just want to read your blog. It’s a trade-off, so you need to test carefully and gauge feedback to see what kind of impact it has, especially if you’re audience are very sensitive to marketing techniques like this.
That being said, in most industries, if you offer an incentive very related to the reason why the person came to your website in the first place, the pop-up will have a far greater positive impact than negative, so make sure you’re offering something of quality when you throw that lightbox in the face of your website visitors.
This is a great plugin so I have no problems endorsing it as one of the best ways to increase how many subscribers you convert with your blog, which should be your top priority.
Good luck with your list building!
Yaro
Popping Up
Hi Yaro, you mentioned some people have had increases of 1,000% in conversions after using a popup. I’d agree that their lead capture previously must have been very minimal indeed.
I ran a recent test on a site that had multiple links and banners linking to a lead page—so fairly minimal lead capture—and tested replacing all that with a single on-entrance popup, and had a 600% increase. Pleasing result and shows what more effective lead capture like popups can do.
I’ve tried multiple tools on the market (but not Popup Domination) but ended up creating my own at optinopoli.com due to various frustrations with them, be great if you could take a look at some point.
Yaro, thanks for the review. It’s funny how a little design goes a long way towards building value.
The type of popups that annoy me are the cheesy, poorly designed popups that offer something irrelevant. I’ve noticed that I am not as annoyed by sites using PopUp Domination because it really looks like the site owner put some thought into the design and are offering something of value. I’m not yet using the plugin myself, as I’ve gotten away with aweber’s features so far… I’m definitely giving this plugin some thought now…
Thanks for being candid with your conversion numbers, that’s a massive increase for something so easy to implement!
Yaro,
I am a big fan of this plug-in, whether I sell it or not. The challenge for site owners is to use this wisely, with common sense and mostly using the “Golden Rule.”
I have come across sites where the plug-in activates on every single page and then others where you see it only once in a while.
Personally, this plug-in doesn’t have to fulfill a subscription role use only. How about to make announcements? Or hold contest? An online scavenger hunt? Puzzles? Games? Even now Michael could hold a contest rewarding Top Five PuD Designs? (NOTE: For new bloggers only).
I could come up with dozens of ways to use this plug-in aside from site sign ups.
p.s. Yaro, you need to hire Jillian McCoy to write for you (She’s not a relative. I admire her writing skills). I also wrote up a lengthy comment on Alex Whalley’s site about PuD, enough where another blogger thought I did direct sales for Michael (grin).
p.p.s Yaro? You should grow your hair back out and form a rock band. Can you do vocals? I’d probably download ALL your tunes. I’d love to hear your rendition of Mercy by Duffy.
Yaro would never hire a ghost writer for his blog. I believe that he tested a ghostwriter once but it was very obvious that he didn’t write the post and that escapade ended right there.
Jillian’s no ghost and just like Jean from VirginBloggerNotes, they are both have huge writing talent. They are to non-fiction what Stephen King is to …
(Disclaimer: I do not work for, nor am I affiliated with those mentioned. I also think all of Yaro’s fans should briefly visit Erik Mongrain’s website and listen to “Mais Quand.” And then buy pop up domination right after.)
p.s. If Yaro tells me to hush, I shall forever be silenced. At least for a week. (evil grin)
Love your work, but still do not like pop ups – of any kind. They completely distract from the message of a website. They don’t make me react, I just close them and if I haven’t been to a website before. The pop up has me thinking of moving on to another site right away – and if the pop up takes too long to load – I’m back to searching for another site that offers the information I am looking for. I trust that you know your readers better than anyone and maybe we are the types that will put up with a pop up to read what you have to say . . . ? – Catherine
I’m with you Catherine, I can’t stand pop ups. If I encounter a site with them I immediately leave and that goes for the major news sites too. There’s too many decent sites out there that don’t have to resort to that tactic and I, for one will follow the Golden Rule regardless of extra profits or not.
Totally agree with you, Catherine and Kim – I hate the things for many reasons.
Commonsense tells me most will unsubscribe a month later because they’ will start getting weekly email on stuff they just didn’t have much choice not to sign up to in the first place!
I think about producing super quality content for my readership audience FIRST and get them to decide if they like me, rather than getting ‘anyone’ to sign up and then unsubscribe a few week’s later because they don’t know who you are and weren’t your target audience in the first place! What a tacky approach!
This type of pop up is acceptable because it is not a spam and it does not open up in a new window.
I’m usually very anti-popups but all of the stats I’ve seen on increases in opt-ins I’m going to have to give it a try. Also the templates are very nice and aren’t like the ugly regular pop ups you usually see.
Sigh, I hate pop ups including this one and I will seriously think of getting it in the next few days. I’d be interested Yaro in learning of the settings you use here.
All The Best
Alex
PS Love the new hair cut!
@Alex
Love. Hate. Two sides of the marketing coin. With this plug-in, I still say its finding the balance of keeping existing readership happy (with content/value) and building the email list (which is where the long term making money is).
I can testify that Michael Dunlop is not perfect. He is a work in progress. But I can unequivocally say, “He is one of the smartest marketers NOT only in growing his email list, but to date, he has NEVER burned the people on his list.”
It was one of the first impressions I got from him, as I monitored my email early on. I wanted to see how much junk email I’d get. And I was surprised. My email box received lots of content. The ratio of an outright marketing email to content was practically non-existent. I had to wrap my mind around an online money making blogger, who practiced what he taught, “Provide value and your subscribers will buy from you.”
One of the best lessons I picked up, was Tony Robbins. It doesn’t matter if you love, like or hate Tony, the lesson he taught about, “Asking yourself better questions,” is empowering.
So when I see people state they detest plug-ins, I understand why. The old school pop-ups acted like swarming, biting insects. You close one, only to have another activate and pester you. Try to leave a website and one still comes after you a final time. Those type of old school plug-in tools are from a bygone age of marketing.
The only difference in my mindset, when I first saw Pop Up Domination, I didn’t buy it outright, nor did I x-nay it right off.
Instead, I checked to see who was using it and how they were using it. I follow over 100+ sites and most of big guns in this industry or as I like to think of them: My mentors, coaches and professors.
Using Tony’s technique, I asked myself, “In what ways could I use this plug-in that would benefit both my visitors and myself? How could I make it a win-win?”
One of my favorites about the sites already using this plug-in, is I get to see what their copywriting is (quickview), along with a mini-theme (based on their display). They are giving me a gold mine of marketing information I can harvest and use the best parts in my own marketing. And I get that all for FREE.
Now why would I hate that?
(Notice, I don’t self market. Though I do tend to comment around the people I have come to trust and respect. Now I just need to start another rumor about Yaro’s new enterprise, “His rock and roll band.”)
Yaro’s into Trance not Rock.
It certainly is a trade off. You want to get everybody who is interested in your material to sign up. On the other hand, those of us who rely on organic search engine traffic (like I do) want to signal the search engines that the user stays on their site for a long time, clicks through several links and comes back. All of this is in danger when the user opens the site from a search result in a new tab (or new window), sees a popup and immediately closes the browser window or tab (because that’s easer to do then to figure out how and where to close the popup).
Nevertheless, I’ll test popups for 2 days or three.
This pop-up is unique compared to all the other lightbox methods. No doubt when it springs out at you, it is a bit intrusive, as it interrupts your experience. But any user who has surfed the web more than 5 minutes, should understand X closes boxes, tabs and browser windows. And part of their fear of seeing any pop up, is because old school boxes followed you around like the plague. Pop Up Domination (PuD) doesn’t do that unless you set it up to be annoying (grin). The smart marketer should make damn sure their pop up is beyond amazing and not like a street person holding up a moldy cardboard sign penned with, “I beg you, please subscribe because I’m desperate.”
I mainly use the RSS Feed for all my reading. As you can tell from my comments, I have a huge interest in how people are using PopUpDomination, so I tabbed over to check out the comments and hopefully add my spin on it.
This plug-in for anyone using it or thinking about using it, really is geared towards adding a first time visitor or possibly a fence rider to the mailing list. If the visitor is that put out by PuD, then they are probably not going to sign up on the email list or RSS Feed either because they are just as fearful of SPAM.
A close friend of mine does not sign up for anything out of fear that his email will get abused. I’ve told him, “I have signed up for 100’s of sites and SPAM is not an issue.” I hit report spam. SPAM gone. Done. Trust me on this. Site owners want your business. They are not going to work SO hard to establish trust, only to alienate you with crap offers.
Avid readers of a site are almost invariably going to join the feed anyway as I did. So unless they come over to leave a comment, they won’t even see the PuD again, as the timers for PuD can be set to almost any delay. If you are an avid fan of any site that uses a plug-in like this, the easiest solution is use the feed to get updates.
When a person of Yaro’s caliber uses any tool, I sit up straight and take a strong, hard look at it. When a person like Yaro recommends using that same tool, I would have to find a damn good reason not to follow his advice. When Yaro tells you, “My opt-ins have grown by using this tool.” If I want to achieve Yaro’s results, then it makes sense to follow in his footsteps.
I just wish he had smaller feet.
(Disclaimer: I am not related to Yaro, nor have I been disowned. He does not pay me to say nice things about him, nor spread rumors about his rock n roll band. That part I do for fun. That he is a blogging genius is without question. But what you didn’t know for sure until now, is that he allows all of us to speak our minds. Even me. Thanks Yaro for being such a good sport.)
Great review Yaro. I’m using Popup Domination as well and have seen increased signups. I’m really looking forward to the upgrade.
Alex, the good thing is that you can play with the settings until you see what you would like. I’ve seen Yaro play with adding a video into the template which is quite cool.
I’m using it on all my sites now as it is really much better that what Aweber provides.
i haven’t visited this blog for about a month… and today i come here.. i little bit confused… since i think this not your blog… and i try to convince my self… oooh it’s just change the theme… but wait… there’s full pop up fill my screen,,,, then now i find the answer..
i really like this blog, and thank for the info about the plug in 🙂
Yaro,
My sentiments on PUD exactly. I use it on my own blog just recently and its not as annoying and obtrusive as some i’ve seen and love the fact that you can use it to direct people to surveys and other messages as well. the 2.0 version is supposed to be alot more WP friendly, i know i’ve found one or two minor quirks in the first edition but nothing major.
Yes I luv Pornup Domination as well. It makes me hard.
I wondered how you did the popups. Thanks for the explanation.
Hey Yaro. Nice find.
Question…
I know I could go look this up somewhere but I’d like to hear it from you right quick if that’s cool.
When a prospect opts into the form, does it redirect where you want it to redirect or does the form just disappear from the page?
Thanks,
JP
You can control what happens after opt-in using the plugin and your autoresponder service.
Awesome thanks.
I dig the templates for it.
Hello Guys:
I really like to blog and post but I’m not a fan of popups.
Good luck though to the folks that do.
Thanks
Mark
I don’t like Pop Ups – although this one looks pretty good.
Here’s the reason I don’t like them – they make you look dumb. I’ve been a subscriber here for a while now (maybe 18 months?) and when I visited to read the review the ‘Pop Up’ appeared.
Same deal with Gideon’s blog earlier today. And I’m also a subscriber to Gideon’s list.
And the pop up then becomes an irritating barrier that whilst it only takes a second to get rid of, it’s still annoying.
might just be me though. But I liked the ‘writing syle’ in the review – which was what I came to look at 🙂
Personally I have hated this pop up from the day you started to use it!!!
Just as well we are not our own customers…
The only answer is to test it and see. The money is the end result. If you attract more subscribers but they are not the type that increase the bottom line what is the point.
I would like you to analyze if the subscribers that you have obtained since using pop ups convert at a better rate or not.
Another Aussie trying to make a difference;-)
Tai chi Foot Dr
I now feel more positive. I will be thinking about using this .For some time i really never cared for pop-ups.
“I don’t like pop-ups”… lol…
Marketers who hate marketing. Gotta love it.
Ha, spot on Jason!
ok, 2nd time around, only because of what Leon said – I do agree w/all that and I love your point at the end. I must admit, I will keep the idea on the back burner, but for now that’s where it’ll stay only because “I personally” don’t like pop-ups & right now it wouldn’t work for me, but I won’t dismiss the idea for other projects. I’ve been on Michael’s list for quite awhile and he always delivers great content, I’ve even commented on his “mind”, he has an affinity of explaining his technical knowledge, so I don’t doubt for one minute that his product would be anything less than. If I were to use pop-ups now, I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase this – oh heck, I may anyway, the templates are nice looking…not so intrusive… 8-|
The Pop Up look great, no doubt about it, but I am still no fan of them.
No matter in what shape they come, I still find them annoying.
The good point is that yours doesn’t come back on every visit to your site.
Good luck for all you who are using them, I will happily skip this “trend”!
I will have to agree with Felix on this one. I don’t have much tolerance for a pop up. Specially given my rather temperamental internet connection. I’d be much happier to get to the content and fast without any pop up showing.
Still I suppose when I do have a product to push and need to build a list it would be useful.
I understand the message, but I find annoying those on page pop ups…. They might be effective, but I still dont like someone to forces me to close a window. I still avoid them, but your information is useful.
Yaro;
I’ll have to think long and hard about this tidbit. This type of pop up really irks me. I’m not one for in your face marketing, but you’re not the only one espousing the effectiveness of this type of opt-in.
I’m still very new to blogging, and I value your input. You’ve already helped me more than you know!
I’ll definately consider it…Thank you for all the value you provide.
Joe
Great information to have, thanks for the share!
Ok, so it’s a pretty design and perhaps prettier than what Aweber can do…for now. But isn’t a pop up a pop up?
@Colin had a very interesting point. It would be insightful to see if you could measure (somehow) the quality or purchasing potential of these new subscribers. A quickly growing email list doesn’t mean a whole lot if it’s a bunch of reactionary thinking people – the same kind of impulse buyers that might return a $500 Blog Mastermind for example…
80/20 rule comes to mind. And I know you’re also a fan of Tim Ferriss.
I subscribed to your list two years ago because I wanted to. It wasn’t a reaction to a tempting offer. It was because I saw you had great value to offer and I wanted to be on your list.
Anyhow, thanks for the quality review Yaro as always!
Yaro,
Question,
I didn’t see it mentioned or talked about anywhere,
can you use this plugin or stand alone on as many websites
as you have or is it a one install only?
Also,
why do you prefer this over the lightbox already offered in Aweber?
Are thee a list of pros you can mention?
Thanx, 🙂
Joseph
Joseph, well its prettier :-).
From my experience Aweber does not allow you to add any interaction except the name and e-mail address from the pop up.
One thing I’d love to have from this new pop up though is a little more control over when it pops.
And yes, you can use it multiple times.
Kerwin,
Thanx for the reply.
In regards to the control you were referring to, I thought you could set it to what ever amount of seconds delay b4 it actually appears? What else do you mean by- “when it pops”?
@Joseph,
Yes, you can do that; it says:
When the close button is clicked, how long should it be before the lightbox is shown again?
and
How long should the delay be before the lightbox is shown? (seconds)
I was looking for another one that says; only show x number of times or something like that.
Hi Yaro – Thanks for this email. It came just at the right time as I was looking at a similar plugin at 1AM this morning and thought I would research further when I was more awake 🙂
I was just wondering since you have been using Pop-up Domination if:
1. if I buy it can you use it on all my different websites?
2. it has the ability to track the visitors and display different popup boxes for each time they visit?
I was seriously considering another product (whose name I wont publish here – but happy to share privately) as it seems very comprehensive, with 40 templates and a heap of bonuses. Ity has no limit on usage and it claims to be able to provide different pop-ups for each time a user visits your site!
Please let me know, if you know the answers to my questions.
It was great to see you the other day. Hopefully we can catch up again soon 🙂
Thanks.
Natalee-Jewel 🙂
I never was a big fan of popups, but after implementing this on my personal site and getting amazing results, I’m so glad I bought Popup Domination.
I do not like pop ups – for me it is just other word for spam. Don’t like domination too… 🙂 … This thing… mentioned in article is for me – annoying…
very useful plugin
thanks for telling us about it Yaro
Sorry Yaro but I do find pop ups annoying, this one included. If I wasn’t such an avid fan of your blog it would put me off reading it. I realise your profit comes from your email list and this pop up will attract more subscribers. It’s just annoying when you want to come to here just to read your latest offering and you have the pop-up in your face
As I browsed 90-100 blogs today, as I do daily, I just CLOSED anything that would show a pop-up. I do find these to be hugely annoying and will go outside the site in an instant. On small occasions I might remain and close the popup window, but we talk a small percentage. No matter how you put it, nicely designed or not, a popup is intrusive and ruins your visitor’s experience.
But, if it’s worth it financially, it’s your choice.
Please tell me you are not viewing these sites one by one using your browser? That’s why the made feed readers. You will save SO much time…
Really nice post. At some point I agree to you but when it comes to pop-ups then I don’t think it’s fine with me. On my part and in my personal experiences pop-ups are just distracting every time you visit a site. I do not like it because I felt that it covers the information that I want to see when I visit a page or website and if I can’t rid of it I would probably leave the site. What am I trying to point out is that when your readers get irritated chances are you might loose them at some point.
I have seen this popup being used by a fair amount of blogs, especially the heavy hitters. I figured it was a matter of time before you and Gideon started promoting it. I actually don’t find it intrusive, but I’m sure among the average Internet surfer there are a healthy amount that do.
It seems to be a matter of weighing the few that will be turned off with the many that will join your list.
I do have a few questions:
1. Is there a way for the popup to detect if a person has already signed up for the newsletter, so that they are not continually hit with the popup every time they visit a website, even if the frequency is only every seven days?
2. Is it possible to embed a video in the popup?
Thanks so much for the stellar info.
Andrew
Hi Andrew – You can embed a video if you used the advanced editor, though you’d have to test it carefully as flash is tricky.
Regarding the feature to not display it again – that’s not there at the moment, though I agree, having a link to set a cookie to never see it would be a good feature.
I’ve just changed the setting on the popup to appear only once a month for my readers, however I’m going to put a different banner promoting my other free report since it doesn’t get as much exposure. This I think will be a great way for me to test different offers in the popup.
Yaro,
You have NO idea how timely this post is for me! You’re always a wealth of knowledge, but this is the first time that a post of yours has inspired a stream of thought leading to a completely game changing idea of mine for my own business. I don’t know if I’ll ever use this pop up plugin on a blog, but I absolutely have some ideas for how I’ll be using it on my business website. I can’t thank you enough.
I have a quick question, though. Is it possible to create a different pop up offer (using the WP plugin, not the stand alone) for different pages on your WP site, or does the same offer have to pop up on each page that you allow the pop up?
Thanks for sharing this info with us! I truly appreciate you :).
Has anyone tested the quality of the opt-ins that this kind of form generates. Numbers of subscribers look great when you talk about them, but it is the cold hard reality of the dollars that the list generates that determines if it is any good or not.
If the form generates good prospects then it is acceptable to have a few old subscribers who are turned off your site by the pop-up, however, this is a disaster if you are trading loyal followers for rubbish leads. My concern is that you put a lot of effort into gaining the trust and loyalty of your followers, using the pop-up makes it very obvious that all you are concerned with is the commercialization of the site, which is a touch hypocritical.
What would make this pop-up very useful is if it could recognize an existing subscribers regular ip (it already seems to know how long ago since your last visit to the site) and not appear for them. Maybe you could suggest this to the creators Yaro.
You just changed my mind about pop ups – in less than 2 minutes! Thanks for the info!
LOL – this really was an interesting read with all the comments that followed – I would estimate by the comments that about 75% of those here dislike PuD’s,
Personally if it is once when you enter a site, it is acceptable.
However when a boffin decides to tie you into a “merry-go-round” I personally see red.
These templates look neat and as previously mentioned in the comments if you can control how often a person has to go through the experience it may be worthwhile investigating as a tool to use.
Yaro,
I’ve seen a LOT of popular blogs that use this plugin now. While pop-ups can get annoying, this seems more inviting, since it’s an “on-page” pop-up and doesn’t open up another browser window or two. That’s good to see you increased your percentage of opt-ins considerably. Now, I finally know where to find this!
I’m heading over to take a look at this now 🙂
Hi Yaro,
Excellent review and as a user of Popup Domination I completely agree with you. Popup Domination has really taken my opt-in numbers to the next level. Awesome review. Thanks
Hi Yaro,
Thanks for the review. I have purchased and I am just working on my templates now.
Oli Hille
Hi,
One thing that would reduce the annoyance factor would be a feature that recognizes a registered subscriber (IP address) and does not present the popup again to him. Would that be technically possible?
Hi Yaro, I actually was wondering what pop up you used on your page. This one you use is not annoying to me and can actually help the user find useful information. I think its a great Idea and appreciate you sharing it with us.
I remember in the early days of this system, it would sometimes be almost impossible to close the pop-up but it’s much better now of course. This sort of pop-up is not annoying and even pleasant at times because it’s not as ‘in your face’ as the traditional pop-ups.
Hi Yaro,
I’m a bit mystified as to the extent of the controversy over this popup technology. The way I see it, this is just technology evolving as it should. I totally agree that the old-school popups are a unacceptable annoyance that I have avoided like the plague (Windows). ;-|
However, this new lightbox style popup technology is nothing like it’s predecessors and it’s really like making an apples and oranges comparison. My experience here on Yaro’s site has not been hindered in any way by the one-time I saw his lightbox popup as it very smoothly did it’s thing and I then went about my business on the site.
With that said, I do want to reiterate a good point someone else made in their comment here. Why not modify the script to recognize if someone is already a subscriber and then never show them the popup to join the list. So the worst case scenario is that someone might have to see the popup once until a cookie was set or there was an IP recognition or something, but then they would never have to see it again. I certainly could live with that.
Finally I like to point out that even though this is truly a controversial subject, everyone here has been extremely civil, which reflects the high calibre of those that frequent this site. Yaro you are truly blessed to have some of the best readership on the internet.
This sounds like a great idea for established blogs. But for blogs that are just starting, this pop-ups could be very annoying. Some people might just ask themselves who on earth is this blogger who thinks he knows a lot more than I do.
I was just trying to figure out how did you create the popup window on the homepage and I saw this post. This plugin looks awesome and it could be the thing that I need.
At least I know where those annoying pop up come from!!!
They completely distract from the message of a website. They don’t make me react, I just close them and if I haven’t been to a website before. The pop up has me thinking of moving on to another site right away – and if the pop up takes too long to load – I’m back to searching for another site that offers the information I am looking for.
I, too, am a closer. I don’t read what is in the pop up box, and like Eamon Diamond, will go on to another site if doesn’t load quickly. I don’t read the pop up because if I was going to buy something I wouldn’t need a pop up.
Yaro,
It is great review! but I have to say, this pop up plugin could be still annoying to many people! I agree email list is great to have but giving away free ebooks to get sign in is better way in my opinion.
For everyone getting these follow up comments via email. I have been reading all the comments. I am giving away a Free Guide on my site and I have installed this Pop Up as well. The Opt In rates have skyrocketed, and people tell me the Pop Up doesn’t even look like a Pop Up, partly because I am using my 3D book Cover in Template 4.
Please look for yourself http://www.LifestyleBook.com
Please give me your feedback directly to oli.lifestyle@gmail.com
Thanks, Oli.
I have been using this great plugin in my blog hospitality-school.com . It gave me 300+ active FEEDBURNER email subscriber in one month. Here some are criticizing this plugin and claiming that this will loss readers attraction. But we all should remember that this plugin comes with some nice options to modify. You should set the time as 60 or 90 seconds to display this pop up with some bonus materials or at least there should be something beneficiary for readers. Then even your readers will be happy with that pop up offer and may put there name in that box.
Only problem I have found with this plugin that it does not support Feedburner by default. I mean anyone can easily modify this for awebar service but since feedburner email subscribers do not need to put there name but only email address so we need to change some settings. Those who have feedburner email subscription option can see my blog where I have made slight changes..
Hi Yaro,
Yes I know what you mean about the pop ups. I don’t like them either, they pop up right in the middle of when I am reading something. But I keep hearing good feed back from them also. So I guess I am going to have to break down a try them for myself also to see how good they work. Thanks for your post on them.
Thanks
Michael
While its true that pop-ups are not as annoying as before, i have to say i still dont like them. But, its not the same if its a quality blog or just another spammy blog full with affiliate links. If i can find on that that blog useful information or anything that might interest me come again, i dont mind seeing subscribe pop-up. I see it as a shortcut for something i would do anyway.
If pop-up banners are used properly they could provide vital information to viewers and also could enhance the user experience just as much as improper use can impede it. Overall, If combined in an elegant, professional manner, pop-ups generate revenue and could become a successful means of advertising.
I hate pop-ups with a passion. In fact I feel that they are a complete turn off for a site for me. If that’s the first thing that greets me it automatically sets the mood that this site is trying to sell me something. …and it usually is.
That being said, I can’t really go against the studies. If pop-ups increase conversions I guess anyone with a virtual product should at least give them a try. And I guess I’ll have to buckle and eventually use them as well.
I agree with you as well. Ya, who’s to say that people don’t still enter their info. I think it would depend on a few factors including the size of the pop-up (smaller better?), less “salesy” ?, what the product or service is, and the incentive for signing-up.
If find pop-ups annoying and it can take credibility away from the site. I prefer to have a built-in email list widget on the site.
I’ve seen these kinds of popups on other blogs before. I think they’re not annoying as long as the site owner configures them right.
Hi Yaro, the templates look all really good. I am wondering if your blog is new, is it good idea to install this plugin or should I wait until I have at least 100 visitors a day to my blog?
Hi Brett,
There is no reason why you can’t build a list from day one. The thing you should have ready is some form of email – be prepared to send messages to your list to build a relationship. Setting up an autoresponder series is ideal for this.
Yaro
Hi Yaro,
Agree with you that some pop-ups are very annoying due to not properly configured, or pops not at the right time, or has poor design, or just plain annoying. I also avoid to use them but will re-consider it, due to your recommendation with comprehensive review here, I’ll give it a chance.
Thanks
Dinar Emas
Hi Yaro –
Quoting from your blogpost: “I know pop-ups annoy some people (heck they annoy me!), but as stated previously, they have worked well on this site”. By which you mean, we all know pop-ups are annoying & intrusive, but they make money by expanding your email list.
By using pop-ups, you’re going to increasingly attract a certain type of person – those who want to ‘get rich quick’ (opportunists not business people) to your blog, rather than true passionate entrepreneurs. You might have a greater quantity of people on your email list, but that doesn’t mean that these people are serious about entrepreneurship and will yield quality returns for your sponsors and yourself.
Isn’t it a better sign that people are signing up to your blog because they’ve actually read the content, and can see the nice clear button allowing them to enter their email address on the r/h side of the page? Rather than having it forced into their face and taking a gamble? Furthermore, I’d be interested to see the figures for the percentage of blog subscribers who REMAIN on your list after 1 month with & without using popups. I bet there is a considerably higher retention rate WITHOUT pop-ups. I’m far from an expert, but I would have thought this is fairly obvious stuff?
Hi Cambridge Writing Services,
First up, please use your name when leaving a comment, not some SEO keywords as per the instructions. I would normally not have approved your comment but because you asked a question I want to answer I let it through.
Your point is valid, and that’s why the pop-up is not going on to every page on the blog immediately, as it was. I’d hesitate using statements like having a popup will attract those who want to get rich quick – that being said, the internet marketing industry is driven by that motivation for a lot of people, especially when they first enter the industry, so unless I change niches that’s something I have to accept.
Sites like AskMen.com use a popup – a nice designed one with a very relevant offer. Sites like Mashable use a pop-up too to invite people to do a survey, and I must say it’s an ugly pop-up, but people keep reading the site.
Personally I don’t want to run a homepage pop-up on EJ, which is precisely why we will roll it out on 10 or 20 of the most popular article pages, which get the first time visitors as a test. That way the regular visitors who come to check out the latest articles each day won’t see it, and I’ll still have a chance to invite many of the new visitors who come via Google using the popup.
Hi Yaro –
I didn’t see the instructions, apologies for that. My email address is attached to a particular Gravatar, hence the CWS icon, and that’s not for SEO purposes – it’s to protect identity more than anything else. I don’t always think it’s wise to use a personal name, but in this case I’ve made an exception. Plus my comment clearly isn’t spam.
Thanks for the last para of your comment – that’s very helpful to know. I should say that I’m a subscribing fan of your site, from which I’ve learnt a fair bit – I’m just pretty concerned about the use of pop-ups generally, and I’m not convinced it actually yields better results if you take into account retention rates or the quality of leads.
Best wishes.
Just wanted to add to what Yaro said. I run a biology blog and use popup domination for growing my list over there. It increased my opt in rates significantly. I’m talking about an increase of over 500%.
My view on Popups have changed significantly – and it doesn’t only have to do with trying to make money online. It all depends on the value of what you are providing.
With my biology site, I get MANY MORE people onto my list now, and you know what happens as a result of that? I get more people thanking me for the value that I provide when they opt in.
In my opinion, taking down the popup would be doing my new website visitors a disservice. Many of them wouldn’t opt in and wouldn’t get the tremendous value that I’m delivering. Because of that, the popup is staying.
That is a really good idea, just use it on pages that receive the most traffic from search engines and that way you do not annoy regular visitors. I may have to trail that tactic…
Hi Yarro
I have been following your blog for a reasonable time and it has been the core of my online information. From your article you mentioned that the opt ins dropped at a serious rate after you stopped running the popup.
Firstly it is not that I do not believe the impact of popups, but I get the feeling that with softening the look of the site the overall recently the overall call to action (underlying urgency) got less.
Did you do any split testing on the two site’s and approaches as well, or are you attributing the complete downturn to the popup.
Secondly I am using something different which I will not promote here, which seems to be always in the corner of your eye, yet not intrusive, or that only stays slightly in view all the time. Have you done split testing on other options.
Fritz
Hi Fritz,
I can’t attribute the entire loss to the pop-up for sure, but I will have a good idea once I start adding the pop-up back to some pages and we see how the numbers go.
I can tell you, as I wrote in the review, when I originally added the popup across the entire site with the previous design it increased my optins by 50%, which is quite a low increase based on what others are reporting with the plugin, but still pretty significant.
It works, I have no hesitation in saying that. Whether you “like” using popups is where most people will face a decision point, not whether it works or not.
Yaro I know that pop up increases the amount of records, although it annoys some people. But in that case why do they come on site? I guess they want to learn something or find out, so I need to save. And if they do not want it their problem.
I tried this popup about a year ago, my complaint was you couldn’t control the pages it appeared on – glad to hear they have made some adjustments, will try it again…
From day first, I am using internet and visiting websites I don’t like popups. Especially when I get a popup from a website which I regularly visit and am already on their list.
I think this is a good feature of this plugin that you could customize on which page to show popup and that also to new visitors.
Yaro,
Thanks for posting this update on PopUp Domination v. 3. I’ve been a very light blogger in the past and could never justify paying for PopUp Domination vs. using a free plugin. But with the proven track record, new ability to have popups on specific pages and the discounted price I have decided to finally buy it and try it out on my new blog. Once I get my popup design and offer ready I hope to see some gains over the next months.
Thanks again for all of the valuable information you continue to share.
Courtenay
I think popups are acceptable after a delay, but only for first time visitors.
So I’m planning on making a specific popup connected to a specific category that gets a lot of first time visitors. The giveaway is directly related to that category.
I won’t use it “Everywhere” as that will annoy the people who return when I send out an email with links to articles back at the website.
A perfect feature would be to not display a popup if certian variables are passed from an email newsletter link, so that those who click on your email newsletter won’t see it when they click through to the site.
Popup Domination 3.0 is a great version of the plugin but there are some things also in the negative side. Thanks for posting and sharing your review on this matter, Yarro. Popups can sometimes be a hassle but it could also be a big help. Using it just depends on you.
There is also a default footer to explain the privacy policy associated with signing up for list to give potential subscriber peace of mind that you won’t be sharing their e-mail address with anyone else. It comes with a pre-made privacy policy but we can easily add our own.
Hi Yaro,
I signed up for popup domination through your affiliate link. But I’m having problems connecting to my aweber list. The popup domination support guys are tough to get a hold of. I sent an email a few days ago and no response. Can’t find them on twitter or facebook.
I hope I can get this thing working or…..I hope I can find a way to get my money back.
Hi Ryan,
Did you go through the support documentation here: http://popdom.assistly.com/
If you emailed them I suggest being patient for at least a few days. During the launch week they get several thousand new customers, which will result in a peak customer support load for about a week or two (as someone who has launched a product and experienced this I know how insane it can be even when you prepare for it). A little patience and you will have a working popup.
If you still can’t get it done send an email to my support address and I’ll make sure James or Michael see it (the guys behind popdom).
I tried popup domination after a purchase through your affiliate link.
Like Ryan discovered, it’s not quite working right.
I’ve emailed, updated 4 times in as many days, read all the support articles, and still it is not working quite right.
I’ve finally deactivated it for now, to wait a week or so to see it the bugs can get worked out.
I think people close popups faster than lightning. I don’t know but most of the people avoid popups because these have a very bad history as its something that is being imposed on a surfer without his desire. I’m not sure if I would like to have one on my site!
Hi Yaro,
Pop up domination is using false scarcity. The launch is well over now, and the price is still $47. Actually if you close the window, they even give you a $10 discount, bringing the price to $37.
I noticed that they’ve been using false scarcity since the first version of PUD. Not really a good way to make people trust them, is it?
What are your thoughts?
Hi Simon,
I hadn’t double checked, but you are right – they need to change the price up. I don’t know if it is false scarcity or just an error, but I will ask the guys as I don’t like telling people something on this blog and then it not being true.
Yaro
Hi Yaro,
My first time on your blog and I’m really impressed. What a comprehensive review – wow!
I’m not a fan of popups but it’s interesting to see that it works well on your blog. I think the ability to use different pop-ups on different pages is a cool idea.
Thanks for sharing.
Best,
Mavis
I was extremely excited to add the popup domination to both of my websites, so I bought it and got down to work. After almost 10 hours of playing around with it, I realized something just wasn’t right with the version I downloaded.
I contacted them and although I did get an automated email saying they’d get back to me, they never actually got back to me, so I was unfortunately forced to get my money back through ClickBank.
I am wondering, has anybody else purchased version 3.0 and had any troubles? And if you did, were you able to get it fixed at all?
I write this because I want the product to work, and without any support obviously I can’t get it running properly.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Paul
Hi Paul,
I too had the same problem, but now I switched to immediate list building pro. The plugin is excellent and so is the support. You can expect them to reply within 24 hrs.
I loathe pop-ups. Why?
— They are RUDE
— They show the site owner does not care about my user experience
— They cheapen the site in my estimation
— They show that their first goal is what *they* want, not what I want, and that what they want is to get my email on a list so they can spam me – they don’t care about the *quality* of their subscribers, they just want numbers
— Last but not least, a site that uses this sleaze tactic immediately loses a notch in credibility with me; I’m far more critical of their content, and rather skeptical about everything on the site, since I already know they don’t have my best interests at heart.
I used to get angry and block such sites, but all that did was raise my blood pressure and put me in a bad mood.
Then I decided to be proactive and stop harming myself.
Now, I gleefully fill in the pop-up with a special addy reserved for such webmasters. Every so often, I log into that email account and mark all mail as spam.
Also, in random checks before marking the email as spam, if the sender happens to include a link to a page that requires opt-in with an email addy, I mark that email as phishing – after all, they’re sending me to a page that wants personal information from me. If you have phishers as partners, then by association you’re a phisher, too.
If they want to use sleaze tactics to pressure me so they get an email addy from me before I’m convinced it’s to my benefit and I’m ready and willing to give it to them, they’ll pay a price.
Once upon a time, a pop-up made me angry and put me in a bad mood – these days, it makes me happy and puts me in a great mood, because it’s an opportunity to deal a blow to a spammer!
Harsh? Probably, but they’ve brought it upon themselves.
Besides, if the pop-up got past my pop-up blockers, it’s more than fair game…
Terry
Believer in creative revenge
Wow this is very powerul!Even though I have not created my own blog yet I can see the importance of having this plug-in. Then you said 75 leads a day to 150 lead..well let me say my friend that is a huge difference. I know having a blog is a slow process so I will probably just start off with a review blog. At the least that won’t take as long and I can instantly rank for things as they hit the market. Great post again and wonderful review.