A popup is a script that can be installed on your website’s server that allows a window to literally “pop up” on top of your website, giving the reader a message. In this case, that message will be a special offer or freebie you give your subscribers along with your opt-in box. Once the email address is captured they are free to continue visiting your site.

To be considerate and to show them that they have not left your site, you should set up a special page on your site that serves as a “Thanks for joining my list” page. You can offer an additional upsell offer (another product or opportunity reserved especially for new subscribers) or they can simply continue navigating your site on their own without purchasing the upsell. Of course, there is always a way to exit out of the popup without subscribing but you want your offer to be so exciting they wouldn’t think of passing it up.

Most frequently you see popups appear when a reader first lands on the site but you can also schedule the popup to appear when the reader wants to exit the site. This serves as a quick reminder that you have an offer, similar to a “last ditch effort” to get that email address before the reader leaves your site.

Some website owners believe that placing your popup at the exit point converts better because you aren’t bombarding your reader with too many things at once. Let’s walk through the scenario step by step.

First, you type in the URL for the site you want. You’re expecting to find an answer to a question, a product to purchase, or to simply find out more about your business.

You get to the web page, start to get a feel for the navigation and then wham! A popup window opens up, distracting you from your original goal. One blogger equated it to being greeted by your wife, kids and the dog the very second you step in the door. Rather than bombard your reader, consider letting them look around, find the information they need and then remind them upon exiting your site that you have one more offer for them.

Which scenario is best for you? That’s something that you will need to test on your own site and there are pros and cons to using popups. Some list owners like the fact that their readers don’t have to search for the optin box – it’s given to them right at eye level and grabs their attention because it appears on top of an otherwise busy page.

However, some argue that readers are annoyed by popups, will click the whole page closed, or will forget what they were looking for in the first place, making the visiting experience annoying rather than fulfilling.

If you have a website and an email list all setup with an autoresponder then you can use a popup. It’s worth mentioning that the good popup scripts and software are not free. Some will offer a free trial for a certain number of days or they will offer a money-back guarantee but you will need a small budget to implement this on your own site.

What To Use

Depending on your technical skills, you might also need to outsource the installation of the popup. There’s nothing worse than “thinking” that you know what to do and then hitting a wrong button and crashing your site. Hiring out the installation job will alleviate your stress considerably and is much less expensive than doing website repair work.

One of the popular popup scripts is PopUp Domination and they boast having a WordPress plugin – which makes installation extremely easy – and they also have a “stand alone” version that can be used on any basic HTML site.

As with anything, some email autoresponders will be easier to merge with a popup script than others (I recommend Aweber – they have a plugin that integrates easily with WordPress). This is what customer service is for! The object is to have the popup on your site, capture the email address, they receive an email confirmation, they click the confirmation link, they receive your freebie, then you can continue sending to them until they unsubscribe. If any piece of this equation is flawed, contact customer service for their resolution or money-back guarantee.