Popup Advertisements - Good or Bad?

I'll bet you've visited a site only to be plagued by one, two,
three or even more popup windows appearing to annoy you. Some
poorly designed sites even pop up those same windows each time
you visit a new page, making simple navigation a horrifying
experience.

Some webmasters believe in popup advertisements. They believe
that their sales or signups (newsletters) are substantially
higher when they use popups. And, guess what, they are often
correct. Sites do get good responses from popup advertisements.
People do look at them and do respond to offers, forms and ads.

However, I, like many surfers, find popup advertisements
unacceptable and cease to visit sites which use them heavily. I
will put up with an occasional pop up window, but immediately
close it without reading - for the same reason I delete spam
messages: I will not encourage their use by responding to them.

Pop-under windows, things that slide across the screen and
pictures that jump out at me will cause me to immediately
leave the site and more than likely I will never be back. I
especially despise those exit window "services". A horrible
invention, intended to deceive surfers and siphon traffic from
legitimate sites. Of course, programs like Gator deserve
immediate deletion as the are run by the scummiest of
advertisers.

What kind of advertising do I respond to? I prefer a
well-written article reviewing a product or service with a
link to the supplier or order screen, or a side-bar that I can
read, or even a small graphic. I want information, I want to
know WHY I should look at a product or service.

But most of all, I want a reference to that product or service.
A more-or-less trusted source saying, "yes, this is worth
looking at". That's the best kind of advertising by far.

To illustrate how advertising on the internet often works,
imagine walking down the street lined with a bunch of shops.
Some shops have very nice window displays which show off the
products very well. These are the stores which I would tend to
visit as I can see exactly what they sell. The best of these
stores have knowledgeable employees who know all about their
products along with good signage which explains various facts
(for example, coupons with recipes scattered throughout the
produce section). Their advertising would consist of flyers
which described the products, perhaps a newsletter and reviews
by knowledgeable, respected people.

Other's have someone out front screaming "buy this stuff!".
These people may wander up and down the street shouting
buzz-words that may or may not attract people into a shop.
This is the equivalent of banner ads. These might get my
attention, but if the shop didn't produce the goods, then I
would lose interest fast. And if shops consistently didn't
deliver what was promised, then I would probably just ignore
these hawkers altogether.

A really clever shopkeeper might hire someone to run around
and plaster brochures to car windows - these are also banner
ads and similar things.

Very aggressive shopkeepers might hire some very entertaining
jugglers to put on shows - these are the strange ads which do
weird things with the screens. I might look, but I almost
certainly won't buy. These can, however, attract many people
and some of them are likely to find something in the shop to
purchase.

Then there are those shopkeepers which send out people to
stop shoppers on the street and hold an ad in front of their
face (this is a pop-up). I find this rude (it's happened in
real life) and simply will not buy this stuff. I relate this
to the people at airports (do they still exist?) who try to
sell books for donation. I've never bought one because I don't
want to encourage their behavior.

A pop-under would be similar to the above, except the ad is
slipped in the shopper's back pocket so they can be surprised
by it later.

Gator runs around and with some sleight-of-hand changes as
many ads as it can to it's own as they are being handed or
shown to patrons.

I hope this is helpful in illustrating how popup advertising
fits into the overall promotional picture. Each webmaster must
decide how to promote his or her site based upon their goals
and objectives, as well as their budget and ethics. Ethical
webmasters will find means to advertise which produce results
without using spamming or other unacceptable means. Unethical
webmasters will use whatever technique works regardless of the
consequences to themselves, their customers or company and
others. They will often appear to have great results, but those
are often temporary and fleeting.