In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Stupid, Annoying Pop-Ups on Websites
* Of Interest
Quote of the Day
“It’s important to remember that copyright protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. To qualify for protection, the expression must be captured in a tangible form.” Dave Chesson (see yesterday’s Of Interest)
Stupid, Annoying Pop-Ups on Websites
All the pundits say putting a pop-up on your website is a good idea ’cause you can offer a free book or whatever and capture an email for your mailing list. I don’t use pop-ups anywhere, and I’ll tell you why.
In a word, they’re annoying. And if I was allowed two words I’d day they’re f…ing annoying.
I know some of you probably swear by them because you want to capture readers’ interest or whatever. I get that.
But people who visit your website are ALREADY interested.
They’re already visiting your website specifically, either to look it over or to check out you or your books or for whatever other reason. Why risk annoying them and running them off?
If you’re going to use pop-ups anyway, at least give the guy on the other end of the mouse the ability to say “No thanks,” close the stupid pop-up, and go on to find what he was looking for on your site in the first place.
A guy emailed me recently, said he was a TNDJ reader, and that he’d started a new company. Then he praised my work, quoted a lot of crap from my bio and from the promotion copy of one of my books, etc.—so all the typical scam BS.
Then he asked me to list his website, which provides services for fiction writers to help with all things Amazon (placement, key words, etc…. basically all the stuff you can get in a free “toolkit” from Dave Chesson, The Kindlepreneur.
Via a pop-up, of course, ‘cause that’s all the rage. But at least there’s a big X in the corner you can use to close the annoying thing.
Anyway, I didn’t personally want or need what the guy was offering, but I figured I’d do him a favor and give him a listing under Of Interest once I checked out his website.
So I clicked a link HE sent me to look at his website, but as soon as the site came up—you guessed it, a stupid pop-up interrupted me. Not only that, but it blocked most of the screen and blurred what little I was still able to see.
The pop-up offered me a free “Book Health Check,” which is fine, but there was no way to close the pop-up without agreeing to the free health check.
You guys know me fairly well. Can you even begin to imagine me asking anyone for a “health check” of any of my books? Or of accepting coercion?
Of course not.
So as it turned out, I declined adding a link to his site to the Of Interest section, and I emailed him back and told him why: Because of his STUPID pop-up and the lack of a choice to close it without signing up for something I neither need nor want.
If I could have simply closed the pop-up and browsed his site so I’d have some clue as to what I was passing along to you, I would have listed a link for him.
But I don’t like coercion in any way, shape, or form. I’m stubborn that way.
So with me at least, this guy committed professional suicide by not only interrupting my visit to his website with an annoying, stupid pop-up, but by not even having the grace or good sense to give me the option to close it.
So as always, you guys do whatever you want, but if you use pop-ups on your website, don’t consider only however many sign-ups you’re getting but how many busy people are passing you by because they’re rather not deal with stupid crap.
Update: I keyed IWrity (the website name) into a search engine this morning and the pop-up was gone. So maybe the company is legit. Anway, there it is if you want to look it over. Whatever.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
How Important is IP? Vin Zandri holds forth on IP.