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No, I Don’t Want to Subscribe to Your Newsletter

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Re: No, I Don’t Want to Subscribe to Your Newsletter

#21

Post by csallen »

bradleyankrom wrote: post #14
digitalengineer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's about all user intent. Will you bring value? For you I'd advice experimenting with a pop-up when the user is about to leave. "A popup designed with exit-intent – in laymans terms it means that the popup only displays when you are about to leave the site." Results? "an increase of sign-ups by 600%. They went from typically 70-80 daily new subscribers to 445 – 470 new subs per day."

How would you go about detecting when a user is about to leave your site? Other than responding to a click on an external link? The two ways I typically leave a site are a) typing a URL into the address bar and b) closing a tab.

It's typically done when the user's mouse leaves the page.

Re: No, I Don’t Want to Subscribe to Your Newsletter

#22

Post by brainfire »

0x006A wrote: post #8

I started just closing the tab if a site thinks I want to signup before reading the content. If sites are do desperate for the quick fix, I do not expect them to have good content below that modal dialog.

Two step process here:

1) Subscribe "abuse@(sitedomain)" to the newsletter. I don't know if anyone still uses that convention but it reduces my frustration.

2) Add the site to my ad blocker blacklist so I don't waste my time by visiting again.

Re: No, I Don’t Want to Subscribe to Your Newsletter

#23

Post by Karunamon »

edw519 wrote: post #4

There’s no keyboard shortcut you can use to get rid of them. Sure there is: 1. Alt-F4 2. Ctrl-Alt-Del

I've found that many of them respond to ESC, probably for accessibility reasons.

It's almost become a reflex when the page suddenly goes dim to thwack the key before whatever garbage they decided to shove in my face finishes loading.

Re: No, I Don’t Want to Subscribe to Your Newsletter

#25

Post by michaelbuckbee »

digitalengineer wrote: post #11
petercooper wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the newsletter business (and don't use these modals out of principle) and the folks I chat to about it confirm the same - they work really well . But, I counter, so does spamming or making 10000s of automated phone calls.. and we've agreed those things are damaging and unethical - I agree with Dave, it's about time we as an industry considered full screen modals to be dirty and unwelcome.

It's about all user intent. Will you bring value? For you I'd advice experimenting with a pop-up when the user is about to leave. "A popup designed with exit-intent – in laymans terms it means that the popup only displays when you are about to leave the site." Results? "an increase of sign-ups by 600%. They went from typically 70-80 daily new subscribers to 445 – 470 new subs per day."

If it comes up on exit-intent and doesn't steal focus, they don't seem that bad. An issue is that the triggering is worse on mobile and can be flaky if you're an advanced user (aka like you are on HN and you Ctrl+Click a bunch of links to open in new tabs and then read them in a batch) - those sort of behaviors can trip the exit intent prematurely.

Re: No, I Don’t Want to Subscribe to Your Newsletter

#26

Post by BeetleB »

petercooper wrote: post #7
digitalengineer wrote: post #6

Yes it's annoying but they work: "sticking a big ole pop-up in their face can be one of the most effective ways to jolt their attention & grab their email for a return visit." Peep Laja. https://conversionxl.com/popup-defense/?hvid=2EcGFw

I'm in the newsletter business (and don't use these modals out of principle) and the folks I chat to about it confirm the same - they work really well . But, I counter, so does spamming or making 10000s of automated phone calls.. and we've agreed those things are damaging and unethical - I agree with Dave, it's about time we as an industry considered full screen modals to be dirty and unwelcome.

>But, I counter, so does spamming or making 10000s of automated phone calls.

Spamming and automated phone calls are unsolicited. These popups are not. You are the one in control. You can avoid popups by not going to those sites.

Re: No, I Don’t Want to Subscribe to Your Newsletter

#28

Post by jackgolding »

petercooper wrote: post #7
digitalengineer wrote: post #6

Yes it's annoying but they work: "sticking a big ole pop-up in their face can be one of the most effective ways to jolt their attention & grab their email for a return visit." Peep Laja. https://conversionxl.com/popup-defense/?hvid=2EcGFw

I'm in the newsletter business (and don't use these modals out of principle) and the folks I chat to about it confirm the same - they work really well . But, I counter, so does spamming or making 10000s of automated phone calls.. and we've agreed those things are damaging and unethical - I agree with Dave, it's about time we as an industry considered full screen modals to be dirty and unwelcome.

Whats the solution then? SEO crawlers to heavily penalise them?
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