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F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it

thosefuckingpopups.tumblr.com

21–30 of 143 posts

Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it

#21
post #13
post #9

I don't see why Dropbox is on there. That's just a sign in/register window for a service that requires an account.

When you try to download the software, they try to make you sign up or log in for no reason.

IIRC on the old versions the installer had your login data attached so you did not have to relogin inside the app once installed. But I believe this does not work anymore since code signing.

Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it

#22
post #9

I don't see why Dropbox is on there. That's just a sign in/register window for a service that requires an account.

Not so. If somebody generates a link to a file on their Dropbox account, then you'll see that popup when you click that link. A Dropbox account is not necessary to view such links (thus the "No thanks" button at the bottom of that screenshot) but they use it as an opportunity to market to you anyway.

Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it

#23
I'm struggling with this now and I could use some insight.

I absolutely share OP's loathing of these pop-ups. On the other hand, I'm just starting to try to drive traffic to my physical-product website (through PPC ads, facebook marketing, etc).

I KNOW I need to try to collect some contact information. But I cannot find a way to do it that isn't appalling.

- Collect on landing page? How do they know if they want to sign up, they just got here.

- Put on Contact Us page? Nobody will see it.

- Pop up a window after 30 seconds, or three pages viewed, or whatever? I end up on thosefuckingpopus.tumbler.com, and for good reason.

- Don't do anything? Patrick McKenzie finds my house and draws rude things on my face while I sleep.

Has anybody come up with an acceptable design solution for collecting emails from people who are interested in being on your list?

Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it

#24
post #7

I've definitely noticed a trend in technical blogs/ newsletters (some of which have been featured on HN) throw up a "like this article? Sign up for our newsletter" popup after you start to scroll down the page. "I don't fucking know if I like this article, you're interrupting me while I'm still in the middle of reading it!"

The tragic thing is that getting that email address to spam you is the primary purpose of the page, and the actual content is just a sort of bait.

Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it

#25

I've never understood this design. Someone came to your website to do something. Why is the first thing you do is give them a bad experience?

Because it works. I had a small deals aggregator site which got most of its traffic from Google. When users landed I knew they were interested in the content, and I showed it through a semi-transparent background and forced them to enter their emails before being able to click through. I remember conversions going from 10-20 new emails per day to over 100 emails per day.

.. but how many of those were valid, and how many actually made some use of the emails you sent them?

Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it

#26
post #23

I'm struggling with this now and I could use some insight. I absolutely share OP's loathing of these pop-ups. On the other hand, I'm just starting to try to drive traffic to my physical-product website (through PPC ads, facebook marketing, etc). I KNOW I need to try to collect some contact information. But I cannot find a way to do it that isn't appalling. - Collect on landing page? How do they know if they want to s…

Have a “Sign up to our newsletter” section below the main content on every page.

The two main mistakes that you must avoid at all cost are:

1. displaying an overlay on page load, forcing the user to make the decision before consuming any content,

2. showing the overlay while the user is reading the main content; nobody likes to be interrupted.

Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it

#27

I've never understood this design. Someone came to your website to do something. Why is the first thing you do is give them a bad experience?

Because it works. I had a small deals aggregator site which got most of its traffic from Google. When users landed I knew they were interested in the content, and I showed it through a semi-transparent background and forced them to enter their emails before being able to click through. I remember conversions going from 10-20 new emails per day to over 100 emails per day.

Do you have data on whether those additional email addresses actually resulted in more sales than you lost from people who hate popups?

Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it

#28
post #5

I'm ok with those as long as they react to ESC key .. otherwise it's instantly close tab What I hate the most are those install alerts, during page load, which then ends up being a phonegap/cordoba of SAME site (!) ..or to be redirected to "m.example.com" because they think that an special diminished experience best fit for my perfectly capable phone

[deleted]

Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it

#29
The only pop up window I really hate is Quora's, because in order to remove it without signing up for an account I have to go into the developer tools and delete its enclosing div. Quora, I don't want to sign up for your site, and I don't want to "complete" an account I don't have. I just want to see the answer to the question you were somehow the top search result for.
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