Are ANNOYING Opt-In Forms and Exit Screens Effective?

[Raiel Schwartz]

Recently, I've begun to see a lot of

"To exit this page click continue"

or

Opt-in forms and loud audio when you try to leave the site.

I never opt in or use any of the services that these forms of visitor entrapment are trying to get, but maybe it's because i've grown accustomed to it.

Do these things actually help increase conversions or opt-in rates? I know it cant hurt because it usually shows up when the visitor tries to leave the page, but by god their really annoying.

[braver55b]

I know it can be annoying;but the old cliche applies, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


One man's annoying popup is another man's trusted profit building list machine.

In other words as long as it keeps working, marketers will keep using it and finding ways to decimate any popup blockers.

[VMN]

I am not certain.
When I run across these, to be quite honest they irritate me.

Primarily the loud audio.
The discount offers may be effective. However, The boxes should disappear immediately after clicking close, or making your choice, and they seem to take their time too.

Victoria

I ripped them off my sites because they annoy me... Any site that has those I close and do not return, if I want to opt-in for your list then I will if you properly give me a optin form on the page.

I send people to my optin forms link now as I said it was annoying me. I still get the same amount of opt-ins. No it's not a squeeze page either, it is just a page with a opt-in form.. Nothing special...

James

[bluenetworx]

I agree they can be annoying but they do work. What you need to remember is that in some niches visitor are not on the internet as much as us, and these things are somewhat a novelty to them. And yes when there is a discount involved they work best. My wife even told me not long ago that she bought something online after an exit grabbed sucked her in (to my horror of course!) Anyway it worked on her!!

[~Davor Debrecin~]

To tell you the truth, I was also very reluctant putting exit pop-ups on my pages, but then I realized one thing that really made a difference for me. The people who get exposed to your popup are the people who already showed they are not interested in your offer, right?

So getting them a bit upset with the pop-up won't change your bottom line. If they click NO again and leave your page, they'll probably forget about it as fast as if they hadn't been exposed to your exit pop-up.

But if only 1% of your visitors change their mind because of the pop-up, ie. if you earn $10 more, then it's worth it.

There are a lot of different exit pop-ups that are more or less effective. You should test different types and see which one out performs the other.

Take care,

~Davor

[Raiel Schwartz]

Okay - got a myriad of opinions. What are some of the most used "pop-up" software or scripts? I'm debating whether I should use them for a few of my new sites.