aWeber lightboxes - it's all about timing!

I thought people knew this, I thought this was very basic stuff, but I have recently been convinced to the contrary on numerous occasions, when visiting other people's sites. People who are involved in Internet marketing. People who should know better. So I thought I would just run this past people again.

I am talking about the famous aWeber lightbox popup webform, the one that's earned us so much money in recent times by automating the lead collection process. You know the one, it pops up in the middle of the screen, fading the rest of the page to black, and cannot be blocked, you can either close it, or enter your email details for whatever mailing list or freebie or other lead collection incentive is on offer. It can be very effective, and pays for itself very quickly.

But why oh why are people still setting the timer for the webform to pop up the instant the page opens?!


Do you know what happens when you do that? The visitor is served up an email form before even seeing your site, before engaging with your content, before forming ANY impression that they might have some benefit from you and your service. And do you know what they do?

They swat the pesky fly away, every single time!

I know I do.

This is BASIC stuff, it's in the aWeber docs, for crying out loud! It's lightbox webform 101. The people doing this must have signup rates that are through the floor, or down through the cellar, more like.

You need to experiment and do split testing with timings. Maybe it needs to be 20 seconds, maybe it needs to be 45 seconds - whatever time is necessary for the user to engage with your content.

But the one delay you should NOT set is ZERO SECONDS! Please, stop doing this! I honestly don't care too much about your conversion/signup rate, it's your business!

But you are building lightbox-blindness in the Internet user, and doing ALL of us a disservice.

You know it makes sense...

* Steps down from soapbox whilst retaining sense of dignity *