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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,

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.

pjc50 11y ago
.. but how many of those were valid, and how many actually made some use of the emails you sent them?
waqf 11y ago
Do you have data on whether those additional email addresses actually resulted in more sales than you lost from people who hate popups?
ak39 11y ago
Ok fair enough. But, if I were you, just to be 100% excited about this strategy, I'd ask myself these questions: 1. Am I measuring the quality of the email addresses before an after the introduction of the popup? 2. Am I measuring the number of visitors who abandoned my site (closed my page) immediately after I interrupted their visit with my popup? Ultimately, the question ought to be: what am I really measuring? Is it the number of new rows in my emails table or the impact on brand perception and ultimately bottom line?
- sukilot 11y ago
  As a web marketer, I am paid to generate leads, not revenue. Revenue is someone else's problem. Yay non-owner employment.
rokhayakebe 11y ago
@ak39, @waqf, @pjc50 I never got around to emailing the leads, but I know the lock screen did not stop people. Assuming 50% were invalid, that is still an additional 50+ new leads daily. I think we (people similar to the HN crowd) care about things many people don't care about. Things such as Design, UX, etc...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
astazangasta 11y ago
This mentality has to go. "Because it works" is not a reason to punch your users in the dick. We all agree this is awful and hateful; we should stop doing it for that reason alone, regardless of its purported efficacy. "Because it works" yields the Duggars on TLC and other heinous abuses.

pjc50 11y ago

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

waqf 11y ago

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

ak39 11y ago

Ok fair enough. But, if I were you, just to be 100% excited about this strategy, I'd ask myself these questions: 1. Am I measuring the quality of the email addresses before an after the introduction of the popup? 2. Am I measuring the number of visitors who abandoned my site (closed my page) immediately after I interrupted their visit with my popup? Ultimately, the question ought to be: what am I really measuring? Is it the number of new rows in my emails table or the impact on brand perception and ultimately bottom line?

sukilot 11y ago
As a web marketer, I am paid to generate leads, not revenue. Revenue is someone else's problem. Yay non-owner employment.

rokhayakebe 11y ago

@ak39, @waqf, @pjc50 I never got around to emailing the leads, but I know the lock screen did not stop people. Assuming 50% were invalid, that is still an additional 50+ new leads daily. I think we (people similar to the HN crowd) care about things many people don't care about. Things such as Design, UX, etc...

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

astazangasta 11y ago

This mentality has to go. "Because it works" is not a reason to punch your users in the dick. We all agree this is awful and hateful; we should stop doing it for that reason alone, regardless of its purported efficacy. "Because it works" yields the Duggars on TLC and other heinous abuses.