Discover How To Instantly Increase Your Sales, Conversions and Email Lists by Adding New Hover Ad Technology to Your Websites
by Satyajeet Hattangadi
Popups, if you’re somehow, strangely, not familiar with the term, are those little windows that open when you visit certain sites.
Popups are secondary browser windows that are opened up using JavaScript code. The properties of this new browser window are set in such a fashion that the new window does not have a address bar, status bar or the menu.
Until about a few years ago – the popup was considered to be the biggest breakthrough in advertising on the web.
When they were first introduced they were a great success and click-through rates went through the roof.
Exit the banner ad - enter the popup.
Web marketers could interrupt whatever a visitor was viewing, by launching a secondary window on top of the first – to draw attention to his advertisement or opt-in list or any other item that he wished to get the attention to.
After a while like most good marketing tools, popups started getting abused. Popups would open secondary popups and eventually by just visiting page that has a single popup in it, you would end up with a barrage of say about 15-20 popups. This was exploited by unscrupulous marketers to the fullest, especially those hawking porn sites.
Of course, webmasters who were in tune with the sentiment of visitors, soon began to use cookies to track if the popup was already shown and ensure it was not shown more than once per visitor.
Frustrated visitors soon began complaining about popups.
Popups are your problem? - Get a popup blocker.
Looking at the need of website visitors, software companies soon came up with popup blocking software. These applications read all the code that's going to the browser and if they find any JavaScript in the page code that's trying to open a window, BAM, it deletes that part of code. So Bye Bye popup!
Generation Two - The PopUnder
Not to be left behind, web marketers came up with another version, the popunder, which still launched a secondary window but placed it below the primary window. In most cases, the visitor didn’t even notice this popunder until they closed the primary window.
Of course this was less intrusive, but a pain nonetheless and you don't get an award for guessing what happened next.
Yes you guessed right, the popup blockers soon started blocking popunders as well.
Generation Next - Enter Hover Ads
What the beejeezus are Hover Ads? They are floating ads that popup blockers can't stop.
The technology that creates Hover Ads is not new. In fact, it’s been available to web designers for at least 2 years now as DHTML (that's Dynamic HTML to those who don't know).
These ads cannot be seen by older browsers like Internet Explorer 3.0. But since most netizens are using browsers (IE 4.0 and above) that are capable of displaying this code this type of advertising has started enjoying a rise in usage.
Hover Ads are DHTML layers which can be selectively moved and displayed over the primary page that's being displayed. The basic code is still JavaScript, but since a new window is not being opened, the popup blockers can't figure out that an advertisement is being displayed.
These layers can be animated, moved around, made to appear once per session, shown after a delay, etc.
So that makes you ask "Why should I switch from regular popups to Hover Ads?"
The one and only compelling reason. Popups can be blocked! Hover Ads can't.
So the bottom line is, if you use popups as a part of your online marketing strategy you’re losing out on a lot of potential revenue, coz what they can't cant see they can't buy!
Some statistics that make Hover Ads a compelling technology to use:
- The Alexa Toolbar can now block pop ups (10,000,000 Users not seeing your AD).
- The Netscape 7.0 Browser has a built in popup blocker( almost 52 million users never seeing your popup ad).
- Earthlink provides its users with a popup blocker( prospects who cant see your ad:5,000,000.
- AOL released version 8.0 with Popup Blocking capabilities. (Total Subscribers: 35,000,000).
Bottom line: 40 million customers never see your advertisement!
Hover Ads, on the other hand cannot be stopped by blocking software. Their technology is regular JavaScript that runs well in all modern environments, so they are relatively safe to deploy on your site.
"So how can I add Hover Ads On my Website?"
If you are looking for a free way of doing this then there are freely available JavaScript snippets that you can put to use on your site today without buying any fancy software.
A sample of code can be obtained from CodeLifter.com
The drawback here is that you would need in depth knowledge of JavaScript coding, which not many people know about.
Another approach is to use high end HTML editors like Dreamweaver which have DHTML scripts included under the "Layers" menu. Then again, Dreamweaver is an expensive software.
Any other easier option you ask?
One software that quickly automates the creation of Hover Ads, using a simple 3 step interface is the Hover Ad generator.
The Hover Ads created using this software can be fully customized and are very professional looking.
I especially like the opt-in style Hover Ads which lets your prospects sign up for your opt-in list by simply clicking a button. You subsequently receive a mail with their name and email-id.
I'll let you look up the other four styles on your own.
Summary…
If you use popups on your website, chances are pretty good that they are being screened away by some software or another. Perhaps even by your visitor’s ISP - without any active attempts on your visitor's part to block them. You’ll need to do something about this situation – and soon.
"So, what choices do I have?"
1. Do nothing. Pray that your content is good enough to attract visitors.
2. Visit CodeLifter to get your FREE layer generator script. You will be stuck with one style, though, if you just cut paste. If you know JavaScript you can modify it as per your liking.
3. Use Dreamweaver or your HTML editor, if it has layers support.
4. Check out Hover Ad Generator . They offer a FREE trial.
About The Author
Satyajeet Hattangadi is the Owner of Novasoft Inc, a software solutions provider, who specialize is affordable customized software solutions.
This article may be reprinted as long as this resource box is kept intact
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
More Website Advertising Articles
More By Developer Shed
 developerWorks - FREE Tools!
|
Effective governance for lean development isn’t about command and control. Instead, the focus is on enabling the right behaviors and practices through collaborative and supportive techniques. Hear from Scott Ambler on how it is far more effective to motivate people to do the right thing than it is to force them to do so. Learn how to form a lightweight, collaboration-based framework that reflects the realities of modern IT organizations.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Download a free trial version of IBM DB2 9.5 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows. DB2 9 is the result of a five-year development project that transformed traditional (static) database technology into an interactive data server that merges the high performance and ease of use of DB2 with the self-describing benefits of XML.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Analysts, architects, and developers who have existing COBOL or PL/I skills and want to extend those skills to deploy new workloads on the mainframe can use the IBM Enterprise Modernization Sandbox for System z to find hands-on walkthroughs of common real world scenarios. The scenarios provide examples of how to rapidly design, create, assemble, test, and deploy high-quality Web, Web services, portal, and SOA applications for IBM CICS, IBM IMS, and IBM WebSphere Application Server.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Portfolio Management is about effectively managing portfolio value by aligning portfolio investments with business goals. This complimentary e-kit provides a collection of materials that can help you understand how IBM Rational enables and automates best practices for improved governance and clear visibility into portfolio and project performance across the entire IT project lifecycle.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Discover how Rational tools and best practices for testing can make your job easier. The new Rational Testing eKits provide you with valuable resources – including demos, webcasts, tutorials, and articles – that help you address your specific testing needs across the software lifecycle. Five new eKits are available covering the topics of Requirements and Test Management, Functional Testing, Performance Testing, Code Quality and Embedded Systems, and SOA and Web Services Testing.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
This whitepaper provides areas to consider when evaluating any software configuration management solution. It addresses how the IBM solutions (Rational ClearCase and Rational ClearQuest) meet the needs and requirements of both project leaders and developers to provide successful Software Change and Configuration Management.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
You can now evaluate IBM Rational Asset Manager V7.0 online without installing or configuring it on your own system! Rational Asset Manager helps create, modify, govern, find, and reuse any type of development assets, including SOA and systems development assets. Rational Asset Manager helps you reduce software development costs and improve quality by facilitating the reuse of all types of software development-related assets. Visit developerWorks to learn more about this product and register to explore its capabilities online.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Join this Rational Talks to You teleconference, to hear how Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) eliminates the need for tedious and error-prone low level coding, so developers can focus on business requirements. EGL extends the Rational software development platform with a simplified programming language that enables developers who have little or no experience with Java, Web technologies or Service Oriented Architecture, to create enterprise-class applications and services quickly and easily. It also allows developers who may have little or no mainframe programming experience to quickly create traditional mainframe components.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
The discipline of assembling and delivering software is maturing beyond standard developer-centric compile/test software builds. The end-to-end software development lifecycle is emerging as the new focus moves “Beyond the Build.” Join this on demand webcast to learn about methods for streamlining software delivery and key capabilities of the IBM Rational Build Forge framework for automating build and release management in environments of any size.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Join this webcast to learn how IBM Rational's Functional Testing solution enables you to implement automation your way, at your pace, with your existing staff. In this webcast, you’ll learn how you can eliminate redundancy of manual test scripts, reduce errors, and increase test coverage through test automation. After this presentation you will understand how IBM Rational Functional Testing solution can streamline your manual testing and make test automation easily attainable.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!
|
