How to Design a PopUp Window to Boost Opt-Ins

I get many emails a month from people asking how to go aboutdesigning a popup window to extract the maximum number ofopt-ins from visitors to their web site. In this article Ioutline the seven essential steps you should take in your designof a successful popup:

1. PAY your subscriber

Okay, not literally PAY them, but you generally need to givesomething back in return for the visitor’s name and emailaddress.

For example, a free course, a free book, a free consultation,anything that’s of VALUE to your visitors and of RELEVANCE toyour web site or business. I see so many popups that just say’Type in your name and email address here:’ without givinganything in return for these details.

2. Make your headline SELL

The headline of your popup is incredibly important, as it’soften the first part of the popup window that the visitor’s eyeis attracted to. If it doesn’t interest them, they’ll shut downthe popup immediately.

What can you do to improve your headline?

You need to focus strongly on the BENEFIT to the potentialsubscriber – tell them exactly how are they going to BENEFITfrom giving you their name and email address. For example, thefollowing are all headlines suitable for my own site that offera clear benefit to the reader:

“Boost your Subscribers by 535%” “Discover Secret PopUpTechniques” “FREE Report: Exit PopUp Boosts Sales 110%”

You could emulate this type of benefit-laden headline for yourown site.

3. Make it load QUICK

A slow loading popup is going to be a quickly closed popup! Novisitor to your web site is going to sit around while yourelaborate popup loads all your fancy graphics, they’re justgoing to close it straight away – it’s your job to CAPTURE THEIRINTEREST as soon as possible, and thereby prevent closure of thewindow before you’ve made your offer, and hopefully get them totype in their details.

Some graphics are usually more effective than none, but minimizeyour use of them, and optimize the graphics files beforeuploading to your server.

4. Use an effective TITLE

I see many popups where the title of the popup window (i.e., inthe title bar, set by the HTML title tags) is completelyinappropriate. For example, ‘popup page’ or ‘popup1′. At best,this looks unprofessional, so try to make your title relevant tothe offer you are making to the visitor, and mirror yourheadline in some way.

5. BALANCE the popup page

The page you display in the popup window should at the veryleast look pleasing to the eye. This means the fonts on the pageshould be consistent and not look out of place, the colorsshould provide high contrast and make it easy to read, and thealignment of the text and any images on the page should not makeany element look out of place.

6. Offer a way to CLOSE the popup window

You can easily add a button or a link to your popup page thatallows visitors to close the popup window if they wish. You cando this easily by adding the code onclick=”self.close();returnfalse;” to your link or button tag.

7. KEEP IT SIMPLE

Overall, the best rule you can follow is just to keep to thepoint and Keep It Simple – this way you can capture theattention of your visitor quickly and easily and not distracttheir attention from your main aim which is to get their nameand email address. And of course, once you’ve got their emailaddress, treat it well and keep their interest.

By following these seven essential tips, you’ll definitely haveall the basics in place. The trick then is to keep on tweakingand testing your popup to try and optimize on your results.

About the author:Steve Shaw is the author of The PopUp Masters Course availablefor FREE from http://popupmaster.com/?a12 – Discover the PopUpSecrets of Pros like Marlon Sanders and Terry Dean, and boostyour opt-ins by 535%