Most browsers now automatically block popups. There are also countless free tools that will do the job for you. So popups as a marketing tool are pretty much dead, right?

Maybe not. Maybe they're just evolving.

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For the past week I've been testing out a new twist on popup technology. After all, I know how well popups can work when used responsibly. Literally tens of thousands of BizWeb eGazette readers, subscribed via one of my popups.

But over the past year I've phased my popups out as more and more technology has blocked them. Technology can turn the tables occasionally, and maybe, just maybe, popups are not dead just yet.

Now, before I go into this new popup technology I've been testing, I do want to say this about popups... I for one am glad they've been weeded out! There was nothing worse than trying to get some information from the web and being inundated with popup after popup. Annoying, wastes of time, most popups were.

But what if popups were actually helpful to web visitors? Would there be a place for them then? What if popups were used in an unobtrusive manner, to offer a special coupon, or maybe make a special announcement to affiliates or members?

I'd like you to turn your eyes to the popup on this page. Yes, over there to the right. The little green box that has been following you down this page. That's a popup.

I think you'll agree, it's sort of well, attractive -- and not as annoying as traditional popups. And these new pops can be used for all sorts of different things such as getting traffic to a site, getting new subscribers, making announcements, etc. etc.

But with all the popup blocking going on these days, how do I know you are seeing my new popup today?

Because it was created with technology that is not affected by standard popup blocking technology. This new popup technology.

In a moment I'm going to share just how effective these popups have proven in my little experiment.

(More after this important message.)

But before I get into my own stats, I can already hear some of you playing devil's advocate...

"What will keep this technology from being abused like the popups of old?"

Well, I posed that question to the creator of this new technology and he wrote...

"There are governors built into the system that give it a certain level of control. For instance, it cannot spawn multiple popup windows. In fact, it's not a new browser window that pops up at all. It is an image containing custom 'hand-written' fonts."

"Plus, webmasters have lots of control over the way it acts, including the ability to position it on the side." (The sliding popup you see on this web page is called a "chaser" which is a feature in the advanced version due out soon.)

"What's more, this system is NOT designed to serve 3rd party ads that people don't want to see. But rather, it was designed for in-house promotions."

But does it work?

I thought you'd never ask. So let's get back to my stats...

The little sliding popup you see to the right has been viewed 1605 times as of the writing of this newsletter, with 169 clicks. That's a sturdy click-thru rate of more than 10%. When put in perspective, that's about 13 times the average click-thru rate of traditional banner ads. Sort of shocking, isn't it?

Why the high response rate? Frankly, I don't know!

Maybe it's because this popup rides along the sidebar, always available to the reader.

Maybe it's because this popup is unobtrusive and just the opposite of traditional in-your-face popups of old.

Maybe it's because of the sharp, eye-catching design.

While I'm not sure exactly why they perform so well, frankly I don't care. As long as they are driving more traffic and sales, and not aggravating web surfers like my old popups, I'm happy to have discovered them!

But are these new, high-tech popups right for your site?

That's a question only you can answer.

But I know one thing for sure... if you DO try this new popup technology, I hope you are as surprised at the results as I have been.

To your online marketing success,
Jim Daniels - JDD Publishing
Creator of ezWebBusinessBuilder.com - the world's first View it and Do It software for profiting from the web.

P.S. Thanks again to all of you who wrote letters raving about my new CD. It's heartwarming knowing that the software has helped so many of you get your web businesses going in the right direction.

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