Exit Pop

Let’s face it, up to 90% of all your web traffic will leave. So to try and limit that number, some people resort to adding exit pop scripts to their sites in order to jolt people into staying. But do they really work?

The idea behind them is that when a site visitor decides to click off the site, a flashy pop up comes up and “screams” STOP!!

I don’t know about you, but those things tend to annoy the heck out of me.

I mean, I read the sales pitch, I watched the videos, I thought about it, and I decided I didn’t want it. That’s my prerogative isn’t it?

It’s been my experience that the best way to make friends is to avoid annoying people at all costs. Trying to force me into staying where I don’t want to be is not going to make me think you’re acting in my best interest.

But now that still leaves us with the vast majority of people walking away from our primary means of survival (our sales pages) without spending a dime.

How can we monetize this whole thing without driving people to drink?

Perhaps the key to this is to think about what the visitors are doing on a sales page to begin with. It would seem pretty clear that they’re looking to buy something. So it’d also be safe to say that they’re shopping, right?

And if they’re on your sales page, then it would be a safe bet to conclude that they’re in the market for something relating to what you’re selling.

But let’s accept the fact that they don’t want what you offer for the moment, and think the way they may be thinking.

Suppose you sell a widget that makes submitting articles easier. So they’re shopping for an article submitter, but they don’t want yours for whatever reason.

Wouldn’t it be a logical idea then to offer them an alternative to yours?

They’re leaving your site anyway. And chances are they’re still going to shop around for what they came to your site looking for. So why not?

Wouldn’t it be more reasonable than annoying people by trying to force them to stay if you offered them an alternative?

They’re going to go look without you, so why not keep them with you and give them a choice? No doubt you must have an affiliate link lying around for your competitor’s product. Maybe even a couple different ones.

Seems to me it would be prudent to save them some browsing time and let you capitalize on their departure, wouldn’t you think?

So if an exit pop was going to work in the best fashion possible, it would have to offer alternatives rather than scream at your visitors as they leave.