How To Create Free "Unblockable" Popup Windows

by Andre Bell

Published on this site: June 10th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

We entrepreneurs are constantly looking for new ways to boost conversion rates and squeeze out more money from the traffic we already have. In the past the best tool for grabbing attention of web visitors were the annoying popups that opened in multiple separate windows.

But popups became such a nuisance that smart surfers now run popup blockers. Even Google and Yahoo have added popup blocking to their toolbars, making it less likely for a popup to have a chance of ever being seen.

Fortunately there is a new tool many entrepreneurs are now using to get around popup blocking. This new tool is referred to as an "unblockable" popup, because it loads in the same page the visitor is already viewing instead of a separate window.

But at a price tag of $25 to $100 each to hire a designer to create the popups or $97 annual licensing fees to use a single popup as some sites charge, many entrepreneurs have chosen to 'opt out' of using these new popups.

So, I dedicated four to six hours a day for a week trying to figure out how to create these popups for myself without having to buy software and without having to hire a popup designer.

I found a way anyone can setup these same types of popups in your own web pages in under twenty minutes absolutely free using freeware and Open Source content.

What's needed?

Using nothing more than the text editor Notepad (or your favorite web design software) to cut and paste basic popup instructions into your web page, you can make your own "unblockable" popup windows completely free.

The four-step process for creating your own "unblockable" popups have been published in my blog at http://AndreBell.com/blog for those who are up to the task of reading and cut-and-pasting how to do this for yourself.

And the best part is there's no need to run out and buy any expensive standalone software programs or pay high annual licensing fees to create your popup images.

Your popups can be created for free when using your existing images, scanned images, or images created with Open Source image editing software like GIMP, ImageForge, and other free image editors.

There's also no need to buy special software to 'generate code' to create popups because many free scripts already exist that you can simply cut-and-paste into your web page to make any image you can get your hands on popup on the page without paying licensing fees.

Plus, when using these cut-and-paste scripts that I found, your popup is unblockable because the page uses standard html to load the image, not special code like flash or QuickTime or other plug in software; all of which are blockable.

As long as your visitor's browser supports graphics they will see your popup even if they run popup blockers and disable JavaScript and ActiveX in their browsers your popup will still be seen.

Andre Bell is an independent direct response marketing consultant specializing in helping small business owners use free and low-cost marketing techniques that rely on imagination, energy, and even the efforts of other people instead of money to promote their business. For more information and to receive other marketing tips please visit his site at http://www.AndreBell.com