One of the topics that I discussed during "The Traffic Generation" seminar held this past Monday at InterNext was the use of "consoles" to help control and profit from surfers who were leaving your site. Here are a few highlights…
For those who do not know what a "console" is, they are those ubiquitous little pop-up Windows that you see when you enter or exit many web sites. While I have noticed a trend lately towards seeing less of them on adult sites, and more of them on mainstream sites, these controversial advertising tools have their place in a well-balanced online marketing mix.
OnExit Consoles pop when the surfer leaves your site, providing you with one last chance to make a sale.
Kitty Konsoles
It was
actually "Wild Cat" over at HELMY
Cash that got me re-interested in the use of consoles. She
spends several hours each day analyzing the traffic flow, sponsor's
listing placement order, and conversion ratio of a single exit
console fed by a strong family of popular pay sites. While an
afterthought for many Webmasters, she takes this console seriously,
and by updating daily, and occasionally several times a day in
response to shifting traffic and conversion ratios, has seen a
dramatic increase in revenue as a result of her efforts.
Most adult Webmasters won't have the time or energy to devote to this project that she has, but even a weekly analysis and tweak of a single centralized exit console can make a difference in your bottom line. For those that think "Hey, my console works fine…" I can tell you that site to site, sponsor to sponsor, there is a real difference in conversions throughout the day that make doing this "full-time" a worthwhile endeavor - especially when you're dealing with the traffic levels that Wild Cat does.
One of the benefits to running a single console fed by all of your sites (or a single FPA for that matter) is that the console be easily turned on and off, and made to funnel measured amounts of traffic to whatever destination you choose. And it does this all by editing one simple HTML page. Or, if you have a huge amount of sites across varying niches, you could have a "teen" console, a "mature" console, a "fetish" console, etc. The choice is up to you.
Cracking the Code
In a previous tutorial,
I presented these three basic types of consoles: "Enter,"
"Exit," and "Stealth." While these consoles
all perform basically the same function, providing you with another
chance to turn your prospect into a customer, their design and
deployment varies with their application. As this article deals
with consoles, I thought it would be a good time to print this
small "refresher course" for those who missed the original,
or need a little more help.
• OnEnter
Consoles are designed to "pop" when a surfer first enters
your site, in an effort to send him straight to your sponsor before
he consumes your precious bandwidth. Insert the following code
in between your <HEAD></HEAD>
tags, changing the URL and dimensions as needed:
<SCRIPT
language="JavaScript"> • OnExit
Consoles pop when the surfer leaves your site, providing you with
one last chance to make a sale. This is the most common use of
a console. Their use is more complex, involving the <BODY>
tag as well as "no-pop" code in the appropriate links
as needed:
<HTML> <!--
Insert this into links you don't want to pop on: <A
href="no-pop.htm" OnClick="goback=false">NO
POP </A>
</BODY> • Stealth
Consoles are one of my favorites. Generally popping when the surfer
enters your site, they "hide" behind the main window,
and are usually only visible once the main window is closed. Insert
this code in between your <HEAD></HEAD>
tags, changing the URL as needed:
<SCRIPT
language="JavaScript"> I hope
that this article will help some of you make more money by paying
extra attention to your exit traffic. You may not want to make
a full-time job of it, but rest assured, when they're used correctly
and in moderation, exit consoles are a great way to fuel your
bottom line.
<!-- BEGIN ENTER CONSOLE
{
window.open('enter_console.htm','Enter','resizable=no,scrollbars=no,
toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,
width=300,height=300');
}
// END ENTER CONSOLE -->
</SCRIPT>
<HEAD>
<SCRIPT language="Javascript">
<!-- BEGIN EXIT CONSOLE
var goback=true;
function exit()
{
if (goback)
open('exit_console.htm','Exit','resizable=no,scrollbars=no,
toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,
width=300,height=300');
}
// END EXIT CONSOLE -->
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY
OnUnload="exit()">
OnClick="goback=false" For example: -->
</HTML>
<!-- BEGIN STEALTH CONSOLE
window.open('stealth_console.htm','_blur');
if (window.focus) {
window.focus(); }
// END STEALTH CONSOLE -->
</SCRIPT>
