I receive hundreds of emails a day, lots of spam and lots of genuine advertisements. The genuine ones come from people that I do business with, from subscribers to my ezine, from ezines that I subscribe to, from affiliate programs that I am associated with and from potential prospects and advertisers. So I set aside some time each day, either early in the morning or late in the evening to do some surfing. This allows me to keep up on what is going on in the Internet business world.
In my travels to different sites there are a number of things that automatically cause my mouse to click to another site (automatic because my finger presses it!:>). These are things that just upset me and cause me to “click away”. If you are creating or thinking about building a web site you might want to consider some of these possible road blocks! Here’s a list of a few of them:
A. Popup Frames – A lot of webmasters and site designers think that popups are great. I think they are a pain in the butt! Some popup even before you have a chance to look at the site, others popup when you try to change a page and still others popup when you try to leave the site. I have even had some popup after I have closed my browser. It’s almost like the high pressure salesman who has his/her foot in the door and won’t take it out. They can be requests to subscribe, requests to bookmark the page and some just contain good old ads.
B. Cookies – Have you ever turned off “cookies” in your browser or checked “prompt” before accepting them? You will be amazed at the number of attempts some sites make to place cookies on your computer. I have counted anywhere from 40 to 60 that I have clicked “No” on when prompted at some sites. That’s a bit much! One day when you have some time, go check your Windows files under cookies and Temporary Internet files and see how many cookies you have stored there! The first time I checked those files, my neighbors heard me yell! I shortly thereafter purchased and downloaded a small program called “The Cookie Crusher” for $15. It can be obtained at: With it you can predetermine which sites you will accept cookies from and can restrict specific sites from placing cookies on your computer. Now I control who places cookies on my computer. It is a simple program and easy to install when you download it.
There are some sites that I have been referred to that don’t even let you see the home page without having the “cookies” on your computer turned on. You will usually get a page that pointedly tells you, no access without your “cookies” turned on. Why would a company trying to do business not let you see their site once you get there? Seems counterproductive to me! And also dumb!
C. No Contact Information – Everytime I see a site that I have interest in, I can’t find any contact information about the company. I can’t tell where they are, what the company name is, or if it is a company I want to do business with and want to check it out further. Some sites have an email listed but with a lot of them you receive an standard autoresponder reply. My philosophy is simple, no contact information, I go elsewhere. It is very simple to put up a page with information about your company, take a look at ours as an example:
D. Request For Your Contact Information – There are some sites that have an entry page that requests your name and email address on a form before you can access the site. Most of the sites that I encountered this on have been network marketing type sites. I think this can cause a high click away percentage or a high percentage of false names and email addresses. They want to ensure that they are able to send you followups or to add you to their mailing list or ezine.
It amazes me, with all the competition on the Net, why a site would want to limit access through techniques like these and make its visitors jump through hoops in order to take a look at the information or services they are offering. Of course these are only my personal objections and feelings to sites that use these techniques. They might not bother you and maybe you don’t even notice them when you visit a site.
If you happened to read my last article, “Do You Know Who Is Snooping Around Your Computer Right Now?” (available online at: ) you know that I am concerned with the privacy of my computer and protection of my personal information. Happy Surfing!
Article by Joe Reinbold, Publisher of Home Income Quarterly
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