Ask the Readers

Today we’ve got another ask the readers segment and I’m pretty sure that most of you have a strong opinion one way or the other on this topic.

What do you think of pop-ups on websites or blogs that ask for your email address?

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, pop-ups are still around online today. They are even making a come back recently with plug-ins such as pop-up domination. What do you think of pop-ups that ask for your email address to subscribe to content, freebies, or other bonuses?

Do you sign-up through them? Do they make you more likely to leave the website? Or perhaps they greatly increase the subscription rate on your rate?

If you hate pop-ups, I want to hear why they bother you. If you like them or even use them on your own site, I want to hear from you in the comments too.

Last Month’s “Ask The Readers”

In July we asked you how you got on the map online. There were over 22 great answers and my favorite response comes from Joanna of My Dukan Diet:

1. Being helpful – I get a lot of questions via email, and try to answer these almost straight away.

2. Providing value – the content didn’t get created overnight, but making sure it’s relevant and in-depth is what probably helped me survive the flood of spam sites that started to target the same keywords.

3. Being responsive to the audience needs – although it started as a simple recipe site, as people asked the same questions over and over I’ve added an FAQs section as well as certain elements in the site that help prevent these questions being asked.

Creating value and providing answers to an audience is a great way to make a name for yourself online and Joanna is certainly doing both.

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But, back to this week’s question.

I’d liked to know: What do you think of pop-ups on websites and blogs?

Let’s hear it!

I have a special question today for those of you who have already achieved some recognition and/or reputation online.

How did you “get on the map?”

In other words, what tactic, connection, action, event, or chain of events led to a breakthrough and earned your first major recognition or the initial gathering of your “tribe?”

I’d love to hear what put you on the map in the comments below.

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From the prior ask the readers segment, I asked “should you be intimidated by competition or just go for it?”

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Get your thinking caps on. Today I’m going to ask you a question that hopefully you’ve asked yourself from time-to-time.

How do you know if you should enter a market, or if there is too much competition already?

I’m asking specifically about starting websites and blogs. I’m sure you’ve wondered about this yourself already. How do you know if you should jump in, or look for other opportunities?

I can’t wait to hear your answers in the comments below.

The idea for this post came from Shane Ketterman who sent me an email last week with this:

When you originally left for Mexico that first time and came back with the idea of starting Think Traffic, were you intimidated at all by the sheer volume of sites out there talking about “how to get traffic”, etc. or did you just figure you would add your own angle and go for it?

Here’s what I responded with:
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Websites fail. They fail all the time. I don’t have any hard statistics, but if my experience reflects the Internet in general, then four out of five website projects will fail.

Websites and blogs fail in the sense that a site doesn’t reach whatever goal the creator set out for it, whether that goal was fame, fortune, a book deal or the next viral hit. After the failure some sites sit around collecting web dust and others shut down altogether.

I’ve watched plenty of my own online projects fail over the years. I’ll share the reasons why they didn’t succeed in upcoming posts, but first I want to hear your take on online failure.

Why do most websites fail?

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Welcome to another ask the readers segment. These posts are meant to be a broader discussion on an important topic related to getting more traffic for your website or blog.

This time, I’d like to find out how many visitors you’re aiming for to reach your next major milestone for your site.

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