PopupAlly Review-Free Simple Light Effective WordPress Popup Plugin That Works Right Away
I gave in. I was planning on keeping this site pop up free but I knew I was missing quite a few opt ins by not having a good pop up asking people to opt into my newsletter. And email marketing is still the number one way to get traffic to your blog. My list is my most important marketing tool and I need to build my list as effectively as possible.
Nobody Really Likes Popups But They Work Extremely Well for Getting Optin Ins
One of the reasons I picked Thrive Theme focus for my website was because it allowed my to have opt in forms beautifully displayed on my blog without using popups. However, I knew that I was missing quite a few opt ins by not having some kind of pop up.
Previously I had been using Pop up Domination but there designs are limited and do not seem to work on mobile. Some of the designs do not work at all and their support is non-existent.
Nathalie Lussier Has Found an Elegant Compromise With Her Polite Exit Pop Up Plugin PopupAlly
I began looking for a good pop up plugin for my blog. There are some pretty elaborate pop up systems. Some of them are:
Lead Pages- The most expensive, a monthly charge, they have just about every type of pop up design and opt in page that you can think of. Definitely a top of the line solution but you have to pay a minimum of $37. per month.
Thrive Leads– A superb plugin that I may upgrade to later. This is not the same as the Thrive theme that I am using. It is an additional plugin which gives you many more options for adding opt ins to your blog. Unlike Lead Pages it is a wordpress plugin. The advantage of a program like Lead Pages is it can work on websites that are not powered by wordpress.
Engagifire– Is definitely worth looking at. It has beautiful templates and can produce just about any type of pop up that you need and works on both wordpress and non worpdress sites. I tried one of their sister products which created lead pages and found it a bit difficult to use and cancelled. However, I would be willing to give Engagifire a shot for just $37. per year. Engagifire like Lead Pages hosts the pages on their servers unlike using a wordpress plugin.
Now we come to the wordpress plugin I am using now for this site and it is a free wordpress plugin programmed by marketer Nathalie Lussier.
Nathalie calls this pop up program a “polite pop up.” Nobody likes pop ups but they undeniably work to get opt ins. I have set my pop up to activate only when people move their mouse up to the left and start leaving the page. This allows them to read my content without being interrupted. Then when they are getting ready to leave I ask them to opt in to my newsletter. This is both a civilized and very effective approach.
Popup Ally Does Not Have Many Options Which Makes This Plugin Simple and Easy to Use
Popup Ally free version does not have many options. This is both a huge advantage and disadvantage. You have the choice of using Nathalie’s “Tried and True” template for your pop up or you can use html code to make your own. There are no elaborate drag and drop templates that are used by Lead Pages and Engagifire and Pop up Domination.
But think about it. Why did I cancel the Captifire program? It was too complicated! I was having a hard time getting their templates to work. Most POP up Domination templates do not work in some browsers. I even hired a designer to try to get them to work in mobile and in various browsers. That should be the job of the designers at POP up domination not mine.
Popup Ally is simple and it works! Yeah! The “tried and true” template looks great, is simple, elegant and gets those opt ins! The plugin worked the first time. I was up and running in no time. How many times have you used a wordpress plugin that just did not work or messed up your site? This one gets the job done, does not waste your time and looks great.
I program some of my own software and often I try to include just the minimum features. I aim for simplicity of use. If you add too many options it gets confusing. This is not the mentality of most programmers. Simple saves time and works.
You can run 2 pop ups with the free version of Popup Ally. You have three choices for each pop up:
Time delayed popup. The pop up will appear a few seconds after people load your site. You can adjust the amounts of seconds to wait before the pop up pops up.
Exit intent popup. That is the one I am using. It pops up as people are leaving my site.
Embedded sign up. This actually is not a pop up it just allows you to put an embedded form on your blog posts.
You can choose to have the pop up show up on all of just some pages and posts. You can click on the posts that you do not want to have Pop up Ally place the pop up.
You can have the popup show up every time someone opens a new browser session or every few days the choice is yours.
You also have various thank you page options. I am just using the options set from my autoresponder provider.
Popup Ally integrates with most autoresponder services. You just copy and paste the raw html code from your autorepsonder service form into Popup Ally and Popup Ally parses the correct fields. Note: the javascript version of your autoresponder form code will not work. You need the raw html. Most providers give you both options.
You then have the choice to use html to format your own form design or to use Popup Ally’s one elegant template. I chose to use her template which works beautifully and made my life simpler.
Tried and True Template Design on Free Version of Popup Ally
Fill in your text, add a picture to the form and even modify the call to action button. I like this last feature because I prefer to use a benefit in the call to action. Rather than just “Subscribe” I like to say “Get Your Free Software!” You are able to do this with Popup Ally quite easily.
That is basically it for the setup.
I Doubled My Opt Ins Almost Immediately Using Popup Ally
As for the results I almost doubled my opt ins using this pop up software. I like the exit intent strategy because it is not too intrusive for my readers and still is very effective.
For now this software is doing the job quite well. I may look into other more elaborate options as I go especially since I have some sites that are not powered by wordpress. In any case bravo to Nathalie Lussier for coming up with a simple, elegant, pop up software which works right out of the box!
You can download the free version of Popup Ally here.
Popup Ally also has a pro version with many more templates and options. The free version works so well it might be well worth your while to see the various options of the pro version. You can see a full break down comparison between free and pro versions here.
Here are some more interesting articles on wordpress popup plugins:
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