After many months of procrastination, I finally got around to adding a hover ad to my website. A hover ad is a type of pop-up ad that appears in your browser window from the side or top of the screen, or may just slowly float in front of the page you're viewing, or may suddenly pop in and bounce up and down for a bit. What differentiates a hover ad from traditional pop-up ads is that it's not blockable by pop-up blockers built into web browsers.

The hover ad is incredibly effective because it brings your primary call to action to visitor's attention right away and asks that they respond to that call to action. Consequently, you'll experience a great increase in the number of signups to your list as a result of using this technology. In the time I've been using a hover ad, my opt-in rates have doubled over using the traditional opt-in form embedded on my site.

There are a number of software/services offering the hover ad popup technology. I use the one that is included as a part of my service with my email broadcast provider, aWeber.com.

Here are 11 features of a hover-ad that will help you double (or perhaps triple or quadruple) the opt-ins to your website:

1. Descriptive page title. Let you visitor know what they will be receiving by creating a descriptive page title.

2. Close window option. If you don't offer your visitor the option to close the hover ad, you risk annoying them, which may result in a hasty exit from your website.

3. Graphic image. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Embed a graphic image of what you're offering so that your visitor can "see" what they're getting.

4. Compelling headline. Headlines make visitors take action. Provide a compelling benefit or result to your visitor that makes them think, "I've got to get that!"

5. Description of offer. Visitors are leery of giving out their email addresses. Provide a concise description what they're receiving that makes them believe it's worth their time to part with their name and email address.

6. Sense of urgency. Remind them that they can instantly receive this information, which satisfies an Internet browser's need for immediate gratification.

7. Value of offer. Place a dollar value of the information you're giving away. There's little value in "free", so make your offer worth something.

8. Privacy policy. Visitors want to know how you'll be using their contact info. State your policy in a short, concise sentence.

9. Field labels. Instead of simply leaving the boxes beside your requested information fields (name and email address) blank, fill that in with default text as yet another reminder of the information that you're seeking.

10. Submit button. Don't simply request that the visitor submit the info. Give them a call to action, such as "Send my info today!"

11. Frequency and delay. Most hover ad software permits you to time the entrance of your hover ad to the page as well as control the frequency with which the ad appears. My rule of thumb is not to surprise or bombard my visitors with my hover ad, so I set the ad to appear slowly on the screen, and to appear once every 10 days only so that my visitors aren't bombarded again and again with the ad once they've opted in.

Spend some time creating an effective hover ad to promote your primary call to action. When you see your opt-ins increase, you'll wonder why you didn't choose to use this strategy sooner!

Copyright (c) 2007 Donna Gunter