I started seeing those imitation chat popup windows a while ago and I must admit that the first time I saw one I did click on it thinking it was an actual chat invitation! I guess if someone as web savvy and on the ball as me can get fooled anyone can…
I wasn’t sure whether they were too spammy or a crafty idea that could be used on my sites without me feeling grubby in the way a used car salesman would after selling their first cut and shut to an unsuspecting family.
After reading a few blog posts from people who have tested this method on their sites and how they have the best click through rate (CTR) of all the popups and opt ins I felt compelled to give it a try and track down the tool responsible.
WordPress Plugin for Chat Style Popups
Luckily the tool to get these chat style popups is a WordPress plugin that only costs $12 although the pro version is another $20 on top and gives you more options. I stumped up the cash and installed the pro version on this blog as since the recent Google updates it now gets the most hits a day out of all my sites so would be best for testing.
Most people use the link in the box to take visitors to a opt-in page for their mailing list but I thought I’d try a few different links: some to my Facebook, some to twitter and some to relevant affiliate offers. So far the CTR has been very low but perhaps that is because the people reading this blog know the score and don’t fall for blatant attempts at trickery and tomfoolery.
Anyway the tool is called Covert Messenger and I’m using the Pro version as you can do a lot more with it but if you want to regular version it is just under $12 and can be picked up from here:
What do you think? A spammy step too far or a legitimate marketing technique?
What are those Annoying Fake Chat Popups? is a post from: How I Got Rich