Exit Killer 3.0 has only one purpose: to prevent any unwanted pop-up window generation on your screen. That is why it does it so well. Based upon four sensitivity levels, Exit Killer 3.0 provides you with precise control. Each level filters a variety of advertising pop-ups. The highest level prevents any pop-ups and you can be sure that nothing will ever bother you while surfing!For a business that hopes to stay competitive, it’s sometimes helpful to take a look at the possible future in a brave attempt to anticipate market changes before they go into effect. If you can identify change and be ready to meet it, you’ll have a serious edge on the competition. In this spirit Connor Young looks at the current state of exit consoles and wonders if they have a future in online marketing.

Believe it or not, pop-up consoles that generate “exit traffic” are good for business. Yes, I’m talking about those annoying browser windows that suddenly appear when you attempt to leave some Web sites. Sometimes they even appear before you have left by “popping under” your current browser window and hiding like roaches under a cardboard pizza box. Some of these consoles are more annoying than others, the worst of which will: resize to full screen automatically, keep popping up new windows whenever you try to close one, and even remove your ability to close the window altogether. Many pop-up consoles have so enraged American citizens that politicians have used them (along with spam) to justify legislation that amounts to little more than plain censorship (to protect the children, of course). So, how can these annoying little creatures be a good thing? I’m glad you asked.

Not all pop-up windows are evil, and in fact responsible Webmasters can use them both as an effective marketing tool and as a service to surfers who did not find what they were looking for after visiting a site. I have argued before that a single, reasonably sized pop-up console is a nice way to tell a surfer who is exiting your site about some other Web sites that might be of better interest. We’re sorry you didn’t find what you were looking for here, but maybe one of these sites can help.

Even if you don’t plan to use exit consoles or pop-under consoles on your own sites (a foolish decision, but to each his or her own), if you send traffic to an affiliate program then you’re indirectly benefiting from console marketing. Virtually all of the major affiliate programs use pop-up or pop-under consoles to market “other” sites to departing surfers – the revenue that they generate from this “exit” traffic allows the affiliate program to pay those high payouts that we’ve all become so accustomed to receiving. Without exit consoles you probably wouldn’t see very many affiliate programs paying out $35.00 to $40.00 per trial membership.

ENTER THE SLAYER

Since pop-up consoles are such an important aspect of marketing porn sites, Webmasters would do well to pay special attention to new software technologies that will give power back to surfers and maybe take money away from Webmasters. For users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Netscape’s Navigator, killing those often annoying pop-up consoles can be as easy as $2\’.\’5. A new product has recently emerged which will eliminate or decrease pop-up windows, depending on the intensity setting chosen by the user. Called “Exit Killer,” this application is just what so many surfers have dreamed about – a chance to take back control of their browser and in effect make their online experience more enjoyable and suitable to their tastes. Here is the description of Exit Killer offered on the ExitKiller.com Web site:

Exit Killer 3.0 has only one purpose: to prevent any unwanted pop-up window generation on your screen. That is why it does it so well. Based upon four sensitivity levels, Exit Killer 3.0 provides you with precise control. Each level filters a variety of advertising pop-ups. The highest level prevents any pop-ups and you can be sure that nothing will ever bother you while surfing!

Considering the fact that pop-up consoles are so important to the current state of adult site marketing, is Exit Killer something to fight? I seriously doubt it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years it’s that you can’t stop new technologies that have high demand just because you yourself profited from the “old” way of doing things. Just ask the music industry. Things change, and that means you’ll have to learn how to adapt if you want to stay an adult Webmaster for more than a couple of years. Rather than fight them, Exit Killer suggests that you join them, and they have set up an affiliate program which pays Webmasters for every sale of Exit Killer for which they’re responsible. Again from the ExitKiller.com Web site:

Thanks to the outstanding response and sales of the Exit Killer software, we are able to offer you a $12.00 commission on every sale. Exit Killer is fantastic, high converting program bringing in about 3 to 4 sales per hundred visitors! Sells well on almost any kind of Web site. People are tired of pop-up consoles!

Well no doubt they’re a little biased, but who can dispute the general hatred the average surfer has for pop-ups? Just corner your friends and relatives at the next gathering you attend and ask them if they have problems with pop-up consoles on the Internet. Words like “hate” and “annoying” will almost certainly be used often in the ensuing conversation. So maybe there is a chance to profit off of selling Exit Killer – if you don’t, someone else probably will.

GO GO MOZILLA!

Yet how long will specialized console-terminating software remain a profitable business? If new Web browser Mozilla has anything to say about it, not very long. The “Mozilla” project is an open-source Web browser application that is almost ready for prime time. I sense that some of you are confused – Mozilla is loosely connected to AOL’s Netscape and there was a time when log files identified all Netscape users and even some Internet Explorer (IE) users as “Mozilla” users. Yet Mozilla and Netscape are now two entirely different beasts, and the former is reportedly almost ready to take the Internet community by storm. Now what does this have to do with pop-up consoles you might ask? One nifty feature of the Mozilla browser is that it allows users to disable pop-up consoles without the need to purchase additional software like Exit Killer.

Hey, pretty cool from a surfer’s point of view – I suspect that some of you might want to rush right over to Mozilla.org and download a free beta version of the browser right now. I certainly plan to give Mozilla a fair shake, being very disappointed when I was forced to abandon the buggy Netscape Navigator in favor of IE about a year or so ago. I like the idea of an alternative to Microsoft, and I especially like the idea of an open-source, free alternative that will allow me to kill pop-up consoles. But all this coolness signifies one undeniable point: the effectiveness of pop-up consoles in terms of marketing adult porn sites is entering its final years. Should Mozilla take off, there is little doubt that Microsoft will attempt to incorporate popular Mozilla features into IE – that’s standard Microsoft procedure: let someone else innovate and then steal their creativity. Once IE users can switch off pop-up consoles, there will be precious few surfers left who will even see your console. The ones who do see it might be more likely to actually use it, but you will have less exit traffic to work with, and that will probably mean lower revenues.

Now relax, all this console-killing technology is at least a year away from impacting your business significantly, and maybe even two years away. In the meantime you can always profit by selling Exit Killer to poor surfers who have no idea that the technology will probably be free soon enough. Just be aware that the days of exit consoles are drawing close to an end and be thinking of other ways to re-direct your traffic in an effective manner. Hopefully the replacement for exit consoles won’t simply be those even more annoying flash advertisements that take up half the screen and block what you’re trying to read on the Web page you just visited. Hopefully the death of exit consoles won’t mean the birth of something more annoying, more hateful and more sinister. In about two years, we’ll all know the answer to that. Will you be prepared?

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Connor Young is Editor-in-Chief of The ADULTWEBMASTER Magazine.