Obnoxious Way to annoy visitors to your website

[janitorC7]

Yes, I have posted on this project before with similar questions, but this one is slightly different, although granted repetitive. and seeing as though my client seems to want me to be obnoxious and repetitive, I might as well employ it into my everyday life.

Okay, so here is the latest way that my client wants to annoy thier potential clients.

When the client is viewing the "sales page" and they decide the close or navigate away from the page, I want to open a "down sale page" that will offer them basically the same book, minus the audio CD or something for a lower price.

How do I do this?

and Yes, I have advise them against this, it is annoying. and if I had the money, i would drop the client, but starting off, and as a current student I don't have the funds to justify dropping this client, especially for the ridiculously high hourly wage they are willing to pay me (their offer, not mine).

My main focus has alway been on the actual design and User interface, as well as creating online communities, so all of these "hacks" (I think this is what they deserved to be called) well I have not bothered to learn them.

any help is greatly appreciated as they want to launch, neh, ARE launching on Tuesday.

Thank You much, MacRumors Community

 

[angelwatt]

The only thing I know of that could help with this is the JavaScript event onunload that is applied to the window. I'm sure if it gets invoked from closing a window though, but does work for leaving the page.

Though I think it would be better off to have a link that says, "Want a cheaper version of this item?" rather than the web page playing puppet master with me.

Good luck with educating the client. Make sure they use the page to see how annoying it is. That's likely the best way to get them to see the serious issues here. Also what web site will this before? I want to black list it preventively

 

[janitorC7]

The only thing I know of that could help with this is the JavaScript event onunload that is applied to the window. I'm sure if it gets invoked from closing a window though, but does work for leaving the page.

Though I think it would be better off to have a link that says, "Want a cheaper version of this item?" rather than the web page playing puppet master with me.

Good luck with educating the client. Make sure they use the page to see how annoying it is. That's likely the best way to get them to see the serious issues here. Also what web site will this before? I want to black list it preventively

I could not get it work like this......

it was what I had originally tried, but it does not work in gecko and IE6+ browsers.

and I'd tell you the site, and give a link, but I dont want to run the risk of a search engine seeing it and then my clients figuring out that I have been calling them obnoxious...

 

[Applespider]

Small point... do your clients know how many customers purchase on the first visit against how many purchase on subsequent visits after considering options?

If there's a high percentage of second/third visitors who come back to buy, then offering a discounted version might lead to lower sales overall.

 

[janitorC7]

Small point... do your clients know how many customers purchase on the first visit against how many purchase on subsequent visits after considering options?

If there's a high percentage of second/third visitors who come back to buy, then offering a discounted version might lead to lower sales overall.

you know, I thought of this to.

But them the answer came to me, anybody that thinks about this purchase, will not buy it.

I honestly hate doing this work, I really want to do website that involve somthing creating, rather than just being a coder, which with all the changes that had me do, is all I am, they took my good design and turned it into somthing that could have been done in word.

but hey, I cant argue with the money

What would I add to a link that would make the unload false?

 

[angelwatt]

What would I add to a link that would make the unload false?

Apparently there's an event function called onbeforeunload (supported in IE, Firefox, and at least Safari 3) that may give you some options. See this page for some details, http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/100604-1.shtml

 

[janitorC7]

Apparently there's an event function called onbeforeunload (supported in IE, Firefox, and at least Safari 3) that may give you some options. See this page for some details, http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/100604-1.shtml

I like this one

Thank You

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Since we're talking obnoxious here...

You could also replace the current window with a JS generated version which is chromeless (one without icons, address bar, close button, etc.). This prevents anyone from closing the window the easy way, and you can simply use onblur() and other standard cross-browser JS event handlers.

There are numerous DHMTL chromeless window options you can find via Google that use the JS DOM and work across almost all modern browsers.

Here's an annoying page the demonstrates both, just imagine the DHMTL dialog on the left of that page not having the X on the top right, and it could be previously hidden in a div, then turned visible based on a trigger event - and much larger, too.

http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/chromeless-popup.htm

I despise stuff like this, but if it pays your bills.... we understand! It shows class that you mentioned your disdain, we noticed and relate!

-jim

 

[janitorC7]

Since we're talking obnoxious here...

You could also replace the current window with a JS generated version which is chromeless (one without icons, address bar, close button, etc.). This prevents anyone from closing the window the easy way, and you can simply use onblur() and other standard cross-browser JS event handlers.

There are numerous DHMTL chromeless window options you can find via Google that use the JS DOM and work across almost all modern browsers.

Here's an annoying page the demonstrates both, just imagine the DHMTL dialog on the left of that page not having the X on the top right, and it could be previously hidden in a div, then turned visible based on a trigger event - and much larger, too.

http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/chromeless-popup.htm

I despise stuff like this, but if it pays your bills.... we understand! It shows class that you mentioned your disdain, we noticed and relate!

-jim

ahh yes, how I hate those....

I was able to talk the client out of doing it, after I had already coded it. I think it had something to do with the fact that they kept sending me more changes to the page, and then every time they went to check the changes, they had to deal with the annoying prompts, and extra pages, they just called me one day, and they said I was right, it was annoying, do away with it.

JC7

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Wooohooo!

(sorry)

-jim

 

[angelwatt]

I was able to talk the client out of doing it, after I had already coded it. I think it had something to do with the fact that they kept sending me more changes to the page, and then every time they went to check the changes, they had to deal with the annoying prompts, and extra pages, they just called me one day, and they said I was right, it was annoying, do away with it.

From my earlier post:

...
Good luck with educating the client. Make sure they use the page to see how annoying it is. That's likely the best way to get them to see the serious issues here. ...

See, like I said, experiencing the annoyance is the best way to convince them. Too bad it required you to code it all up just to convince them you were right. Maybe you should look into doing quick prototypes first to help show clients issues they create with their request.

 

[janitorC7]

Wooohooo!

(sorry)

-jim

haha, I had a similar response myself

From my earlier post:


See, like I said, experiencing the annoyance is the best way to convince them. Too bad it required you to code it all up just to convince them you were right. Maybe you should look into doing quick prototypes first to help show clients issues they create with their request.

I don't mind having to code it up....

I had the clock running when i was researching how to get it done, and after i told them that i could not find a way to get it exactly the way they wanted it, they offered to triple my hourly for the coding of this one feature, and they paid, and I dont think I had much better to do at the time....

I'm glad that they got rid of it though, and I guess I'm glad that I now know how to do it, maybe there will be a good reason to use it in the future (cant think of what though)

JC7

 

[chaos86]

dont sell your soul.

there are some things that we creative professionals need to stand up for-- the end of comic sans MS, no popups on websites, not everything needs a drop shadow, etc.

 

[janitorC7]

dont sell your soul.

there are some things that we creative professionals need to stand up for-- the end of comic sans MS, no popups on websites, not everything needs a drop shadow, etc.

haha, I almost lost all hope when I discovered that CSS3 will have a drop-shadow property

JC7

 

[chaos86]

haha, I almost lost all hope when I discovered that CSS3 will have a drop-shadow property

JC7

i was actually happy about that. look at guardforlife.com and take a guess at how many images and how many lines of code it takes to make the drop shadow.

 

[angelwatt]

dont sell your soul.

there are some things that we creative professionals need to stand up for-- the end of comic sans MS, no popups on websites, not everything needs a drop shadow, etc.

Comic Sans isn't that bad, as long as it's used in the right cases. I use it on my personal blog and feel it works well there, but honestly can't remember the last time I saw it on a site.

I agree with the pop-ups, but how do you feel about pop-overs? (the div pop-ups). Those are really hard to block. I use one on my site, but in a non-obtrusive way. I guess some image slide shows would fall under pop-over as well.

 

[angelneo]

I can see where your client is coming from, although I don't agreed with what they are suggesting now. Have you try recommending a different way to achieve the same effect?

E.g. Perhaps when the user navigates away from the page but still in your website, you can have discounts offers coming in as adverts by the side? Maybe you can take a look at amazon, and check out the way they are suggesting alternative products by the way the user browse through their products. Sublime suggestions to your visitors is better than in your face announcements

Pull your weight as a consultant, they hire you for this reason because you know more about the users' behaviors online than them

EDIT: I realize the date of your post..... oops

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

It's okay to play rebel and stand up for developer rights, but sometimes one just needs money to put the food on the table. So take up arms wisely!

As to comic sans MS, I thought that was funny! With all due respect to angelwatt and their personal blog, the stereotype of the font is for kiddies about 8 years old or younger. It's hard to blog about the upcoming election, cancer research, the meaning of life or the future of CSS in that font and at the same time come across seriously!

(for example)

I'm kidding with angelwatt and everyone, of course!!!

For the best looking shadows across all platforms use graphics, but of course that slows a site down even when optimized and used sparingly.

So I'm a proponent of CSS introducing boxes with rounded corners, circles, ovals and triangles (all the basic geometric shapes) rendered by the browser - each with shadowing capability including strength, color and offset among other options.

That's what developers need! Along with comic sans should die section wells that are almost always squares! The internet is full of squares!!!!

-jim

ps: Kidding!!! (Kinda)