I have been running tests on the use of Pop-Unders to promote several types of products and services. Note that I am discussing POP-UNDER'S... not Pop-UP's. I consider Pop-Up's too intrusive. Pop-Under's on the other hand load in the background when visiting a site and, therefore, are not perceived in the same way as the much more intrusive Pop-Up.

To source vendors of Pop-Under advertising go to Google and search on "Pop Under Advertising". You will find dozens of vendors selling Pop-Under traffic packages.

Here are ten points to consider...

1. Buying Pop-Unders is like running a gauntlet... there are many providers... but few of real quality. I have purchased a few Pop-Under campaigns that produced less than 50 views a day... hardly what I had been promoted. Consistency of delivery has been dismal.

2. Only use Pop-Unders to promote something that has universal appeal. You have little or no control of who views your page... so make sure that the product or service offered is potentially appealing to almost every person who views the page.

3. Pop-Unders are a teaser and lead generation tool... not a direct sales vehicle. Make a solid free offer with compelling benefits to draw the viewer to your site to complete the selling cycle. Never direct your Pop-Under traffic to your home page... design a custom offer page (or pages) specifically for your Pop-Under traffic. Pull out all the stops to make this a hard hitting offer page. Keep it simple. Test various headlines for pulling-power. Note: Most Pop-Under traffic providers will not allow your served page to contain sound files or other pop-up's or pop-under's.

4. Pop-Unders seem to work well for "business opportunity" offers that feature a "home-based business"... and as subscriber recruitment vehicles for newsletters, discussion lists, etc. Remember the "universal appeal" caveat... the newsletter or discussion list needs to be broadly appealing.

5. Be careful that the Pop-Under vendor does not use "adult" type sites to present your ad. If they don't address this issue in their sales copy... send them an email and make them confirm in writing that your ad will only be viewed by non-adult sites.

6. Buy no more than 10,000 Pop-Unders on your first purchase from any one vendor. Test and measure the campaign. If it looks promising on the first 10,000 then test another 10,000. If that test is favorable then jump up to 20,000 or 25,000 and test again. Don't fall in the trap of buying 100,000 or 1,000,000 hits upfront... no matter what the price.

7. Some vendors offer "targeting", to specific categories of traffic, at a premium price. Test this option the same way as described above to see if they are worth the premium price. Some are... some are not. If, for example, you are promoting a health care business opportunity, you may find that buying the traffic targeted at "health" or "opportunity seekers" is a better return on investment... maybe not. Again, always test in smaller numbers and ramp-up based on measurable results.

8. Ad tracking is a real plus when using Pop-Under campaigns. It is worth the money to implement ad-tracking software, or web based ad tracking services, when testing these types of traffic providers. This is true of almost any direct marketing effort but especially when you are being delivered raw traffic counts that can result in thousands of views per day.

9. Pricing runs all over the map... some vendors will sell you full page views of your website for as little as $29.00 for 10,000... others will price that same 10,000 at $89.00. There are lot's of resellers in the business and that probably accounts for the wide price swings. The lower priced vendors are often the ones who are selling adult-site originated traffic.

10. If you have tested Pop-Unders for your specific offers and found them cost effective... you are in nirvana. You can then roll out to large buys from prime vendors for millions of hits for only fractions of a penny apiece.

After you have tested and refined your lead generation message ... and it is working cost effectively... you will have discovered a completely duplicatable lead generation tool to drive qualified traffic to your lead capture page of your web sites. This lead generation system can then be taught to your distributors which will result in literally thousands upon thousands of leads working throughout your marketing organization.

?Copyright 2005 Thom Reece All Rights Reserved

Thom Reece is the CEO of Online Marketing Group, a Hawaii based direct response marketing and web development firm. His primary website- Online Marketing Resource Center [ http://www.e-comprofits.com ] is visited by thousands of marketers daily. For a free subscription to "Thom Reece's Web Marketing Strategies & Techniques Newsletter" go to: http://www.WMSTDirect.com, mailto:thom@e-comprofits.com