Becoming The Muse

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Of Subscriber Pop-ups

WordPress has a habit of sneaking in changes unilaterally… You open it one day and find things are not the way you left them the last time.  Some changes are for the better but most tend to be annoying…

If you have left a comment on a blog you will have noticed a pop up window that prompts you to subscribe… I don’t know about you dear reader, but I find the pop-up annoying.. maybe if it only showed to you as a first time visitor to a site, not every single time you write a comment.

It takes second place on my list of annoying pop-ups on the internet (not counting adverts). The first one is the kind which pops up as soon as you visit a website, blocking out the content asking you to subscribe or opt to receive their newsletter – You haven’t even had a moment to see if it’s the kind of place you want to have a commitment like that – This was one of the things I talked about when I gave my first talk at a WordPress WordCamp in 2017.

Beaton Mabaso WordCamp Harare

Half a decade later my sentiments are still the same.. You can check my speaker notes here A Website Is A Conversation.

When I first noticed the WordPress feature asking one to subscribe, I checked if my blog also did the same… I enquired from WP Support if there was a way of turning the feature off, either the developers hadn’t put in the option or the support team just hadn’t gotten the memo as to how to turn it off….

Browsing through BookStooge’s blog I found a Public Service Announcement post on WP Updates which detailed how to turn off the annoying pop-up..

You go to Newsletter Settings: https://wordpress.com/settings/newsletter

Toggle off the two options:

•Enable popup subscriber

•Display subscription suggestion after comment

Visitors to your blog will not be prompted to subscribe each time they comment. You are welcome.

I would love to hear your thoughts:

–As a blogger, how do you find pop suggestions encouraging people to subscribe to your blog? – has it helped grow and maintain your subscriber base?

–As a reader, have you subscribed to a blog after being prompted or proverbially roll your eyes, click away the suggestion and keep it moving?

My writer ego wants to know if you are subscribed to my blog 🫣

~B

PS how do you feel about newsletters?

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Responses to “Of Subscriber Pop-ups”

  1. Bookstooge avatar
    Bookstooge

    Thanks for writing this up so succinctly and with the various pictures. I’m so words oriented that I forget how helpful pictures and screenshots can be.

    Personally, I just about quit wordpress the day this monstrosity went up and I found there was no way to get rid of it. I have a paid plan for the express purpose of not annoying my readers with ads and this “thing” completely invalidated that. WP had no right to introduce this without first making the ability to get rid of it available. I’ve got another year on wp, but I am looking hard at other platforms because of the tyrannical way they’ve been acting towards their users who are just casual bloggers.

    If a site I visit has a pop up, I will not subscribe. I can make up my own mind about subscribing and the fact that the site owner is trying to pressure me means they just want money from me in one form or another. I don’t have time or energy to deal with people like that.

    For a positive example. You have that buy me a coffee thing. But it doesn’t pop up every time I visit nor do you push it or mention it in every post. I appreciate that. It is discrete but there for people who want to use it.

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  2. Matt avatar
    Matt

    Mate, that shit is annoying, although when I went to that link mine were already toggled off..so maybe the unhappiness engineers figured something out

    Like

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  3. writerinretrospect avatar
    writerinretrospect

    THANK YOU!!! Having something like that popping up constantly (and on sites I’m already subscribed to) is just irritating…
    I’m with the whole “if I’m going to subscribe, it’s because I’m going to subscribe, not because you hammered the button into my face” viewpoint.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Beaton avatar
      Beaton

      totally makes sense!!!!
      one does need to be hounded into subscribing
      ~B

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  4. Renard Moreau avatar
    Renard Moreau

    🤔 Personally, I am not fond of popups that ask me to subscribe. However, I will tolerate them if their timing is good; for example, a popup appears after I have scrolled all the way down to the blog post.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Beaton avatar
      Beaton

      Right ?? at least wait till I scroll to the bottom not before the page has even finished loading !!
      Thank you Renard, compliments of the new year
      ~B

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. Renard Moreau avatar
        Renard Moreau

        🙂 You are welcome, Beaton.

        And, many happy returns, my friend!

        Like

  5. Kathy Steinemann avatar
    Kathy Steinemann

    Thanks for this info. I spent about half an hour looking for help. I run a blog that’s independent; i.e., I downloaded and installed the software on my own domain. I found the annoying popup in Jetpack: Settings: Newsletter.

    I detest popups! Shame on WordPress/Jetpack for enabling them without warning.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Beaton avatar
      Beaton

      Super glad that this article was helpful.

      I am with you on pop-ups and unsolicitated newsletters 😂

      ~B

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    2. Chris Lovie-Tyler avatar
      Chris Lovie-Tyler

      Good point about Jetpack, Kathy. I don’t use it so I forget about it. It’s annoying that they enable stuff like this by default.

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      Reply
  6. Chris Lovie-Tyler avatar
    Chris Lovie-Tyler

    Hi, Beaton.

    One distinction you might want to make is that this applies to WordPress.com, not WordPress.org (self-hosted WordPress).

    I noticed these popups fairly recently, too, because I follow a lot of blogs on WordPress.com. They *are* annoying because they appear in the middle of the screen and pop up almost immediately, and regularly. (I don’t mind subscription forms under posts so much.)

    I have a self-hosted WordPress blog, where I’ve used a more subtle and less annoying slide-in. It doesn’t appear right away, and it slides up from the bottom-right of the screen. Because the majority of people visit my site on a desktop computer (not a mobile device), the slide-in doesn’t cover the content at all. And on mobile, it only partially covers the content. (I’d turn it off on mobile if I could.) Also, once a subscriber dismisses it, it doesn’t reappear for seven days.

    My blog is relatively new, but I have had a few people subscribe through that slide-in form. I also have a static form on a page called Subscribe. I’ve found the mix of the two to be a good one for my blog.

    On other subscribing to other people’s blogs: I have sometimes subscribed via a popup–if it’s a site that I like and the pop-up hasn’t really annoyed me.

    On newsletters: I like them, and I did exchange my blog for one for a couple of years, but this year I’ve returned to a blog. It’s a better format for me for sharing the kind of (often short, art-related) content that I do.

    I hope that’s helpful.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Beaton avatar
      Beaton

      Ah yes thank you Chris that is an important distinction… its mostly from WordPress.com sites, self-hosted sites usually have personalised custom popups and notification while other only have the option to turn it off and on 😂 I run sites on both WordPress.org and WordPress.com and the systems though similar are worlds apart.

      This all very insightful thank you Chris

      ~B

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. Chris Lovie-Tyler avatar
        Chris Lovie-Tyler

        No problem! 😊

        Liked by 1 person

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