Popups, if you’re somehow, strangely, not familiar with term, are those little windows that open when you visit certain sites.

Popups are secondary browser windows that are opened up using JavaScript code. The properties of this new browser window are set in such a fashion that new window does not have an address bar, status bar or menu.

Until about a few years ago, popup was considered to be biggest breakthrough in advertising on web.

When they were first introduced they were a great success and click-through rates went through roof.

Exit banner ad - enter popup.

Web marketers could interrupt whatever a visitor was viewing, by launching a secondary window on top of first to draw attention to their advertisement or opt-in list or any other item that they wished to get attention to.

After a while, like most good marketing tools, popups started getting abused. Popups would open secondary popups and eventually by just visiting page that has a single popup in it, you would end up with a barrage of say about 15-20 popups. This was exploited by unscrupulous marketers to fullest, especially those hawking porn sites.

Of course, webmasters who were in tune with sentiment of visitors, soon began to use cookies to track if popup was already shown and ensure it was not shown more than once per visitor.

But, frustrated visitors soon began complaining about popups.

Popups are your problem? - Get a popup blocker. Looking at need of website visitors, software companies soon came up with popup blocking software. These applications read all code that's going to browser and if they find any JavaScript in page code that's trying to open a window, BAM, it deletes that part of code. So Bye Bye popup!

Generation Two - The PopUnder Not to be left behind, web marketers came up with another version, popunder, which still launched a secondary window but placed it below primary window. In most cases, visitor didn’t even notice this popunder until they closed primary window.

Of course this was less intrusive, but a pain nonetheless and you don't get an award for guessing what happened next.

Yes you guessed right, popup blockers soon started blocking popunders as well.

Generation Next - Enter Hover Ads What beejeezus are Hover Ads? They are floating ads that popup blockers can't stop.

The technology that creates Hover Ads is not new. In fact, it’s been available to web designers for at least 2 years now as DHTML (that's Dynamic HTML to those who don't know).

These ads cannot be seen by older browsers like Internet Explorer 3.0. But since most netizens are using browsers (IE 4.0 and above) that are capable of displaying this code this type of advertising has started enjoying a rise in usage.

Hover Ads are DHTML layers which can be selectively moved and displayed over primary page that's being displayed. The basic code is still JavaScript, but since a new window is not being opened, popup blockers can't figure out that an advertisement is being displayed.

When it is critical knowledge, its presence can drive our success, while its absence may contribute to our failure. I will attempt to convey in this report some useful and practical knowledge about how to write awesome ads for World Wide Web. It is my sincere belief that; if you act upon suggestions that will be presented here, you may well be taking steps which will give your ad greater pulling power.

Web advertising takes many forms; web pages, classified ads, e-mail responses, news group postings, and even your signature file. No matter which form you employ unless your advertising is seen, nothing is sold. Being seen is of key importance. However, a less considered but equally important factor is your viewing audience. Disregarding your audience results in problem of "selling air conditioners to Eskimos." It just doesn't generate much interest. A reader who has no interest in your advertising material is not part of a qualified audience" and is not a potential customer.

Classified ads placed in appropriate section for your product will naturally draw a qualified audience of potential customers. Ad placement within section is single most important factor determining whether or not your ad is seen within section. Secondly, content of your ad will determine which (and if) potential customers do in fact actually read your ad. When placing classified ads on web some rules of thumb are:

1) Choose classifieds that have largest number of ads because, this is generally a good indicator of how much reader traffic there will be for your classified.

2) Determine how ads are ranked or sorted within sections and attempt to be listed at or near top.

3) Develop reader stopping ad content. DESIGNING AN AWESOME CLASSIFIED The four essential ingredients of an awesome classified are:

ATTENTION - INTEREST - DESIRE - ACTION If your ad is missing any of these it is not an AWESOME Ad!

ATTENTION: You must first get readers attention. Picture him scanning section of classified page in which your ad is listed. For him or her it is much like which ride at amusement park to take next.

Something about your ad must grab their attention, to directs their focus toward your product.

Since classified ads usually lack graphics, it then comes down to something about words you use, or about way you use them. Some web advertisers seem to think that if you use lots of !!! (exclamation marks)or *** (asterisks) or maybe MAKE IT ALL CAPS that this will draw their attention. The problem here is that: Everyone knows it's glitter and meant to get your attention. This may often interfere with readers ability to take your words seriously.

Subconsciously he may even expect your ad to be some kind of gimmick. Right or wrong, stereotype or not, my advise is let your words speak for themselves and steer clear of such tactics. We will discuss guidelines for choosing right words later.

INTEREST: The ad must have appeal. This is a good place to state benefits or some attractive features of your product. Knowing demographics of your readers or category section your ad is placed in, helps in nderstanding their interests. What benefits of your product or service is most likely to appeal to this group? Develop a mental picture of some of customers who would come from this demographic group, and will buy your product. What kinds of jobs do they have, cars do they drive... are they young, old, single, married...

Having a mental picture of your audience is important when you want to understand their interests and know what benefits of your product you should spotlight.

DESIRE: But appealing to their interest is not enough. The ad must then "further stimulate your reader." While interest can generally be obtained by practical properties of your product, desire needs sparking by a more emotional reaction. Is there something about your product that will make them feel good, excited, confident, secure, hoperul or powerful? Think about what other emotions your product can ignite. Does your product appeal to a particular sense. Can reader taste, hear, smell, see or hear your product. Realize that most actions which we take are sparked by desire and most desire is stimulated by feelings. We don't really desire money.

We desire feelings that we think money will bring us, whether they be happy, secure, or powerful. Yet, word "money" may trigger desire that triggers feelings which we value and want to experience.