Swap scheme gives firms free pop-up ads

Traffic exchange service offers smaller firms chance to advertise

Webmasters and marketers at smaller firms could encourage more visitors to their sites thanks to new technology that enables them to advertise for free on other sites via pop-ups that cannot be blocked by traditional methods.

The FreePopUps.com site is offering a pop-up traffic exchange service, which operates in a similar way to banner advertising – registered members agree to display adverts on their sites in return for being able to advertise their own site and services on other members’ sites free of charge.

“This traffic exchange programme operates on a two-for-one basis – so if your web site gets 50,000 visitors your account will be awarded with 25,000 pop-ups that will appear across other web sites,” said a spokesman.

The service also benefits from DHTML technology that lets advertisers display pop-ups without them being blocked by the increasing range of blocker technologies on offer. Because it does not open an unprompted new window on a page – which is readily detected by blocking technology – it is technically indistinguishable from normal content, said the spokesman.

“From a webmasters perspective this means greater revenue,” he added. “Pop-ups are the most effective form of advertising and one of the most profitable, despite what users say. And the [anti-blocking feature] benefits publishers, because they don’t get paid if their pop-up is blocked.”

Though DHTML systems have been available previously, FreePopUps’ system is particularly easy to implement, compatible across all browser platforms and is uniquely combined with the traffic exchange programme.