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Don’t Hijack My Attention

April 24, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

WAYS TO LOSE READERS

Going Shopping

Customer Think Logo

I’m walking down the sidewalk on a sunny day. I have a little time to look in the shop windows. I look in one and see something interesting. I go in, only to realize that the shop is not what I thought.

I immediately turn to leave by the same door I entered. Hah! Here’s the catch. The door is latched. It only opens in. I’m literally stuck in this shop.

I bet you’ve had this happen to you — not in a brick and mortar store — on the Internet.

It doesn’t make me feel like more like a customer. I’m very sure of that.

Don’t Hijack My Attention

In the world today stuff is so expensive, there aren’t many things that I get to own outright, but my thoughts and my attention are mine and mine alone. I guard my independence jealously. I don’t want people to tell me how to think or what to do with my thoughts. Imagine how I feel when they steal my attention outright. Whether it’s intentional really doesn’t matter. They’ve lost me from the second that I lost my ability to choose.

This happens two ways.

  • I do a search. I see something that appears to be what I’m looking for and I click on the link only to find that it’s something other than I want. I hit the back button, but every time I do that, instead of taking me back to my search page, it simply refreshes the page that I’m on.
  • Once in a while when I’m surfing, I’ll find an interesting blog and leave a comment. I might even bookmark the site. Same drill. I go to leave, and I’m stuck. I might forget and go back again, but that only happens once. There’s no chance I’ll be regular reader there. In fact, I have tiny bad feelings about those blogs.

Once I emailed the blog owner. She said was unaware that her blog was doing that. So, was it my computer? Did I lock my self in or did her software hijack my attention? I’ve read about software that can stop folks from backing out. Is that what’s happening?

I’m Totally Lost

Either way, having me stuck is not good promotion for the blogger, the blog, the brand or the business, because all that I’m thinking about is how to get out.

What reader wants this situation? What is the benefit? Am I missing something here? Even the most compelling prose isn’t interesting, when you have no choice but to read it.

Can anyone educate me on what this is about? I’m not just stuck. I’m totally lost.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
There’s No Putting ME in a Box
Stats: A Question?
Do You Know a Customer When You See One?
Customer Think: Saying Things without Talking

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Filed Under: Business Life, Customer Think, Successful Blog, Tech/Stats Tagged With: bc, blog_promotion, Customer Think, customer_think, hijacking_attention

Comments

  1. Mark Wade says

    April 24, 2006 at 8:08 AM

    Funny you should mention this. Just a scant twenty minutes or so ago, I was reading one of my favorite marketers’ forums and someone had asked for a review of their “Blog.”
    This particular forum is so old-fashioned that you have to copy and paste the http in your address bar. So a couple of us do and, guess what? He has a script that has disabled the back button.
    For the next week or two it will be known on the front page of that forum how lame that is.
    Not only that, but he had his link page framed. How 1994! Credibility? ZERO!
    You’re not missing and there really are no benefits. Just some antiquated marketing techniques that newbies don’t know don’t work.

    Me again – 🙂

    Reply
  2. ME Strauss says

    April 24, 2006 at 8:12 AM

    Thank you, Mark!
    Captive customers aren’t customers at all.

    How rude. This is an issue I could start a campaign about. It frustrates me greatly.

    It makes me feel not very nice.

    Reply
  3. Mark Wade says

    April 24, 2006 at 8:22 AM

    I’ve got to show you this! This is the reply a successful marketer offered once the “offender” attempted to explain their actions;

    “if you take control from your visitor, they’re not going to much care about the content. Search engines penalize for this, as well.”

    Voila’

    Reply
  4. ME Strauss says

    April 24, 2006 at 8:24 AM

    YEA, the more I know about search engines. The more I linke them.

    What possible explanation did the offender think he had?

    Reply
  5. Mark Wade says

    April 24, 2006 at 8:29 AM

    He actually didn’t understand the criticism and chose to point out something totally unrelated. David (the successful marketer) was rather kind, choosing to “politely communicate” what he meant to make it clear.

    Do you read Matt Cutts?

    Reply
  6. ME Strauss says

    April 24, 2006 at 8:35 AM

    Yeah, I read Matt Cutts on and off. The gating factor is how much other work is piled on my desk.

    Reply
  7. Jack says

    April 24, 2006 at 12:25 PM

    hey liz,
    the same thing happened to me couple of days back, it was a car blog. Man it ticked me so badly that i decided to close the window right away.
    I take such bad designs personall,afterall how can any self-respecting man allow such idiots to fool him. I think one should not mess around with standard designs too much, for example at blogger.com, the place i have my blog, have this simple template at top which points to next blog randomly. So when i visit a blog that doesn’t have such button I just clicks the back button 🙂

    Reply
  8. ME Strauss says

    April 24, 2006 at 12:28 PM

    I know Jack. Sometimes in business I run into things that fall into a category that I would have to name as Amazing. i stop and stare when I think of them. I can’t connect the dots to get to the thinking that makes such things occur.

    Amazing and stunned.

    Reply
  9. Martin says

    April 25, 2006 at 8:47 AM

    Hey Liz … this is a simple javascript script that was in vogue a few years back – any site who uses it has no credibility, then and more so now.

    My opinion on this is that they’re hoping you’ll stay long enough to click on an ad … you get so frustrated not being able to back out that you’ll click on anything to move on.

    And don’t fall for the naive webmaster not knowing – they know fully well the trick their trying to pull.

    Reply
  10. ME Strauss says

    April 25, 2006 at 9:23 AM

    MAJOR JERK–no friend, customer, or reader made here.

    Reply
  11. Dabbling Mum says

    December 28, 2006 at 1:14 PM

    I so agree with you hear. I also hate it when I get to a blog, think I am clicking on a link to learn more about a subject–written by the blogger him/her self–only to be taken to a sales page!

    Reply
  12. ME Strauss says

    December 28, 2006 at 10:08 PM

    Hi Dabbling Mom!
    Oh that’s another one that makes me crazy! I don’t want to be tricked into giving my attention to a sales page. No way!

    Reply
  13. Perry Smith says

    June 15, 2009 at 10:17 PM

    Hi, Liz,
    Just a comment to agree with you about the jerks hijacking the search engines. I try to remember each name enough to NEVER buy their products. Inconsideration taken to a new level by #####. Like they will somehow FORCE us to buy their products by subverting our will? I think their stupidity makes me madder than anything! Can any adults truly be both that stupid AND that inconsiderate? BOYCOTT EM

    Reply

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