Initially, I planned to write this “simple tip” on my blog, but felt it would do more justice to the audience here, than to those who frequent my site – as I normally do not cover profitability / make money on my blog, not yet !
Now on to the tip, this one’s a no brainer, but still, let me assure you, 95% of newbie’s DO NOT make use of this. Once I reveal it, I’m sure you’ll smack your forehead (or may be something softer 
) for not implementing it on your blog.
It involves a bit of hacking your wordpress theme files, so make sure you have basic understanding of php. If you are not familiar with php,html and do not know how to make changes to your theme files, don’t shy, ask out loud, some one will surely come forward to help you out, we’ve been there – felt like that. Always Remember -
“If you ask a doubt, you are a fool for 5 minutes, if not, you’ll be for lifetime !“.
Do not attempt anything heroic, you might end up messing everything !
The trick to, double your sites profitability (at the least, at times more) is :
“Force All Your Out Going / Referral Links To Open In A New Tab or in A New Window”
let me repeat it :
“Force All Your Out Going / Referral Links To Open In A New Tab or in A New Window”
Ensure all the links – external links, internal links, navigation links, categories – all of them, should be opened in a new tab. If you use a lot of images, ensure your images too open in a new window (if you link to the source of the image for SEO purposes).
That’s it. This will increase your profitability. Wondering how is it ? Very simple, when your visitor clicks on an outgoing link or an external link, and if that link opens in the same window, chances are very less that your visitor will press the back button and come back to the original referring page. Instead if you force open links in new tab or window, the visitor will come back to the original page, they like it or not. This increases the percentage of eye-views on your profitability elements, thus increasing the probability of sales/ad-clicks.
In reality you are implementing customer retention strategy(in your case – your visitor is your customer). You learn these small yet very powerful tactics when you observe retailers who spend millions, year on year, implementing customer retention strategies – classic example – Gift Cards (Go figure how it relates)!!
I’ve see a lot of newbie’s hanging around here. I was very sure most of them would not have implemented this and I was right bang ON (I randomly checked a few sites of all he regular folks here)!
Now, I’m not going to get into details of how to hack and make changes to wordpress – let me not take away your freedom to research and implement !
- Anonymous
PS: I’d love to know, how many of you had already made the above said changes before reading this up.
————————————————————————————————————–
This is first guest post from Mr. Anonymous , Let me give you little background of him, We don’t know who he is, though he has been adding lots of valuable comment here on shoutmeloud. You can check his comments on previous two posts.
Make money online by crating product review blogs
5 websites to sell and buy blogs-website
You can follow him on Twitter @Mr_Nameless
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{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
I know who is Mr. Anonymous
himanshu™s last blog post..Its a girl boy thing: Gals riding high !!!!
@Himanshu – Well I’d love to know how u know me
.. Feel free to mail me at 50kvisitors(at)gmail
Himanshu Even I will love to know and I’m sure many of us here will love to know him…
Do throw some Light on the mask behind Mr. Anonymous
Hi,
I do my best to make all external links on my site open a new window. At least the user has an option to close my site if he/she no longer wants to view it.
I have read so many posts about the pro’s and con’s of doing this, I guess it boils down to the webmaster themselves.
@George – Looking forward for some cons. If you can point out to some who’s discussed cons I can improve my knowledge on the same.
Mr anonymous one of the biggest cons of this is newbie’s user find it like cheated when they click on any link and they are opening in new tab. Though again it depend on the kind of niche you have.
If you have a blog where most of non techy users are coming, according to problogger survey it’s better to make the windows open in the same window….
@Harsh – I guess according to problogger – opening link in new windows won by 10% over the other.
Ref: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/07/09/should-links-from-your-blog-open-in-a-new-window-reader-opinions/
Darren himself prefers opening links in new tabs.
Thanks for the insight. Though few months back I got an Email from a reader and he was very angry with me, because I made him opening new link in new tab and his browser crashed. I marked him an apology Email and asked him if I can do something to fix it.
Though it has nothing to do with me but since then I started lowering down opening tab in a new window.
Because in the end it really matters for a blogger that none of his reader should leave your blog with heavy heart.
I dont think so. For external referral links it look meaningful but for one own’s blog posts, I think it sud b avoided as in such a scenario, user sometimes fears while clicking on any link.
But then also I’ll give it a kick on my blog and will c sure if any benefits coming… Tahnks for this tip
Atul™s last blog post..Sachin Tendulkar-GOD of Cricket
@Atul – do you mean to say, user checks the underlying HTML code whether it has ‘_target’ and then clicks the link
.
Coming to use case scenario – Let’s say you are reading a grappling article. Somewhere when you are mid-way in the article, the author references to a previous blog post. What do you prefer:
1> You click on the link and it opens in a new tab, so that u continue to read the original post.
2> You click the link and it opens in the same post, which u realize immediately, and you click the back button so that u can finish the original article first ?
Firefox and all other Major browsers have an inbuilt feature, which lets u over come this problem of the link opening in the same window.
Press hold ‘Ctrl’ and click on the link, to open the link in a new tab. Makes reading experience a pleasure.
yes i agree…visitor will stay longer on your page and probably click on more ads.
Rahul™s last blog post..How To Make Money At Home
Mr. Anonymous if I’m not wrong here, the idea here is giving less exit option to user and in case if they do that gotta be your advertisement.
Spot on
.
This is a horrendous idea. I implore webdevs to not to implement this idea
This breaks the natural flow of web (back and forward buttons).
This eliminates user choice and is extremely annoying. If I want to return to the website, I will. If I want to open the link in new window, I will. But it is my choice.
This is same as manually adding target=_blank to everything.
Some links :
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html
http://kevin.lexblog.com/2006/07/articles/blog-basics/best-blogs-send-audience-away/
http://kevin.lexblog.com/2006/07/articles/blog-basics/links-should-open-a-new-window-want-to-bet/
http://www.trilithium.com/johan/2005/03/target-blank/
When I started blogging I was also making this amateurish mistake, until a reader corrected me.
Useit’s article dates back to 1999 !
Check the survey – targeted audience on Problogger is mostly, educated webmasters.
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/07/09/should-links-from-your-blog-open-in-a-new-window-reader-opinions/
If it’s horrendous, why would they even have that attribute ? Explanation please ?
Even there a most of the people dont like links opening in new window.
Read the comments. As one of the commentor rightly points out, most of the people voting were webmasters. They are a bit biased. If you asked normal websurfers an overwhelmingly high % would vote against opening links in new window.
citsym™s last blog post..It™s not FF dammit, it™s Fx!
Pallab that’s true mostly new users will prefer to open the window in the same window and that’s the whole point.
Instead of giving them an option to open it on the same window, we making it to open in the new window. That’s the basic idea of article. Increasing your profit by making visitors to stay more on your site rather then giving them an option to click on the first link and let them go away.
@Anonymous: For knowing whether a link opens in same or new window, we can know this by just clicking on the link(I think instead of checking HTML code)
As Pallab commented above its user wish whether he wants to open link in same window or new ones. Had this be correct option then I think first Google sud incorporate this trick or browser sud be by default be set to this
ur points are also not justificable
Atul™s last blog post..Words Women Mostly Use
@Atul – you mentioned ‘user sometimes fears while clicking on any link’ — unless the user clicks on the link he won’t know if the link opens in a new window or not. How can he fear something he’s not aware of ?
That fact that he doesnt know if the link will open in new window or not is the cause of fear. If he knew he would simply avoid clicking the link (if it opened in new window) or click the link (if it didnt open in new window) without being afraid.
citsym™s last blog post..It™s not FF dammit, it™s Fx!
@Pallab – I never knew ppl were scared to click on links
.. I would worry only if the outgoing link seems to be linking to some unknown sites / exe’s / scammy looking site.
Never in my surfing history, have I thought or was worried about the link opening in the same window or in a new window.
peoples who have adsense account have fear of click.
i click all the links possible except ads…
Rahul™s last blog post..How To Make Money At Home
@Anonymous-what a brilliant comment
‘unless the user clicks on the link he won™t know if the link opens in a new window or not. How can he fear something he™s not aware of ?’
Dear, I do agree that first time he is not aware of but after clicking on links 2-3-4 times, I think user is smart enough to grasp that links are opening in new window
Atul™s last blog post..Words Women Mostly Use
Atul
Think from a normal user perspective, who is not aware of what’s meant by tab. If you interact with a normal person who use Internet for normal surfing, chances are high he might not be aware of new tab or new window thing. There are many people who still use only one window and open everything there.
Let me give you an example of my mom, instead of telling her about Mozilla and tab feature several times, she still prefer working on same Internet explorer.
If you really wants to see how a normal user is going to interat with your website or blog, Sit with your granny or mom and let them surf your blog and see how they click on the links and how they will leave the page with few clicks.
Hi mr.Nameless ,
Why are you hiding your name – It’s not nice to be named as anonymous – because people may won’t like to believe something, which an anonymous tell – so i think it’s better for you to choose atleast an nick name
NB : Your posts are too good Mr. Anonymous , Congrats
Rajeel™s last blog post..Digital statement blogger template – Free Theme From Me
@Rajeel –
I chose anonymous because – everyone of us have ‘Anonymous’ in us. My sole intention being spreading awareness and helping everyone with little what ever I know, I decided to be ‘Anonymous’.
Though some day, I’ll reveal the real face behind this mask, till then I’d spill out all that I have in me.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll do cover a lot more content in the near future. Do follow me on twitter or check Harsh’s blog often.
Wow, this discussion is really getting to some people. I guess there are pro’s and con’s and I guess it boils down to what the webmaster wants to achieve. He makes the decision for his site and has to take the good with the bad.
George The topic comes out to be much hotter then I thought. the best part is we are getting lots of views from different webmasters.
Lets see what will be the final conclusion of the topic
Yes its true… I’m already using external links on my blog
Simran™s last blog post..Keyboard With Photoshop Shortcuts
Well, first and foremost, nice post and even better discussion in the comment’s section.
Now, I agree and disagree on your views, for most part I agree, images, external link should be forced-open in a new window, I do it myself and there is no need for an explanation here. As Harsh pointed out in a comment above, it will minimize the Exit points. Also, most (all?) browsers these days open up a new ‘tab’ when you click on such posts and hence you need not be wary of many windows opening up and crashing the browser anymore.
Now here is the part I completely disagree on-”Internal links/categories”? For what unholy reason would you make your internal links on a new window?! Lets take an example. I just read a good article on a topic and tracked a few posts using internal links or categories “in the same tab”, then I hopped on to yet another page and so on. Pretty nice flow and a good reading experience. If I had a new tab every time I clicked on categories, I would be pretty darn pissed and would be closing the previous tab anyway.
About ads: Do you really think a user will first click on an ad on your page and then click on another ad on a different page, again?
Its tempting to trick your reader for more views, but this will hamper the reader ship on your blog and will give the user an unpleasant flow of reading.
And I myself have targeted new window for external links
Latest Tecnology™s last blog post..Digg removes the shout feature!
@Latest Tecnology: Do agree to u . External Links good to open in new window but for internal links I think it sud be restricted in same window. And on older versions browsers as IE6, it causes browser to crash if every internal link is also opening in new window. No offences meant for anyone here. Its just part of our discussion
Atul™s last blog post..Words Women Mostly Use
Great post and a great discussion going on.
I am late in this post
From start of my blogging days, I always use _blank for all outgoing links and for internal links and categories i don’t use _blank.
But, i am sure there will be lot of internal links which has _blank.
I agree with Anonymous.
Nihar™s last blog post..How to Block Visitors from specific IP using .htaccess hack
well sure nice info. have to try this also