Easy exit console tutorial

A complete guide to setting up exit consoles

Written by Tom from Tom's Newbie Booster

I've used a number of different bits of code over the years to make exit consoles work at my websites. The reason I have called this 'easy exit console tutorial' is that the way I make exit consoles these days is very straight forward. The one I use requires a minimum set up and fuss.

This console does NOT require any modification to a page's tag OR to change any of the links to use the "on click exit = false" nonsense. This one cuts through all that and works like a charm. Please don't worry if any of that didn't make sense - it's just a note for anyone who has already been using exit consoles on their sites. Let's get started propper here:

Exit consoles - what do they do?

If you've been on the Internet for even a very short time, chances are you'll have already been the 'victim' of someone's exit console creations. They're EVERYWHERE these days! An exit console is basically a small webpage which magically appears on your screen (pops up) when you leave (or 'exit') the webpage you are looking at. There are two ways to leave a webpage and trigger one of these beasts:

1) By pressing the back button (backing out).
2) By clicking the X and trying to close the browser that way.

The end result is the same - you exit the page.

The theory behind exit consoles is that your surfers did not buy anything when they were at your site (or click any of your sponsor's ads) so this is a last-ditch attempt to squeeze some money out of them. It's a bit like handing someone a leaflet as they are leaving your shop in the outside world. They're one final shot at making something from a surfer.

Here's an example:

CLICK HERE

Go to that page and then close the browser window. You should see that an exit console appears. This is where I would try to get the surfers to one of my sponsors. Although an exit console can be less than full screen, they are no different from a regular webpage. The only difference is that the width and height of the window has been set. They follow the exact same rules.

Here's the exit console on it's own:

CLICK HERE

See - it's just a normal webpage.

So an exit console is really TWO parts:

1) The page which does the popping.
2) The page which is popped.

Getting the exit console to work on your website.

There are FOUR parts to getting an exit console to work on your site:

1) Creating the exit console webpage (the page which is popped).
2) Putting some special code onto the page which will do the popping when someone leaves it.
3) Customizing this code to alter the size of the console.
4) Testing your console and making any changes necessary.

STEP 1) Creating the console

As I mentioned this is an ordinary webpage - this is nothing you haven't done already. That said there's a world of possibilities here. After all, how you structure that little console will have a massive impact on how much money it makes you. That's a slightly different topic to what I wanted to cover today but go search around on the web. what are other adult webmasters doing with their consoles?

Part of your job as an adult webmaster using exit consoles is to master what goes where. As with everything - you'll get better at using them with practice and research.

Save the console webpage as exit.html or anything else that you like. Upload it to somewhere on your webspace. Remember where it is because we're going to need that information in a moment.

STEP 2) Adding the code to the page that should pop the console

1) Now we need to alter the page which will pop the exit console up. This is the page that people are going to look at and if they leave, will make the exit console appear. I recommend using a text editor for adding and editing exit consoles - but this will work just as well in any HTML editor out there. Open the page up.

2) Next, click in this box:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">  </SCRIPT>

3) Right mouse click and choose 'Select All' to select ALL of the code in this box. It should go dark to show that it has been selected.

4) Next press CTRL + C. This copies the code to the computer's memory.

5) Go to the page which is open in your HTML editor or in a text editor.

6) Click somewhere before the </HEAD> tag on this webpage.

7) Press CTRL + V to paste the code into the head tag of your webpage.

8) Save the webpage.

STEP 3) Customizing the console

1) On the page where we just pasted the code, look down to the line that says:

var mUrlOut='http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/exit-console-tutorial/exit.html';

You need to change this part:

http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/exit-console-tutorial/exit.html

...to the URL that we created in STEP 1) - the url on your webspace to the exit.html console. Carefully edit the link in the exit console so that it shows the url to your exit console that you uploaded a few moments ago.

You must use the FULL URL - not just 'exit.html' - add in the http:// and the www. and everything else.

2) The rest of the settings are OPTIONAL - but are worth playing around with.

Look for the line that says:

toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,copyhistory=no,width=660,height=310,target=_blank

Again, you can carefully edit these settings to change the appearance of the exit console.

Here's a run down of what each of these things mean. They all alter the appearance of the window which is popped up.

toolbar=no / yes - Whether or not to show icons.
location=no / yes - Turn on or off the URL window box.
directories=no / yes - Show other icons at the top of the window.
status=no / yes - Show the status bar at the bottom of the new window.
scrollbars=no / yes - Show the scroll bars to the right of the window.
resizable=no / yes - Allow viewers to resize the window.
width=660 - The width of the window that pops up in pixels.
height=310 - The height of the window that pops up in pixels.
target=_blank - Name of the new window.

Most of the settings just turn off some of the clutter from the window and the main things that you'll probably want to change are only the width and the height. The rest of the features are pretty much set already for a standard pop-up window.

STEP 4) Testing!

Always test your exit consoles live on the web. It might take a few goes to get them looking the way you want them to. Remember that you might have to reload / refresh the page which is doing the popping a few times to see the changed console. But keep playing with the size of the window and the other settings until you're happy with the way it looks.

And that's about it. If you have any problems - give me a shout and I'll take a look.

TOM ^"^

ICQ 12616560
Email tom@tomsnewbiebooster.com