Surveys tell us most people hate them. I'm talking about website pop-ups -- those small windows, also known as "modals," that appear without warning while dimming the rest of the screen and might ask for our email address, tell us the deal of the day, or make any other variety of pitch or request us to take an action.
Turns out, hated or not, pop-ups can be an effective way to engage your website visitors without turning them away, if you do things right.