If you’ve spent more than a few seconds on any part of this site, you may have noticed a small pop-up at the lower-left of the screen. It looks something like this:

If you’re just browsing, you can easily ignore that icon and carry on your business, or you can even reject its invitation to subscribe to push notifications and keep it out of sight indefinitely. If you’re like me, you’ll probably do one or the other.

But maybe you’re not like me. Maybe you like getting real-time updates from your favorite sites as they go live.

Fortunately, this site (despite my personal preferences) gives you the option to subscribe to push notifications if you’re the type who wants the latest news and offers without having to put your name on yet another email list.

If you’re a push notifications veteran, then subscribing to my notifications should be a no-brainer, especially if you like the content I’m producing. But if you’re not a push notifications person by default or don’t understand their value, then you may want some clarity on how they work and what you can expect from me if you were to subscribe.

So, let me break it down for you if you fall in the latter camp (but don’t fall in a ladder camp).

Reasons You Should Subscribe to Push Notifications:

First off, don’t let the heading fool you. There’s no clear reason why you should subscribe to push notifications. You have to make that decision based on the value you want from it. Again, I don’t subscribe to push notifications myself, but I do like the idea of giving you the option if that’s how you’d like to stay in touch. So, if you want real-time updates as they go live and don’t mind a little pop-up creeping up the side of your screen, letting you know about the latest thing I’m sharing, then push notifications are right for you. Likewise, if you want to get the latest news, but you don’t want to sign up for another newsletter (even if that’s where the freebies live), then push notifications may be the better option.

Fortunately, they’re tiny, so they won’t take up much screen space. But they will be large enough to notice, ensuring that you don’t miss out on that sweet new news.

So, if you want the content I’m pushing as it’s released (or close to it), then you should subscribe. Likewise, if you like my books or articles and want to know when the next one is ready for reading, then push notifications may be worth your subscription. Or, if you want to know about a special offer that applies only to my site visitors, then you’ll definitely want to subscribe.

Or, if there’s any chance you’ll forget I exist, or if you remember me but not my name, then you’ll want to subscribe. Or, maybe I’ll want you to subscribe. That’s probably the greater truth. I’d rather you not forget my name. Leave that to me and my bad memory!

Reasons You Shouldn’t Subscribe to Push Notifications:

If the situations I’ve outlined above are not to your interest or satisfaction, or if you’d prefer getting updates through email only, or if you just hate little creepy icons peeking up from your dashboard telling you about “the latest news and offers,” then push notifications are not right for you and you should reject the invitation.

And like I said, I don’t subscribe to push notifications myself, so I won’t be offended if you reject mine. I completely understand. There are other ways to stay in touch.

What Happens If You Subscribe:

Assuming you want push notifications and “accept” the invitation, you’ll first get a prompt from your browser (especially if you’re using Chrome) to accept pop-ups. Until you accept pop-ups on your browser, you won’t actually be subscribed, even if you accept the invitation. So, if you want push notifications, remember that you have to agree to two steps: the pop-up invite and the browser acceptance notification (at the top of the page).

Once you’re officially subscribed, you’ll receive a thank-you pop-up, followed by a “drip campaign” of several pop-ups over a few days highlighting some of this site’s best pages, features, and articles. If you click on the notification as it appears (instead of closing it), it’ll take you to the pop-up’s relevant information page. But if you close it, it’ll go into your notification library for easy access later. The notification library will appear as a bell at the lower left of the screen once you visit the site again. Just remember to revisit the site. Once there, click the bell to see what you’ve missed.

What Happens If You Don’t Subscribe:

If you reject the invitation for push notifications, it will turn into a bell icon. That icon will remain in the lower-left corner for as long as you’re on the site. Should you revisit the site, the bell will reappear (as long as you don’t clear out your cookies first—otherwise the invitation will return). If at some point after you reject it you decide you would like to subscribe after all, clicking that bell will reopen the invitation. Otherwise, it’ll stay obscure off to the side, and you won’t have to give it another thought.

What Happens If You Subscribe and Don’t Like the Result:

So, let’s be honest. Sometimes we have high expectations for services that under-deliver or flat-out disappoint. If you subscribe to these push notifications and then decide they’re not what you want, then you can unsubscribe.

Now, if this were email, unsubscribing would be simple. You’d just click a link removing you from the email list. Then you’d never have to get another message from that source.

Unsubscribing from a push notification, unfortunately, is not as simple.

But it’s also not impossible. Rather than clicking an “unsubscribe” button, all you have to do is go into your browser settings and block push notifications from this site. After a month of inactivity, the system will unsubscribe you automatically. That’s how I understand it.

Clicking on a Push Notification:

Okay, so you’ve subscribed and the notifications are coming through. Now what?

If I post a notification while you’re browsing the Internet, you’ll get the alert immediately, or at whatever time I’ve set it to reach subscribers (assuming you’re still online at that point). Or, if you’re offline, or if the browser you’ve used to subscribe is closed, then you’ll get the notification as soon as you open the browser (and as long as it isn’t time-sensitive). Once you click on the notification, it’ll take you to the reference page for that news item or special offer. That’s all there is to it.

Pro Tip: Don’t forget, if you see the notification and close it, you can reopen it by visiting this site and clicking on the bell (lower left corner). That way you can read the news when you’re ready.

If You Want to Stay In-Touch without Using Push Notifications:

Maybe you want to get the latest news, but you don’t want to receive push notifications. If so, you can always subscribe to my newsletter. This will give you exclusive news sent directly to your email, as well as access to exclusive (and free) e-books. As long as you don’t send them to spam, you should get each one in a timely manner.

Of course, the best way to get every news item and special offer is to subscribe to both newsletter and push notifications, especially since some news won’t cross over. But that’s up to you. After having spent hours trying to archive my email messages without making hardly a dent, I know that subscribing to everything you want can add up over time, and adding your name to yet another email subscription may be overkill.

So, if you just want to pop in and see what’s new from time-to-time, I’ll be glad just to have you come back. As long as you don’t forget I’m here, there will always be a way for you to keep up with the latest news.

That said, push notifications are pretty cool. I discovered that when I set them up on this site.

More Information:

If you want the full picture on how to use these push notifications, or if you want to implement something similar on your own site, then I recommend you visit the Gravitec home page for more information. Gravitec is the company I use for delivering push notifications, and they’ll teach you things about push notifications I cannot begin to understand.