Learn how to display a customizable slideout message box that appears when users scroll to a specified page depth.

Let’s face it.

If you run your own Joomla! Website right now, it may feel as if you are fighting a losing battle. The war for attention has turned ugly. For years, we marketers have relied on the best option available to get the attention of our users—the Modal Window, otherwise known as simply a popup.

As digital marketers producing articles, popups were our workhorse to convert interested readers into leads. You would land on a page, and BAM—a giant box smashes into your face, demanding your email address before you can even read the headline, and BAM—you’d have a new lead that you could hit with your $19.99 offer.

The Popup Apocalypse

But, things change and—slowly—people have evolved. It seems to me that everyone these days, from aliens to dogs, have developed a sixth sense—a digital reflex. Internet Explorers are becoming more used to closing modal popups or being annoyed by them , hitting that “X” to close the window straight away—and being sure to click the button before the content in the window even renders.

It’s become a sort of muscle memory, and some users have found a perverse enjoyment in smashing the “close window” button—hitting it harder than you would smack a mosquito that landed on your butt. Some have said it’s like playing whack-a-mole with every website you come across.

And that was before the politicians got involved.
With the addition of cookie laws and consent fatigue , the internet suddenly turned into a minefield of compliance banners. Users are now trained to dismiss any box that appears on their screen without a second thought. They don’t read—they just kill the window. In this environment, hitting a user with multiple popups is no longer just annoying—it is unacceptable. It’s a surefire way to send your bounce rate into the stratosphere and beyond—higher and faster than one of Elon Musk’s rockets.

Saving Your Marketing From the “Close” Button

That’s where I found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place. You see, I needed to intrude in on the users browsing my site—I’m a marketer, after all—but I needed to do it with grace. I needed a way to whisper, not scream.

Message Box Alternatives for Joomla!

Suddenly, I realised the big players already had the answer. First, ConvertBox caught my eye, because they understood the assignment. Instead of a punch in the face, they used a small message box—a polite notification box that slides or pops out from the corner after you’ve engaged with the content. It respects the user by saying, “Hey, when you’re ready, look at this.”
It was the perfect approach. But then I looked at the price tag. And holy cow! Sure, ConvertBox is a beast of a tool, but it is extremely expensive . What’s worse, they dangle a “Lifetime Deal” of $495 in front of you, with the threat that it is a LIMITED OFFER and MAY CLOSE ANYTIME WITHOUT NOTICE.
Nice marketing, guys. But paying five hundred dollars just to slide a box onto a screen? That felt like overkill. I didn’t need a Falcon Five rocket; I needed a bicycle like a woman needs a man.

Creating A Message Box As A Joomla! Module

I realized I didn’t need to pay a ransom to be polite, because Joomla! already has the power. I just needed to harness it.
All I needed to do was vibe code a simple module that consisted of a box showing simple things like a heading, some text and a button. And with the power of loading scripts inside Joomla!, I was able to create my own lightweight version of the Convert Box solution.

I created the Slide Out Box module—a module that does one thing and does it well. It doesn’t track your soul. It doesn’t cost a mortgage payment. It just slides out once the user reaches a specified depth on your page.

This isn’t rocket science—it’s smart engineering. You publish this module to a hidden position (like debug), and it injects a clean, customizable container into your page. You can put anything in it—a newsletter signup form, a special offer, or even a video.

Crucially, it allows you to prepare content inside the box. This means you can use shortcodes to embed videos, and they just work. It waits for the user. It slides in from the edge. It grabs attention without ruining the experience.

Getting The Slide Out Box Module

You don’t need to choose between being ignored and being annoying. You can walk the middle path. Choose the Slideout Box For Joomla and download the weapon I forged right here: https://github.com/brettvac/slideoutbox/releases/latest/download/mod_slideoutbox.zip.
So, stop throwing modal grenades at your website visitors in the form of modal popups. Instead, start sliding into their view with a simple message box, and offer value on their terms.