Tip #3692 - Web Site Week - Day 3
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Web
Site Week - Day 3
Web Site Week rolls
on with day number three! Web site owners are always trying to find ways
to make their site better for their visitors. They also want to know what
their visitors think of their site, so most designers include an e-mail
address as the main way to contact them. But, there are a couple reasons
why you shouldn't post your e-mail address on your site.
- Spammers
- You wouldn't just post your phone number up on a bathroom wall, would
you? Of course not! You'd receive so many junk calls that you'd be up
the wall. Well, spammers have robots that scan the Internet for e-mail
addresses to spam, so it’s not a good idea to post your address
on the Web.
- Inconvenience
– It’s much easier to have a user type out their message
to you than to have them open up their e-mail service.
With that said, you
might want to think about using what is called a Web form, which is what
we’ll be working with today. A Web form on a Web page allows a user
to enter in data that will be sent to a server or your e-mail address.
The latter is what we'll be doing today. Now, Google has a simple gadget
that allows you to insert a form on your site, but it only includes the
name, e-mail address, subject and message fields. If you want to add your
own custom fields, such as a suggestion box or a problem area, you will
need to use a great service known as Allforms.
1.) First, you'll
want to create an error and success page. The error page is for when an
error occurs when a visitor tries to submit something on your form. A
success page is for when the information is successfully sent.
Here's what my error
page looks like:
Here's what my success
page looks like:
2.) Next, visit this
link. It is the home of the
Allforms form to e-mail service.
3.) Click the Register
button and then click the Free option. Next, fill in
your e-mail address.
4.) A message will be displayed and an e-mail will be sent to your account.
5.) In the e-mail,
you will find a password. Copy it to your clipboard and then click the
link in the e-mail.
6.) Select Login from the top right of the page. Fill
in your e-mail address again and paste your password in. Then click Login.
7.) You will be greeted by a page similar to the screenshot below. Click
the link that says Basic Forms.
8.) Next, click the button that says Create New Form.
9.) Now, you will
see what looks like a form, but it is just a dummy version. Click on any
of the elements to edit them. Or, you can add a new text box by choosing
it from the upper right corner. Click Next Step when
you have finished.
10.) Select the elements of the form you want to be required on your Web
site, followed by the e-mail address you want the results to be sent to.
Then select the subject of the e-mails and then continue on with the error
and success pages. Finally, I suggest you leave the format of the e-mails
set to HTML.
11.) When you are done, select Next Step. A page will
be displayed with the form's URL. Be sure to place a link to that on your
homepage as well.
12.) By the way, here's
what the results will look like in your e-mail:
Another way to stay
in touch with your visitors is through newsletters. If feasible, it can
be a great way to communicate with your visitors and introduce new pages
and features of your Web site to them. Now, the easiest way to do that
is to create a Yahoo! Group. You can learn how to do that by reading here.
Then you can create and put a group newsletter box on your homepage, like
this:
Have fun with this
tip and I'll see you all tomorrow for day four of Web Site Week!
~ Neil Patel
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