Big Thanks to INK4-U

[NicolaCassidy]

I just want to say thankyou sooooooooooo much to Jay - Ink4-u for not only providing the code for the contact form but also implementing it and adding a success and failure page. Very much appreciated!!

Nicola

www.business25.co.uk

[NicolaCassidy]

Also thanks to Rob (Matrixx) and Mattk for their kind offers to help!!

Nicola

www.business25.co.uk

[clairemackaness]

Can I make a suggestion Nicola. I hate sites that only have a contact form. I like to be able to e-mail a) to keep track of what I send and follow up later and b) I sometimes need to send an attachment

[ink4-u]

Can I make a suggestion Nicola. I hate sites that only have a contact form. I like to be able to e-mail a) to keep track of what I send and follow up later and b) I sometimes need to send an attachment

its ok NIC No Porblem

i know what you are saying claire, but i think in nics line of work an attachment wont be used.

and the e-mail address will be sent back to you on the reply, the reason we use contact forms is SPAM when i had my e-mail address there along i got so much spam. and im still blocking it now. so the form is a good way. after all if people want to contact you they will use the form.

[clairemackaness]

I guess, but as an example.....I've been trying to find suppliers for my frog products and have to keep saying, please e-mail me so I can send you an image. It's twice the amount of work.

[seabro]

I agree with Claire. Sometimes you want to email. Sometimes for whatever reason you dont want to use the contact form. Anyway, whats to lose by offering both?

One option for spam prevention is using an image of your email address. As I have on my contact page. The email address appears to be written like the rest of the text but is actually a gif.

[ink4-u]

because it is very easy to spam that way. people may not like forms, but thats how some people have to do it because of spam i have to admit i hate checking my inbox to 200 soam e-mails and 200 normal. takes 3 times longer.

[Coding Monkey]

One option for spam prevention is using an image of your email address. As I have on my contact page. The email address appears to be written like the rest of the text but is actually a gif.

That isn't an entirely effective method, as the software searching your website for e-mail addresses is unlikely to search based on actual e-mail address patterns in between tags, but e-mail addresses themselves in the HTML. If the e-mail address is only an image that you have to write down yourself in your e-mail client, unless I REALLY wanted to contact these people, I'd give up. Fast communication calls for fast access to results.

[NicolaCassidy]

Now im a bit confused - like you claire, I sometimes like to see where my email has gone - have an address to follow-up etc but is this outweighed by the whole spam thing? Not sure whether to put my email add back up now or not!

www.business25.co.uk

[Coding Monkey]

Do Amazon? Nope. Do Apple? Nope. Do Microsoft? Nope

Do I and almost every single web design/legal/accountancy/ManyOthercompanies company in the country? Yes. I want to save my outgoing e-mail messages. I'd always rather send to a link than a form.

[NicolaCassidy]

OK thanks - ill sort it out then :)

[ink4-u]

its completely up to you, i would say what is all the fuss about, if people want to contact you they will use the form. its exactly the sam as an e-mail because that's what it is. i dont see all the fuss! i would just do what you feel is best it is defiantly safer to stay with the form, im not saying that you will be subject to spam but you never know.

[Alpha]

Nicola

I use both and I must admit that I have never had any prospective client contact me via my e mail address.

Several have contacted me via the form but most do not give a contact telephone number for follow up and as you may guess no one who has asked for a quote via the form have ever come back either with further questions or become clients.


Those that telephone always (so far) become clients.

Thats just my experience over the last three years.

There may of course be other factors!!!

It would be interesting to find out the experiences of the others in this forum in the same field and more widely in other fields.

(and before Nigel catches on to the term I mean fields as in areas of business not where grass grows :D )

[clairemackaness]

Do you think it might be worth while me having a form on my contacts page then?