Enkay Blog

Why You Need A Contact Form

I think its sometimes frustrating when I visit new blogs and I want to send a little comment or feedback through the contact form and I can’t seem to find it. I look in the sidebars in between all the ads and the navigation menu with no luck thinking that “theres no way these guys don’t have a contact form”. To my surprise, a lot of blogs don’t have a contact form or any contact information listed and those that do have contact information listed, have it hidden in lots of ads.

I received 500 emails a day because my previous contact form did not have good anti-spam protection. My current form has been very good and even though the word recognition can get you sometimes, I always get relevant emails. This allows me to know that I dont have to sort through junk emails to find real ones. It actually helps save me a lot of time and I make sure that I read all my emails. Unlike before where I used to look through a bunch and then decide to come back later and re-sort through them.

But thats not the point, the point is that you NEED a contact form. This isn’t a need/want debate. You could WANT a contact form but this time, you NEED a contact form. Its the only way you can have your readers email you about a concern, a comment or some feedback they have. Its the only way that potential advertisers can get a hold of you about purchasing advertising or a review. Also, its not really the best idea to leave your email address out for spam-attack on your blog either. I have seen several email address just stated out like “PleaseSpamMe@whatever.com”. So now that you know why you need a contact form, let me discuss some options.

3 Common Wordpress Contact Form Plugins
Theres many different plugins you can use and I’m including 3 of the most common ones below:

1) CForms II - I personally use CForms II as I think it works well with my theme and the image generator is something I prefer over the ones that ask questions. It has an admin section module so you can edit it from the admin section just like any of the others in this list. It uses AJAX and it can be viewed and downloaded here.

2) Wordpress-Ready Contact Form - This is a contact form that is the most popular in my opinion. When you visit the demo page you will notice that you’ve seen it before. I’m sure its popular because its a good contact form. It asks the user a spam protection question and allows the user to select a subject from a drop down box. Its been around a long time and it has a variation called the Secure and Accessible PHP Form. You can view and download the Wordpress-Ready Contact form here.

3) Wordpress Contact Form with Spam Protection - This is very similar to the plugin above and is based on a previous contact form plugin that eventually disappeared. I’m sure it works very well but its harder to find on the Wordpress site and even Google. I personally liked this form myself but I had a few design issues so I had to find something else. If you don’t like the form above for some reason then this is a great alternative. Check it out and download it here.

So if you didn’t have a contact form or your current contact form wasn’t good at defending spam then you’d want to give one of the above plugins a try. Hopefully you find my post interesting and if you have any other plugins for me then I’d like to see them. Have you come across blogs with no contact form or any contact information? Let me know and hope you have a great weekend!