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Often over looked in blogging is the contact form, a lot just use a simple mailto: reference which just isn’t very good at all.
Why use a contact form?
- Looks Good
- Easier than a mailto
- Helps your blog to stand out
- Has more options than mailto:
Why not mailto?
I find it so awkward myself, once some one clicks to contact you it opens up your email client. which can take a long time or may open the wrong one so you have to search for the right one.
A contact form solves all this, ok it can be a hassle altering the form but once it is done it looks great and can have all the options within it that readers may want to ask.
What sort of things can a contact form do?
- Have a space for a readers email address : Handy for replying
- Allow a user to add their website : Handy if they have a question or you are just nosey
- A space for a description : Readers can enter their questions here
- Drop down boxes : Can contain subjects so you can instantly see what the reader is asking a question about
- A captcha image : Mailto doesnt have this and can save on spam
- Can hide your email address : Can stop email harvesting
- Loads more besides
What are we going to use?
For the form we are going to use the great cforms plugin , it is a little complicated to start with but I hope to show you how to use it, and at the end you should have a fully functioning contact form that not only looks great but adds an extra feel of professional about it.
Features of this plugin include
- SPAM protection
- Ajax support
- Backup & Restore
- Multi-Recipients
- Role Manager support
- Database tracking
Downloading and Activating
As normal follow the instructions below, they can be found on every plugin page and save having to switch between posts.
Simply download the plugin and unzip it to a folder on your desktop. Ive created a folder called ‘MattNutts’ everything I will use for this site will be kept in that folder so its easy to get to and I know where everything is.
For this you will need an ftp transfer programme so you can upload the unzipped files to your webserver I use CuteFTP but there is plenty of others out there.
Simple steps to add the plugin and get it working.
1 Click on the link to download the file then extract the files to the folder you have created for the files.To create a folder right click the desktop and select new and then folder.
2 Start up your ftp software and enter the details for your server, these will most likely be Username, Host, Password and Site Name.
3 You need to upload the files to /wp-content/plugins if you have installed wordpress into a subfolder other than the Site Root (the first area your ftp will find) you will need to browse to it, it could be something like - wordpress/wp-content/plugins. The easiest way to tell if you are using a subfolder is to browse to your wordpress homepage for mine I just type in http://mattnutts.com yours could be the same but your site name or it could have extras after it like .com/wordpress or .com/myblog
4 When you see the folder open it so you are inside your plugins folder on your server then select the cforms folder and drag it over to the plugin folder, the upload should start and everything will transfer over.
Once you have uploaded your folder head over to the admin backarea and choose Plugins, activate the cfroms plugin by clicking on ‘activate’. The options for the form can be found by clicking on ‘cforms II’ at the top.
What Next?
Where it says ‘Your default form’ change the name to something a little better I put ‘Contact Us’
Below that is the Form Input Fields, this is the main part of the form and will be where you input items to show on the main form.
You can go with these settings already (Skip futher down the page for extra settings before going live) or you can carry wait for the Advanced Contact Form Post to set up the ultimate contact form (coming soon). If you decide to use the basic settings make sure you change the ‘My Fieldset’ to something better like ‘Contact Us’
Extra Settings Before Going Live
The best thing to do is set up a seperate page for your contact form, so goto ‘Write’ in the admin panel and create a page called ‘Contact Us’ in the html area switch to code view and add the following save the page and you have your very own Basic Contact Form, give it a try from the front end of your blog.
The Advanced Contact Form
In later posts we will cover the contact form in more depth
- Adding a thankyou page
- Adding Check Buttons
- Adding a dropdown list
- Auto Clear
- Styling
- Adding Uploads to the Form
- Spam Checker
- Plus lots lots more
So please pop back and see what we can show you next
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November 4th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Chris,
You have a sound technical knowledge and write good posts on Wordpress. I’m thinking of Wordpress now. I already have blogspot. How can I use Wordpress and blogspot together?
I’m giving you a thumbs up.
November 4th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
You can transfer blogger posts to wordpress as far as I know, I may have to cover going from blogger to wordpress for my next post
November 4th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I agree this is a good forms plugin but not easy to setup.
Here was my first try.
http://www.we-relax.com/sources/subscribe-to-we-relax/medifreeze-sample-request-form
November 5th, 2007 at 6:38 am
Thank you for this post. The contact form that came with my template doesn’t work. I mean it says it does, but when I tested it it never sent the email out.
I’ll try this, and I look forward to reading your other articles about wordpress.
Demian,
~DreamSinger
November 5th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
I’ve been using cforms for awhile (think it was you that tipped me about the plugin) and it works very well. Most people contact me via the form and not directly via my email address.
Need to configure it to look better tho
November 5th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Thnaks, hope it works out, if you have any problems let me know
November 5th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
I remember the post on blogcatalog where you asked about contact forms, glad to see it has worked out. Whats next in the world of photography Thomas, got that personal blog going yet
November 5th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
This is a great post.
I use the same plugin Dane Morgan mentioned at BlogCatalog:
http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/secure-form-mailer-plugin-for-wordpress/
I added a couple of simple customizations to it and so far I have been happy with it.
)Since you seem to have a good knowledge of WordPress, here are a few post suggestions based on questions I get asked by my visitors who seem to uniformly complain that they can;t get answers at the WP support forums. (I am not enough of a php or WordPress expert to answer them myself.)
1.) Is there an easier way than the Codex instructions to upgrade versions of WP?
2.) Widgets really slow down my WP site. What can I do to avoid this?
3.) How can I have a one sidebar for my main page and another for my single post pages?
November 6th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I will certainly throw them in over the next couple of weeks, thanks for the ideas
November 7th, 2007 at 3:04 am
Excellent information. I will put it to good use! Thank you.
November 23rd, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Hi Matt,
I added the form without any issues, but when i submit the form I get this “Error: please type a comment.” error.
Please suggest.
Thanks,
Balaji
November 23rd, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Balaji,
Do you have a link to your site/blog please
November 23rd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Just had a check with mine, try turning of the WP Comment Feature under CFORMS II its near the bottom of everything, just untick the box
November 27th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
ok, maybe i’m completely missing something here. I went ahead and uploaded all the files. activated the plug in. But i can’t see where it says cforms II to manage the option at the top. what could i possible be doing wrong???
November 27th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Which folder did you upload the cforms one or the contactforms one that is inside it, I see the new version has this setup
December 15th, 2007 at 6:34 am
The link is dead 404
December 15th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Thanks for that, its updated now
January 11th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Do you know anyone that can make me a site like mybloglog???
March 13th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Wow man, that was the worst spam post I’ve read in a while. Congratulations!
March 14th, 2008 at 7:57 am
http://mattnutts.com/admin/mattnutts-stuff/missing-content/
Read that you will see why the rest is missing
June 16th, 2008 at 6:23 am
Hey matt,
was searching for how to install a contact form to my blog and came to this page. Im new to wordpress, and dont know how to what are css files/how to save captcha/ fonts to my plugins folder.
Do you have a step by step tutorial?
Clicked on “Adding a basic contact form to wordpress” but all that came up is:
Why use a contact form?
* Looks Good
* Easier than a mailto
* Helps your blog to stand out
* Has more options than mailto:
mike’s last blog post..PPC vs SEO
June 16th, 2008 at 7:54 am
I will try to rewrite the post, it was lost during a database spat so ends up lookingreally bad.
You can use the contact form to contact me with your concerns on the plugin if you wish
Chris’s last blog post..Walk In The Woods
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:26 am
I’m fairly new to WP - this is only my 3rd installation. I have NO IDEA where to begin figuring out how to use this plug-in (which is successfully installed and activated). I just can’t find a Tutorial anywhere. Can you help? Without instructions (is there an instruction file in one of the plug-in folders?), the plug-in is useless to me. But it sounds perfect.
Thanks. Sorry for the stupid question.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I’m new to this too. I’ve managed to create a form and get the cfII added to my visual toolbar. But when I click on it, the form as illustrated in the help section doesn’t come up. Why not and/or what am I doing/not doing that I should be not doing/doing.
Thanks for any help!