If you have a small business website or a blog, it’s generally ill-advised to publish your email address because that tends to be a spam-magnet. But you still want to give your customers or prospects a way to contact you.
What’s called for is a “Contact Us” form. It doesn’t reveal your email address. It also lets you control what type of information people give, which in turn, allows you to qualify customers and respond more effectively.
Sure, creating a form is not too difficult a task for web developers, if they have access to a mail server and a way to handle spam, but sometimes we’re just looking for a fast, effective and free service to do our bidding. Well fortunately there are a few out there that let you create a quick form and give you the code to easily insert into your site.
Key things to look for with these services are spam-blocking tools, CAPTCHA support, and auto-responder capabilities.
Form Services
Here are some of the best ones to check out:
EmailMeForm – The free service get you 5 forms, 50 fields and 200 responses per month which should be adequate for most small businesses. They have plenty of templates and a form designer tool for custom forms. When you’re finished, you get HTML code, Javascript code, or just a link you can add to your site for a nice looking form.
Flite Widgetbox – This site gives you a full range of widgets you can use on your website, slideshows, polls, countdown clocks, etc., but we’re interested in the forms widget. The basic (free) version gives you 5 fields and is ad-supported. There’s not a contact-us form template, so you have to select and add fields yourself. It will insert your form in several social media and blog sites and does support flash.
FoxyForm – This is a site where you can create a contact form very quickly. It includes spam protection and gives you HTML code to insert in your website. It’s very easy, but with limited customization.
Kontactr is good option that includes CAPTCHA. You can get a button to add to your site, Javascript or HTML. There is no customization, but you get a nice looking free standard “contact us” form.
Summary
Don’t expose your email address on your website. Using one of these services, especially if you’re not a web developer, can save you time and money.
If you’ve used any of these sites or know of other alternatives, please leave a comment below.
