Feb 21, 2012 / Intermediate

Getting in Touch

We’ve talked about the importance of adding an About page to your blog. So, what about a Contact page? Part of blogging and building your audience is about developing a connection to your readers so they come back to your blog over and over again. It’s natural for your followers to be curious about who you are when you’re not sitting at your computer replying to comments or getting ready to hit the big, blue Publish button.

Providing your readers with a contact form enables them to get in touch with you beyond just leaving a comment on your post. This is especially useful if you’re using your blog to build a business or to get started as a paid writer. Additionally, adding a contact form to your site will allow other bloggers and collaborators to get in touch about all those awesome new projects they would love your feedback on. On WordPress.com, we have a great, built-in way to add a custom contact form to your site. You can learn all about the details here.

Using a contact form, instead of writing your email address directly onto your site, helps prevent spammers from finding your email and WordPress automatically filters any spam messages sent through the custom form for added protection. It’s also a simple and clean way to grab all of the information you’d like from your readers to help you better understand your audience. Messages sent through your contact form are conveniently stored in the Feedback section of your Dashboard, in addition to the emails you receive when someone sends you a message.

What should you include on your contact form? Simpler is better here — you don’t want visitors to your site to feel like they’re filling out a loan application instead of sending a complimentary email to their favorite blogger. Name, email, and a section for the actual message is all you really need.

You can also use the custom form builder to create unique forms for a variety of purposes. Don’t believe it? Check out the guide on how to set up an RSVP system with it.

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  4. I think for every site (nowadays) there should be at least one contact form. I can vouch for the effectiveness of wordpress form builder – and would again re-iterate the point simpler forms are the way forward, long forms are more of a deterrent

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  8. It must be my advanced age, but I can’t find the contact form button. I’ve clicked on every “media” mention I see, but no luck. It’s probably right in front of me and I can’t see it. Help!

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      1. Aha! What was wrong was that I didn’t have my computer glasses on when I looked at the page…that teeny, tiny little button escaped my view. Thanks for the FYI…I’ll try to look more closely next time! Now please excuse me, cuz I gotta go back to your post and figure oiut how to use the form…;)

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  9. I’ve considered adding a contact page to my blog before, but I felt it might be a little redundant, knowing that my contact information is also located on my Gravatar profile. Would you say that it would still be a beneficial addition to the blog?

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    1. I think it’s too much.
      If people are too lazy to write an email (most people have an email adress in their gravatar or on their about page) or to write a comment where they ask you to get in touch with them, they probably won’t waste their time filling out some contact form either…

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      1. Interesting point, though I think having a contact form is less about having more people contact you, but making it easier for people to contact you. If you find that you prefer to keep that information available via your Gravatar profile, then you should stick with it 🙂

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      2. Agreed. My only rational explanation for the need of a contact form (in addition to the Gravatar) is that some people may not know how to find that info? But I’m thinking that’s not really logical, either. LOL

        I might try it for a bit. But I’m willing to bet that I get the same amount of contact through there as well.

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  12. Reblogged this on Hunter's Writing and commented:
    Yesterday I reblogged Natalie’s superhero bio tips, so might as well add to the package with a post from ‘The Daily Post’ on contact pages.

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  13. Tried to add a contact form, followed the video tutorial. for some reason my personal details incl. email address are visible to anyone who goes to my contact page. How can I resolve this please?

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    1. Kate, by default the fields are populated with the details of the logged in user. That is you when you are setting it up as you are logged in. If you look at my contact form you see your details anf if I go to your blog contact form I see my details same as I do on my own blog.

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  15. Interesting perspective but I’m still not convinced. Given that I’ve always set my (main) blog up as an information resource for people living abroad, I would rather any questions be asked on the blog so others can benefit. And I really don’t want to get involved with tedious email correspondence providing a personal advice service for free. However I would very much like offers to hire me. Perhaps I should just write a form that says – ‘unless this is a genuine offer to pay me money for my work, I will ignore your submitted form’. Maybe not.

    I think a few more examples from people who have used it and found it did help would be great. But I should also add it took me an awful long time to a) write ‘about me’ and b) add a photo.

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    1. I should have added, if it’s someone whose WP blog you comment on, then your email will be visible to them anyway, so they can always contact you (as one or two of my recent contacts have done). If it’s a stranger without a blog, then I would be cautious anyway about responding. (Unless of course they were offering me money…)

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      1. I would rather any questions be asked on the blog so others can benefit.

        This is a great point! Ultimately, deciding to add a comment form is about what’s most beneficial to the mission of your blog and for you. I personally find that it’s good to have multiple lines of communication between you and your readers, but you may find that adding a comment form would detract from your blog’s purpose. Thanks for weighing in 😀

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  18. Thank you. I must admit that I had no idea this existed, and I’d considered myself pretty knowledgeable and able to find my way around WP 🙂

    My email isn’t stated anywhere, so this came in really handy.

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  20. Never thought of adding a separate ‘Contact Me’ page, thought that the About Me email link was supposed to do that work. Now you are making me think, and I don’t like it. That is a start of a chain reaction which ends in me making big changes to my blog. First it was the move from Blogger to WP.com. Then from WP.com to WP.org and now this. Let me quickly leave this page before I do some serious damage to my blog.

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  25. I decided to create one after someone tried to contact me and it landed in my spam folder. Only saw it after 2 weeks. Found I had to use Google Chrome to do the addition as using Internet Explorer was not working

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