How to add a contact form to WordPress?
Whether you agree or not, contact form is a must for blogs because it gives your users an opportunity to communicate with you. I was quiet surprised when I got emails from people asking me which wordpress contact form I am using. I told all of them which one I was using via email, and two of them still came back to ask me how to make it work. Then I thought maybe it is time to write a tutorial post which answers the question how to add a contact form to wordpress.
Well the plugin I am using is called WP-Contact Form which was originally written by Ryan Duff (His site is no longer active). But Douglas Karr did a great job in updating this plugin and making it available for us.
It is a very simple plugin, and you can see it working live at Balkhis Contact Page.
All you have to do is head over to the Actual Plugin Site, and Download the plugin.
Simply Upload it to the plugins directory via FTP.
Go to your blog’s admin panel and activate the plugin.
Then head over to settings, and edit the contact form settings. (If you have alot of plugins then you probably won’t see it there. Read the bug I found in the default wordpress admin panel theme, so you might need to download fluency. Once again read that post for detail)
Reminder: Change your security question and make it interesting. 2+2=4 is a simple question which most spammers can get easily. I am sure not many can get how to spell balkhis backwards. This will cut the spam down.
Now go and write a page, and name it Contact
Just add this contact in the Post text area % %wpcontactform% %, and you will be good to go.
If you want to do it via php in the template php file then use this code: <?php wpcontactform() ?>
Now you have a ready contact form for your blog.
Why should you add the contact form to your blog?
Simple, so your users can connect with you. Even more is if someone wants to advertise on your site or have some question, they can directly contact you.
So add a contact form to your wordpress blog right now.
Hey, I am Syed Balkhi, The guy who is behind Balkhis Inc. I entered the industry back in 2002 not knowing a single thing. I barely spoke English at that time. In the past six years, my language barrier has been eliminated. Aside from English, now I also speak html, and php. Along with the languages I have also managed to master a few arts. Art of web-designing started when I first entered. Messing around with photoshop, I learned how to create my first web design. Now I founded a web designing firm Uzzz Productions. After running numerous amount of websites in various niche, I have mastered the art of web-development. Now I am compiling a resource of what I already know, and what I am learning on this blog. This resource is to help me if I ever need a guide to look back to, and it is help my fellow webmasters.
This is probably the best contact form plugin for WP. Btw can you use the form more than once on the blog? In the admin panel, you have to mention the page where you’ll be using it.
Also, why does the form not show in the index.php and shows in the single page?
I believe you can show it on more then one page by displaying the codes. I don’t know about index.php and single.php why it would show on one and not the other.
This is very good for any starting blogger. I’m happy I had already implemented this before.
I agree the contact form is important, I often try to contact a blogger to find out my only way is through his last post, especially on french blogs.
Just found out about the new design.
Looking pretty pimp, much more professional.
Good job, I’ll have to get used to it.
Love the new blog design Syed – you did a great job on it!
Oh and nice post on the contact form. I believe that it is important to have a way to contact the site owner if you need to.
Syed good to see that you have answered my question,thank you let go and try it again.I like the new look of your blog.
Great job with the new theme. Im loving it!
Theres no recent posts list on the new blog (just on the homepage)
The contact form instruction did not work on my blog.
what part didn’t work ?
I did everything but when i go to the contact page i don’t see the form,i only see % %wpcontactform% %, the one i pasted on the text area.
remove the spaces between the two %%… The only reason why I put the space there otherwise wordpress will show contact form on my page.
Syed, thanks a lot it is works now.
great
here i got one more useful plugin of COntact form for wordpress :-
http://chip.cuccio.us/projects/contact-form-ii
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