Why you should enable your readers to contact you?
Have you ever been a website which you love a lot, and then you suddenly found this one problem, and you want to contact the webmaster or blogger. Then you waste over 10 minutes searching for the contact page. Frustration is rising and you don’t know what to do? Yup it happened to me a multiple times. That is why I made my contact page, and I do so whenever I start a new website.
Why you should enable your readers to contact you
Some people want to keep distance from their readers. They think comment is enough. But I disagree. I think having your readers contact you is good. It’s not just good, it is great. Not for one reason but many. Here are a few:
- It opens up opportunities – Do you know that now I don’t even search for places to advertise my site because I have people contacting me. Giving me special deals. I choose the ones that I like. It saves me tons of time. Sometimes I can’t think what to write about. Then I get an email with a question. Having your readers contact you opens up opportunities.
- It creates trust – When you put a contact form in your website, it shows the reader that there is a human writing on this blog. There is someone accountable. They begin to trust you more. And that is how you get loyal readers. It shows to them that your blog is not spam because mostly spammers try to hide.
- It makes your reader feel valuable – I know for me as a reader, I like to contact people. Either to just say hi or maybe have a question. It makes me feel that I am valued when I get a response back from the blogger or webmaster. I know other readers like to see the same. Letting them contact you makes them feel valuable and they come back to your site over and over.
- Sense of Privacy – Comments are too public. Sometimes readers tell you security information about your website. Or something that cannot be discussed in public. This is how reader / blogger relationship get better.
Above are just a few that I can think of top of my head. There are tons of reasons why contact forms are helpful. I mean I contact fellow bloggers to report problems on their site etc etc.
I think every blogger should have a contact page. Here is how you can make a contact page with wordpress.
I understand some bloggers feel insecure by giving their main email address out to public. Well that is why you make multiple emails. You keep your personal emails separate if you are afraid of being spammed. Simply make an email like xxxx@yourdomain.com and use that. Add that into outlook or any other mail management program. Check your emails daily.
It is not a lot of work, and you are gaining readers. It maybe takes a little extra time, but each question you reply back to. That is how many loyal readers you are gaining.
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.
Very important point. I realized it only lately (added a contact form only last month) Making myself reachable has improved the offline interactions and a lot of people actually reach out for help, tips and even offers (spam as well
)
I agree that the contact page is very important. In my own opinion opportunities can come through it when you won’t expect them.
That’s exactly it. Most of my blog advertisers come from my contact page, as well as a fair few new opportunities.
nice article..
I always make a contact page when i start a blog.
If you allow your readers to be able to contact you, creates that sense of relationship. Relationships are one of the most important things in order to have a successful blog
Relationship is richness.And the idea of creating trust is very positive.
I totally agree with you. What is the danger in providing contact details? Give a separate email address if you are so particular.
It can bring you idea for your blog post,
when your readers ask question…
And also, another way to let people contact you in forum.
Just say “Drop by to my blog and use contact page for anything”
=D, unless some blogger want to become ninblogger (annonymous)…
Nice post Balkhis…
=D
I agree with you. I’m involved in link building services recently and finding dofollow blogs. Some of the blogs have dofollow batch but is not dofollow. Maybe, the plugin they used is not working or something wrong. I just wanted to inform the blogger. Finding contact page is hard for some blogspot blogs. Contact page is extremely important for any blogs. Sometimes, it brings in business and money for us.
I think it’s good to always remain contactable with your readers.After all blogging is about reaching out to them to communicate on a more personal basis. So having a contact form is a natural thing to do.
Peter Lee
You’ll never know what might come through the contact page that you have set up. Putting spams aside, you can actually get blog post ideas, networking opportunities and even endorsement requests.
Imagine someone from a popular magazine wants to interview you but have no idea on how to contact you. You just missed out an incredible opportunity there.
Balkhis, great post on highlighting the importance of a contact page.
Wayne Liew
http://www.affboom.com
Contact page is a must for every site. Don’t letting opportunity to visitors to contact you is really unprofessional and only tells that you don’t appreciate them.
I notice that there is still a large chunk of bloggers who do not have contact, about, and archive pages. It’s really frustrating when you can’t find something that should be included in every blog.
I think the opportunity to contact you by your readers is one of the greatest options that lead you to success. Thus, answering their questions you will write about the very issues your readers are interested in. Good relationships and trust among blogger and his reader is amajor key to successful blog.
It is very important that the readers should be able to contact you, especially valuable readers who think on the topic and want to give a suggestion, etc. That is why I added a contact form on my blog!
I found out that using contact page could rapidly improve your accounts on social media networks such as twitter.
Putting your twitter account on your about us or contact page is a good way to build community.
Very nice observation Charles. Yes it is very likely that you will build more contact by adding a contact page on your contact and potentially get more followers on your twitter account.
I think if you don’t have a way to be contacted then that shows that you don’t believe in your site, even if you have one but it is super hard to find. Just put a link on each page so it is nice and simple, and it shows you are willing to answer any questions that might pop up. It also shows that your page is more legit rather than a scam.
I think it is very important to have a way for readers to contact you. I do on my blogs, but I find it funny that some will still leave a comment to send a personal message that they dont really want approved as a comment. Even though there is a contact link on every page that they could use to send the personal message.