I have previously published a post Make a link for visitors to eMail you. As mentioned in that post, using the mailto: link can enable email address harvester to harvest your email address for sending spam. However, I created a special gmail address for this purpose, and had not been much troubled by spam as practically all of them end up in the spam folder.
However, I moderate comments via email notification using the same email address, and have been complaining to Blogger that not all comments get email notifications as described in Problem in moderating comments via email moderation still not solved. I have been requested to check the spam folder, and this means going through quite a lot of spam messages even though it is not that difficult because they are all in the same folder and are easy to recognise. However, it still takes time. Further, I have found that some genuine requests for help had ended up in the spam folder.
I now have changed to scrambling the email address in the hope that this will prevent most email harvestor in getting the email address. If you want to do that, surf over to
http://tools.blogflux.com/emailscramble/
Type in your email address and the message you want to display in the link (I used "Click here to contact me"), then click "Scramble email link >>". Copy the script, get into LAYOUT, click on Add A Page Element and select HTML/Javascript. Paste the script into the window and save. This will appear at the top of the section in the LAYOUT. Click and drag it to wherever you want, and then click "Save" at the top of the LAYOUT. You can see the link near the bottom of the left sidebar of this blog.
There are many other sites that offer encryptation and you can google for them by typing "encrypt email" or "scramble email" into the search box above, tick the WEB radio button and search.
This may not be 100% foolproof, but will still be better than using the mailto: link. If you want to be doubly sure, use graphic to display your email address instead. In this case, those who want to contact you cannot just click on a link. They will have to observe the email address in the graphic and type the email address into the To: field in the compose mail editor window of their mailbox. I believed I have written about it, but can't find it at the moment. If I find it, I will post the link here. Otherwise, I will do a new post and also post the link here.
Acknowledgement: Found out about this site from Amanda of Blogger Buster
Showing posts with label email. Show all posts
Showing posts with label email. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
eMail Contact Form Part 2
I have written an earlier post on this subject: eMail Contact Form for Blogger (click BACK button to get back to this page), but the site that offered the contact form required me to download a program, which I was reluctant to do. In that post Amit suggested another alternative - Contactify where you don't have to download any program, but you will have to divulge your email address as well as the password. I was not willing to do this for my normal email address, so I created a new gmail address to test it out. I have in this way created a way for the blog visitors of Blogger Articles to contact me (at the new gmail address) without having to reveal that email address. The "email me" link to the contact form is at the bottom of the left sidebar of the above blog. Try it out, click on it and see what is the result. (Note: turned out that the password to to log into Contactify, and not the password to sign into your email Inbox).
To creat the link to the contact form, what you need to do, as mentioned above, fill in the field for your email address, your email password (twice), then click a "Create link" button and you will be taken to a page for word verification, then click "I agree, create link" and you will be taken to a page where you can copy the link (URL) to your contact form. Then all you have to do is to sign into your Blogger account to get to the Dashboard, click LAYOUT for the blog you want the link to the contact form to be displayed, click "Add a Page Element", then select either LINK LIST or HTML/Javascript to create the hyperlink. I used LINK LIST to create the hyperlink to the contact form in this blog: Blogger Articles
Update 28 April 2007: Shawn of Stock Blog Hub commented you don't need to give the password to your email address, but an email address to log into Contactify. I tested that by creating a gmail address, register with Contactify and gave my email address plus a password different from the gmail address to create the link. I copied the link, click a Add a Page Element and selected Link List to create a link to the Contactify contact form. You can see the link at the bottom of the left sidebar of the blog Career and You. Try clicking on that link and see what happens. I did that and found the responses were instantaneous.
To creat the link to the contact form, what you need to do, as mentioned above, fill in the field for your email address, your email password (twice), then click a "Create link" button and you will be taken to a page for word verification, then click "I agree, create link" and you will be taken to a page where you can copy the link (URL) to your contact form. Then all you have to do is to sign into your Blogger account to get to the Dashboard, click LAYOUT for the blog you want the link to the contact form to be displayed, click "Add a Page Element", then select either LINK LIST or HTML/Javascript to create the hyperlink. I used LINK LIST to create the hyperlink to the contact form in this blog: Blogger Articles
Update 28 April 2007: Shawn of Stock Blog Hub commented you don't need to give the password to your email address, but an email address to log into Contactify. I tested that by creating a gmail address, register with Contactify and gave my email address plus a password different from the gmail address to create the link. I copied the link, click a Add a Page Element and selected Link List to create a link to the Contactify contact form. You can see the link at the bottom of the left sidebar of the blog Career and You. Try clicking on that link and see what happens. I did that and found the responses were instantaneous.
Monday, April 23, 2007
email contact form for Blogger
I have created a special gmail address for reader of this blog to contact me using mailto link:
<a href="mailto:email address">Click here to email Me</a>
and I am fine with it even though the email address do get harvested by email harvester and I do get spam. But gmail spam filter is so good all of them ends up in the spam folder, so it don't trouble me.
However, if you are picky, you may want to create an email contact form for your visitors to contact you without revealing your email address. You can get it by going to Create a Contact Form for Blogger. I had originally intended to use it to demonstrate, but what I didn't like about that site was when I landed on the site, I got a message that IE7 blocked a pop-up which may cause security risk, and also the fact that one need to download a Webform Designer software which I didn't want to do.
If you don't mind that, and you want a contact form badly enough, you can go to the above site which will give you a link to the page to download WebForm Designer, and if you don't want to set up your own script to email you the form's data, you may also be interested in our free form-to-email service.
Update 29 April 2007: Here is an alternative for you if you have no appetite for downloading a program to get a contact form: eMail Contact Form Part 2 (click BACK button to get back to this page).
<a href="mailto:email address">Click here to email Me</a>
and I am fine with it even though the email address do get harvested by email harvester and I do get spam. But gmail spam filter is so good all of them ends up in the spam folder, so it don't trouble me.
However, if you are picky, you may want to create an email contact form for your visitors to contact you without revealing your email address. You can get it by going to Create a Contact Form for Blogger. I had originally intended to use it to demonstrate, but what I didn't like about that site was when I landed on the site, I got a message that IE7 blocked a pop-up which may cause security risk, and also the fact that one need to download a Webform Designer software which I didn't want to do.
If you don't mind that, and you want a contact form badly enough, you can go to the above site which will give you a link to the page to download WebForm Designer, and if you don't want to set up your own script to email you the form's data, you may also be interested in our free form-to-email service.
Update 29 April 2007: Here is an alternative for you if you have no appetite for downloading a program to get a contact form: eMail Contact Form Part 2 (click BACK button to get back to this page).
