May 21, 2008

Do you have trouble receiving email from people who try to contact you through your website? Me too–until now. You may be generating a lot more email from your website than you think–you’re just not receiving it.

I’ve had a personal website for years, and I have two more websites for book series, but I’ve had the same problem with them all–until recently. At a writing conference at Mt. Hermon in March, one tech-savvy gal explained the problem–and the cure. For reasons unfathomable to me, those mailto: links often don’t work. They try to generate default email programs that won’t send the email. (I know they don’t work–I’ve asked numerous friends to send me an email from my websites. Only ONE email got through out of six.) Important email from friends, fans, book buyers, and event planners often don’t get to you. Hopefully, that problem is a thing of the past. And the fix is FREE. Instead of using a mailto: link, get a free “Email Me” form.

I Googled “email forms” to find several choices, and I settled on EmailMe.com because it was very easy to use. I chose the simple, standard form, but when time permits, I may go back and tweak the colors and fonts. It was so easy to install! And it even makes sure that you have a “thank you” page link so the person knows their email went through.

I love when I find things that make life easier–especially when the process is fairly painless and free.