Contact Forms – Best Practices

For contact forms the best practice is to keep it short and to not require too much information. You will have better success in clients completing your contact form if you do not require more than an email address and first name.

On my own site, I require only the email and first name all other fields are optional. I do provide quick and easy check boxes and radio buttons for interested parties to let me know which services they are interested in, but I do not require much information.  On ad landing pages, I require nothing but ask for first name, last name, email and phone number only, no address.

I have found that clients will typically find a detailed contact form prohibitive and will choose not to complete it, so when you do a contact form on your own website, make it simple, keep it short, and require few fields.

Nancy McCord Featured on the Weekend Entrepreneur Blog

I’ve recently been interviewed by the Entrepreneur Blog network and the interview has been posted on the Weekend Entrepreneur blog. You can read the full article here.

The article talks about how I transitioned from the corporate world to business owner and the specific things that I did to grow my business. Here’s just a small quote:

“What we found valuable about her journey from corporate life to becoming an entrepreneur in May of 2001, was the process she went through to determine how to transfer her years of corporate experience, knowledge, skills and passion to a new profession. Her sales enjoyed a 50 percent increase in 2007 from 2006 sales by expanding her services, staying true to her concept and adding independent contractors to her operation.”

Social Media – a Candid Review Is It Worth the Time?

Well you will love or hate this post on my very candid take on social media at Web-World Watch. If you are using social media and don’t agree with my view, make sure to leave me a note.

I think that social media is interesting but a time pit and wonder just how busy some of these people are in their business that they have literally hours to work and add to their network.

From my experience the people I see actively using it are people who really intend to spam their friend network by broadshotting job postings (if they are head hunters) or mass mailing all friends about new listings (if they are in real estate).

The blog is candid and unvarnished. Click in to see if you agree or diagree.

My Very Candid Review of Social Media

Candid is right, you may want to click the post title to go to my rather lengthy and acid review on social media at Web-World Watch. You may agree or rabidly disagree, but let the discussion begin!

Is social media worth the time effort? Are you simply being spammed by people in your network? Are you really getting new clients from this avenue? What is the benefit from simply ranking high organically on your name and not on keywords? These are just a few very pointed questions that I look at. So click in and let me know your thoughts – is social media working for you and how?