You can’t buy trust

It helps if you can minimise a person’s risk. That’s why simpleContact Lite is more than just a free PHP contact form solution. You can also use it to confirm that simpleContact Pro will install successfully on your website. Its interface is consistent with Pro, and you can migrate your settings and data when you decide to upgrade.

We all want to try before we buy. That’s why there’s a live demo that you can use to explore the admin interface in full and decide whether it will satisfy your needs.

… But there’s no substitute for unbiased word of mouth. Proof that someone went first, spent their money, and were happy with the result. Happy enough that they wanted to share the experience.

Don’t take my word for it

It’s time I shared some of the feedback I’ve received since I released these applications. I’ve added a buzz page to this website which contains comments from real users of Lite and early-adopters of Pro.

Businesses, design agencies, freelance web designers and marketers – it’s quite a mixed bag! Maybe something in there means something to you.

On an unrelated note, I completed a maintenance upgrade to the support forums last weekend. It’s now dressed in a snappy shade of green and should be more useful than before.

To paraphrase his website, Ian Lurie is an internet marketer with 14 years’ experience. He is the president of Seattle-based Portent Interactive. He blogs at Conversation Marketing, wrote a book by the same name (which I reviewed on my personal blog), and recently co-authored Web Marketing For Dummies. He’s also on Twitter.

He recently launched a new consultancy service called 10Things, aimed at small businesses. It includes an appraisal of your site, 10 recommendations to improve it and an hour’s discussion with Ian himself. This costs $500 which isn’t pocket-change, but if you’re unwilling to invest that much in expert advice perhaps you should cut your losses and quit.

He announced this new service with a blog post and competition to win one of three 10Things sessions. I was fortunate enough to be one of the three, so on Thursday night we spoke via iChat.

Since this website is new I was a little nervous about inviting direct criticism. It felt a little like handing my homework in to a teacher and waiting to hear my result! In truth, there would be no better time, and thankfully I didn’t get an “F-, See me after class.” It was a very positive experience and I am more confident than ever that this website is on the right track.

It would be unfair to reproduce his advice in full, but I’ll touch on three points that relate specifically to this website:

Uniformity in design

This is my most urgent priority, and something that Ian also identified. In order to get the website launched without any delay, I postponed some tasks. The blog, forum and product documentation need to be integrated with the navigation and graphical identity of the site. I will also modify the colour schemes of the applications themselves in their next releases.

This will result not only in the improved customer confidence that comes from visual consistency, but also the SEO benefit of making sure the site’s pages are properly interlinked.

Screencasts

I’d already thought about creating some screencasts (video clips that show the application’s behaviour), but Ian confirmed the necessity of this. All the written explanation in the world is no substitute for simply showing the the user what is meant. I’ll look forward to making screencasts for this site next year. I think it will be fun!

Trust

Well written copy is important, but trust is hard to come by on the Internet. Ian suggested that I put more of a personal stamp on the site, explaining who I am and linking to other parts of my online identity. I should also offer social proof of the product’s popularity, which I hope the buzz section I am working on will help to do.

Over the next few months I have a lot of work to do! I’ll be putting a lot of Ian’s advice into practice and I hope you will see the benefits. I look forward to going back for 10 More Things in future.

At the time of writing, it has 203 votes with an average score of 9.38 / 10. Only one product in the same category has more votes.

I have you in my sights

Seriously though, I’d like to take a moment to thank the early adopters. The official launch of this website is coming (very) soon but I’ve already had a great response from users. I’ve had some valuable feedback and I’m looking forward to making this product better and better for everyone that uses it.

I would prefer you to read all his remarks in context so I will refrain from reproducing his review in full, except to note his conclusions and feedback.

For $25 you can’t go far wrong with simpleContact Pro. Alex also has a Lite version which is free but that’s obviously less advanced. Fortunately you can try the Lite version and upgrade to Pro at a later date – which seems to be a fairly painless process. I’m pretty impressed with the level of customisation available with the form builder; I’ve used some horrendous CMS plugins that aspired to similar things and all of them fell short. If you need a more comprehensive contact form manager/builder for your website, I thoroughly recommend giving simpleContact a try (in either Lite or Pro flavour).

A good review is a two-way street that not only recognises the positive aspects of a product, but which notes its present shortcomings. If I wanted unmitigated praise I’d ask my mother to write one! Steven raised the following points:

Documentation

He observed that the documentation was insufficient on the subject of integrating the forms with a website. I took steps to expand and clarify the instructions in response.

Name fields separation

This is a matter of personal taste. I have always preferred separate first and last name fields on forms. This is mainly because it makes the collected data easier to use without looking either broken or comically formal (”Hi Alex Hardy”). As always, if I see significant demand for a combined name field I will give it due consideration.

Security

Two points were raised here: That he was unsure what level of validation was present on the forms, and that a CAPTCHA might be reassuring for users from a security point of view.

There are actually two layers of validation on the forms. The first is client-side JavaScript, which helps to prevent human error. This is backed up by server-side checks in PHP to help keep the spammers out. I always consider ways to improve that protection and I have several ideas for future releases. As a user of my own product, I can vouch that I currently receive practically no spam through my forms.

I’m not a fan of CAPTCHAs. I’ve been vocal about my objections to them in the past (and no doubt in future). I’m not too inflexible to yield to popular request though, so I wrote a hack for reCAPTCHA support on the forums. In future I intend to add a “spam challenge” field option of the type Steven describes, as can be seen on Building Findable Websites.

Disclosure

The advertising the Steven dutifully mentions was an experimental placement to promote simpleContact Lite prior to the release of Pro. When its term was concluded I decided to postpone further blog adverts. Although he undertakes paid reviews this one was not – my original invitation was to a private beta that I held. Although he was unable to participate due to work commitments he was kind enough to write this review. Steven’s reviews are always conducted with total objectivity and I gratefully accept his criticism.