simpleContact blog » Support

How to install simpleContact Lite screencast

Alex — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:57:56 +0000

I’ve been talking about screencasts for a little while, but the time wasn’t right to make one because I needed to get my applications updated for the new website look and feel. With the release of simpleContact Lite 1.21, I can start with the free version.

Here’s a video that walks through the installing simpleContact Lite. Hopefully it clarifies the process for you. It’s only about two minutes long, but believe me it took longer than that to make!

In case you’re curious, I used ScreenFlow for the Mac to record and edit this video. It’s a well designed, powerful tool and well worth the price – I highly recommend it. The text editor I used was TextMate and the FTP client was Transmit.

The music is called Green and Gorgeous and is available from AudioJungle.

I’ll be adding more screencasts to the YouTube channel over the next few months. Stay tuned!

Find simpleContact on Facebook and you could win simpleContact Pro!

Alex — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:57:33 +0000

Remember when people used to phone their friends and talk to them? You can’t deny how important and useful social networks, particularly Facebook, have become though. Facebook alone has almost 500 million members, which is just staggering. It’s a great way to create awareness but best of all, to provide service and support to your customers. They can directly and publicly to you and with each other – which is very exciting.

I’ve made a Facebook page for simpleContact to dip my toe in the water. I’ve got lots of ideas for this page but as a sweetener I’ve decided to do a regular monthly giveaway.

Monthly giveaway for fans

On or around the first of every month, I’ll give a single domain license of simpleContact Pro (worth $25) to a fan of the Facebook page. I might do a random draw one month, a poll the next, whatever takes my fancy so watch this space!

Become a fan of the Facebook page today, and you could win very soon!

User feedback about simpleContact Lite and Pro in the new Buzz page

Alex — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:39:10 +0000

Successful businesses build a relationship and trust with their audience. Which begs the question, how do you start to do that? One thing is certain: it doesn’t involve writing endless pages of marketing-speak and hoping it means something to somebody.

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.

Campaign Monitor support for double opt-in mailing list in simpleContact Pro

Alex — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:07:39 +0000

I’ll be using this blog to surface things that are going on around this site, such as on the forums. If an issue or some information seems particularly relevant I’ll bring it up here. Which brings me onto the subject of hacks.

Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress) said…

“I believe that there aren’t any more ‘killer features’ in software, there are 10,000 killer features and everyone has a different 20.”

He may have a point there! That’s why, since the original release of simpleContact Pro, I’ve been busy writing “hacks” – walkthroughs for adding functionality that isn’t currently present in SCP but might be just the thing you need. These are posted to the support forums.

The latest post could be considered an early pass at building in support for the popular email newsletter system Campaign Monitor. I often recommend Campaign Monitor for sending emails to a mailing list – it has a comprehensive feature-set, great design and the cost of sending a campaign (even to thousands of subscribers) is trivially low.

SCP 2.0 includes a CSV export feature that makes it easy to output your mailing list, ready to import into Campaign Monitor.

It could be easier though. It could be seamless.

This new hack uses the Campaign Monitor API so that when a user confirms their mailing list subscription, they automagically appear in your list inside Campaign Monitor.

Check out the Campaign Monitor support for double opt-in mailing list hack. I’d love to hear your feedback on it – you can help guide a built-in implementation for a future version of simpleContact Pro.

Search function added to support forum

Alex — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:23:38 +0000

I know what you’re thinking: “Search is a standard forum feature…” Since I started the support forum I have been working on making it busy enough that a search function would be necessary. The hardest part of running a forum is getting that initial momentum.

I’m pleased to say that point has clearly been reached, for the following reasons:

The volume of content is more than the front page lists
Users have stated that they want a search function
A small amount of duplicate questions have been posted

I’m a fan of the “Getting Real” approach promoted by 37signals (more on that another day). One of their principles is don’t overbuild and don’t waste time on problems you don’t have yet. Now that the lack of seach has become a problem, it’s time to include it.

After this website launches I’ll be upgrading the bbPress application that powers the forum to take advantage of its latest features. If you have ideas for how I can improve my support please contact me.