I wanted to highlight the option built right in to your new posts and pages to create a very easy contact form.  This can come in really handy if you are looking for feedback, requesting basic information, or want to give your readers an option to contact you directly through your blog.

I used this form creator on the FIT Bloggers blog and is labeled in the menu as Have an Idea For This Site? In my example, I placed the form on a static page, however, this could be done in an individual post as well.

How to create a contact form directly in your post or page:

• Type in your introduction to the form or any verbiage that should precede the form
• Place your cursor where on your post or page you would like the form to start
• Click on the “Add Custom Form” button just above your formatting toolbar (see screenshot)

• A new window will pop open and on the first tab “Form Builder” where you can decide what your form will look like. When you click on each field, such as “Name” two options will appear to either “move” or “edit”

• The “move” feature allows you to drag and drop and fields into the specific order that you would like them to appear in.  ”Edit” will let you change the label name, choose the type of field information you are collecting, and also to decide if the information you are collecting for that particular field is required or not.  (In my example, I changed the email field to read “FIT Email Address” and also changed the website field to read “Name of FIT Blog”.
• Remember to click “Save This Field” for each line you change.
• You can also choose to use the option at the bottom of the form to create your own fields.
• The second tab at the top of the form builder, called “Email Notification” allows you to decide who will receive the notification of a new comment.  This should be the Administrator of the FIT blog, or an author on the blog that you trust to check their FIT email accounts.  (General comments on the blog are all sent by default to the blog administrator).
• If you made any changes, click “Save and go back to form builder.”
• If happy with your form click on the blue button “Add this form to my post”
• You see a bunch of new code on your page that will look like the below. You do not need to fo anything else other than adding any additional text below the new code if needed.

There are more complex form building plug-ins for WordPress, and please contact the Technology Development Team (TDT) if you would like to explore other options.