In the WordPress world, Contact Form 7 is “the king of contact forms”. It has (as of today 9 of July 2009) 543,600 downloads, a average rating of four stars (of 279 ratings). Also it has been translated to over 30 languages and  2 years of being in the plugin directory. Those are impressive numbers so, I decided to give it a test.

Contact Form 7 is a nice plugin, works and is flexible. Still I didn’t feel quite satisfied with it, there was something missing in the user experience. I guess is (although old school is cool) it is a bit “Too Old School” for me. Today I searched for a new one and found something interesting called Visitor Contact Forms.

Visitor Contact Form has 1,161 downloads, has a rating of four stars and a half, in 2 ratings (I gave it five and it had a four star rating before) and apparently it has been on the WordPress plugin directory since 24 of June 2009. As you can see, “it’s the new kid on the block” that  hasn’t pass the test of time as Contact Form 7. Nevertheless I decided to take it out for a rid and let me tell you it was fast.

The Test Drive

First you can install the plugin, then go to http://www.visitorcontact.com/ sign up (which it actually takes seconds) and then it directs you directly to a page where you create your first contact form (See image bellow).

Here you write the name of the form, the website where it will be displayed and used, as well as the email where contact emails will be sent. Then you can write physical address information (in case is important for people to know where you are physically), see image bellow.

If you decide that it is important, write them down because it will show to the right of your form, a Google Maps pointing to you. Finally you can add your Skype Id, phone numbers and twitter username, which are posted bellow the map and become other ways to contact you. The Image bellow shows how the contact form will looked with all the additional information filled in.

Once you finished with filling up the information, you can custom the color of the Sticky Button, finally you can press the “Create Form & Get Button” button. Contact Visitor then will give you two sets of javascript code to publish your new contact form.

Note:

Although I used it in WordPress, you can use the form in any website, you just need to add the script as you will add any other javscript code. Contact Visitor gives you instructions on where is the best place script in your code.

First use a contact button that will be on the side of your website (or better know as Sticky Contact Button). The Sticky Button will be always “there”, no mater where in the website your visitor is. When he presses that button, the background will get dark and a form will show up. Is a nice action script if you ask me and is convenient because the user doesn’t navigate out of the page where she/he is. The second  is (a more traditional way), having it embed in a page in your website.

The image bellow shows the two types of scripts in action contact button to the left (in red) and the embedded contact form.

Bellow is the contact form that shows when you press the Red Contact Button.

To use it in your WordPress webiste/blog then you just install the Contact Visitor Plugin. Then go to the settings and write the number of the form you created in visitorcontact.com. (See image bellow) Here you also have the option to use the Sticky Contact Button or Make a Contact page with the form embedded. I chose both to give it a test.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day the killer feature is User Experience. Contact Form 7 appeals to a international crowd that need to customize the fields, those are the only advantages it has over Visitor Contact, because the only customization offered by the Visitor Contact is the color of the Sticky Button.

On the other hand Visitor Contact gives you a form that works, with modern feature like a Sticky Button, maps and Skype button. It also gives you a account where you can manage all the contacts of the emails received, as well as get location information of the sender (sales people will like this). Finally as stated before you get a better user experience and a service, not a plug-in that can work with other websites. Visitor Contact gives you more than just a plug-in, it actually uses the plug-in so you can get to know and use a good service.

Still I have a question: how the guy makes money? I ask this because the service is for free, so if I’m dependent on it. how do I know that tomorrow it will disappear? Yes, he can receive donations for the WordPress plug-in, but the “magic sauce” is not the plug-in but visitorcontact.com. How do I know he will charge me later, when I have various sites using the service? I guess maybe he is doing it for love and experience, or he is waiting to get enough users and then offer premium services. This last one sounds reasonable, because other people will like customization, remove the visitor contact logo (and add their logo), change colors, etc. He can even provide a newsletter service like Mail Chimp. Who knows I guess I will have to contact him and ask him. In the mean time I will enjoy a great service/Wordpress plug-in while it lasts.