The flow of froms

Before you worry about inserting the input box,
first you need “THE FORM“.
Placing the actual input box is the last thing.

“THE FORM“ consists of
1. input box
2. primary thank-you page
3. confirmation request email
4. secondary thank-you page
5. thank-you / password / download link email
6. Success / download link page

Usually your form manager program generates those six items
for you, but roughly. You have to pretty them up with your
corporate colors, logos, and a few kind words.
Upload those components.

Only THEN do you copy / paste the generated and prettied up
input box to wherever you want, including your blog.

To paste the input box into the sidebar of your blog, decide
on the exact location, find the last word above it,
open the sidebar in the blog editor and look for that word.

Paste the input box below that word,
save and upload.

To make your life MUCH easier, print out the set-up page of “THE FORM“,
where it lists the file names of the six components.

The better form managers let you re-use components from
existing forms, but you need to know their file names.
Quite often you can partially re-use components, so save a
prettied up master copy of each, so that you can quickly
and easily adapt them to the next form.

I know that forms can be initially a bit confusing, so I
drew up that flow chart. Try to get VERY comfortable
with the concept. Forms are the pick-up trucks of
business, whether on-line or off-line. Once you are
familiar with the process, you can snap up a form
in a minute or two, without worrying whether it works or not.

There are forms managers that can be rented, some can
be used courtesy of the hosting company, and some can be
bought.

Obviously, using the forms manager of your current hosting
company is rather reckless. If you have to move, your work
and your forms are left behind, and you get to recreate
everything from scratch.

The cheaper your hosting, the more likely you will get fed up
and move. If you use bargain hosting, and use the web hosts
form engine, document every single step! You will need all
that info for creating the forms again at the next web host.
I can’t overemphasize the need for very thorough documentation!
Save the source code of the prettied up pages, That way
you have the color numbers and whatever you need to
duplicate them reasonably quickly.

There are some form and list services that you can rent by
the month. Aweber is quite popular with beginners. Their
service is only around $25 a month and they have a fairly
easy user interface.

The problem with rented form services is similar to courtesy
freebies included with hosting. If you make a mistake or
get too busy, you are out on your ear.
Document EVERYTHING! Sooner or later you WILL need that
information again.

The final option is to buy your own forms manager or forms
engine. They range from $75 to $5000. They do about the same,
but the $5000 programs have a lot more hype and sales effort.

I use the MagicForms©. from Webby.
We wrote that in 1995, because I realized the need for forms
in business. Initially it was just for our internal use.

You can have thousands of separate forms running simultaneously,
share and re-use components when it suits you, or tweak the
looks of them with normal HTML. MagicForms© is so simple to
use, that I still have not found a need to write a manual for it.

Purchasing MagicForms© ($75) includes professional
nstallation, but you have to be on a UNIX or Linux server,
and have SSH privileges for the installation.

Summary:
start with freebie forms
upgrade to rented form service
graduate to your own form engine.

Document every step and keep copies of every component.

Have FUN!
DearWebby