Monday, February 13, 2012

How to Make a Contact Page in Blogger

Do you want to make a contact page in your blog so your readers don't have to leave your website to email you? 

Here's an easy way to make a contact form in Blogger -- using Google Drive (formerly Docs). I learned how from
 Blogger Xpertise, but I tweaked its instructions to make it even easier to create a contact form. I have also updated it for Google Drive:   


Step 1: Create the Contact Form 
  • Go to Google Drive --> Create ---> Form. You will get this screen:
How to make a contact page in blogger

  • Give your form a name, like "Contact Me" or "What's On Your Mind?"
  • Create questions, which will be the fields in the form. The three basic questions I use are: Name, Email, and Comments. Choose from the drop down menu the type of comment each question requires: Name and Email use "text" comments, and Comments are "paragraph text." You can choose which questions are mandatory.
  • Preview the form by clicking "View Live Form."


Step 2: Get the html code

After you are satisfied, click "Send Form." Click "Embed." Google will give you an html code to copy. You can change the size of the form based on your blog template. Mine looks like this:


Step 3: Create Your Contact Page on Blogger
  • Go to your "Contact Me" page (or create one) on your blog. (Go to Posting --> Edit Pages). Open the "Edit HTML" tab and paste the code from Google Drive.
  • Preview how it will look on your blog. You can adjust the width of the form at this stage too. 
  • Publish. My contact form looks like this:


Step 4: Make Sure You are Notified When Someone Uses the Form

Go back to your Google Drive form and click on, "Choose response destination" and click, "create a new spreadsheet." When someone fills out the contact form, the information will go into the spreadsheet. Turn on email notification:
  • Go back to Google Drive and click on your form. A spreadsheet will open. Click Tools --> Notification Rules.
  • Check the box "a user submits a form" and "email-right away." Save.
That's it.  Go ahead and test it by sending yourself a comment. (P.S. Test your own form, not mine. I've gotten several test comments!)





This is one of several posts on improving the look and feel of your Blogger blog. I am not a coder and all of these tweaks are easily done. Just remember to save a copy of your template before making any changes. Other posts you may enjoy:

84 comments:

  1. Sylvia,
    Thanks so much for this! I've found several sets of directions regarding comments and yours works like a charm- you should write cookbooks!

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  2. Thanks so much, Sylvia. I've been wanting to do this for ages!

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  3. Thank you! I just did this. Your instructions were so helpful!

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  4. This is exactly what I was looking for- easy directions. Flawless instructions. Thank you Sylvia!

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  5. Excellent tip. Have incorporated it into our website. Thanks.

    Only thing I need to figure out is how to get rid of the info on the response note asking the user to create their own form.

    http://maidstoneinvicta.blogspot.co.uk/p/contact-us.html

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I just noticed that too. I guess that's the price of using free services like Google Docs; we have to put up with the advertising. At least it's pretty subtle.

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    2. Hi, I've just created a form but does anybody know how to remove "This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google.
      Report Abuse - Terms of Service - Additional Terms"

      The form would look much more professional if it could be removed.

      Cheers

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  6. Thaaank you so much for your help! :D

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  7. Thank You! I was able to create the page in like 5 minutes, Thanks to you!

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    Replies
    1. You're welcome, and thanks for stopping by!

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  8. thanks for giving good things to us
    see my blog http://comptutorkg2pg.blogspot.in/

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  9. i Just Create in 2 minutes not yet publish as i need to master in tabbing just started my blog.
    www.iosstuff.blogspot.com

    don't know how to create better.
    pls help me and advice me.
    Thanks,

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    Replies
    1. I checked out your blog. It looks like a good start. I would suggest moving the widgets that you currently have at the bottom of the page to a sidebar so people don't have to scroll all the way down. You can also check out my post, "8 Ways to Make a Blogger Blog Look and Act Like a Website" for other tips. Good luck!

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  10. Thank you for putting this on your blog! I was searching all throughout google when I finally came across this post. This tutorial that you put up has really improved my blog :) Thank you again!

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  11. Silvia, I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your helpful blogger tips. Thanks to you I have been able to make several changes to my blog for the better including adding social media icons and a contact page. Your step-by-step tutorials are so helpful for a beginning blogger like myself who is figuring out all this one step at a time (HTML?!). So thank you for sharing your knowledge!

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    Replies
    1. Oops - just realized I misspelled your name - sorry Sylvia ;)

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    2. Thanks, Haeley. Glad to be of help. I'm basically learning as I go too, and thought people would appreciate learning the things I've found useful. Your blog has a nice clean look!

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  12. Best help ever. You are helping me to accomplish my blog dream.

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  13. Hi Sylvia. I've been looking at other contact me form too but yours is easy and the best. Thank you so much.

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  14. Sylvia, thanks so much. Mega helpful! :) x

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  15. thanks a lots for this (http://movies-mypassion.blogspot.in/)

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  16. You have been a Godsend!! I owe most of my blog set up to you!!!

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  17. its better to make form in jotform.com you gonna check it out

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, I will check it out. Do you have an example of a form made with this?

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  18. Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for and it works very well on my blog, http://thefrugalmum.blogspot.ie.

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  19. Thank you Sylvi dear :)
    My Blog :http://the-prodigal-paradox.blogspot.in/

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  20. Thanks a lot :) It works great ... what an idea !

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  21. Wonderful tutorial thanks - the only problem I had was trying to resize the form - I keep getting an error code. Did you have any problem with that at all?

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    Replies
    1. I haven't had that problem. Make sure you're working in the "HTML" form, and just change the number itself (nothing else, leave the quote marks). See if that helps. Otherwise, I'm not sure what to suggest.

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  22. thank you very much for this article

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  23. Hi Sylvia,

    I have just started a blog on my fav football team. request your expert eye

    http://justgooners.blogspot.in/

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    Replies
    1. It looks great...love the colors and the layout. Very clean and appealing!

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    2. Thanks the kind words, and your article helped me a lot. I request your suggestions.

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    3. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to send them to me (use the contact form). It's hard for me to give suggestions at this point because it's such a new blog with a few posts. One quick tip: add labels to your posts so that readers can eventually pull up articles by topic.

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  24. check out my blog!!! http://talyorswift13.blogspot.com !!!

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  25. Was looking for it for a long time!Just in minutes I could creat it.
    God bless you!

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  26. Thanks for the info! You are a great teacher! Any advice on my blog I would definitely appreciate it. Thanks! www.ilovekingjesus.blogspot.com

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    Replies
    1. And I turned the email notifications on like you said and checked it 3 times to make sure was done right and I still get no email when I try the test...The only place I see it is in the spreadsheet on the docs.???? Thanks

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    2. Mmm. I'm not sure what to say. I'll try to send you a message on your contact form to see how it works.

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    3. The message you sent me only shows up on the spreadsheet in google docs, I don't get a notification through my email...well thanks for trying!

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  27. Thanks so much this very informative and helped me a lot.
    You can see my blog after i make this steps : http://businessmanagementtt.blogspot.com/

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  28. Thank you so much ,sylvia.........

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  29. Thanks for the tutorial however I tested it and sent myself various comments and they only shows on my spreadsheet

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    Replies
    1. Hi Claudia, Did you do the last step, where you turn on the email notification? Also, since you are doing it through your Google account, make sure you are checking the email account you have on file or that you are using with Google.

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    2. Hi Sylvia! I did the last step = tools, notification rules, user submits a form is checked and also email notification is checked, I saved. My email is the correct one and I even checked my spam box and nothing :/ I only see them in the spreadsheet.

      Thanks for your help

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    3. Sorry, Claudia! I'm not sure why it doesn't work for you. Here's a post at Blogger Xpertise that gives instructions on how to have Blogger email you the comments directly. I haven't tried this yet.

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  30. Thank you so much for the detailed tutorial! Easy to understand and setup my contact meet page in minutes.

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  31. Truly wonderfully done instructions! I was able to put this together in less than 15 minutes! Thank you so much for taking the time!!!

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  32. Hi Sylvia! Thank you for this post. However, I'm going crazy here . For some reason when I follow your steps my Contact form never publishes. I've followed your steps exactly and can't see my form when I view my blog. Shows up fine in preview but when I go live nothing. Anyone else experience this? I can't figure out what's going wrong.

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    1. Hi Daniel. Have you made a separate Page for your contact page? Go to "Pages" in your dashboard, then "New Page," title it "Contact Me" or something like that, and click on the HTML editing mode, then paste your code from Google Drive. Then go back to "Pages" and make sure you have "Show Pages as Top Tabs." Hope that helps?

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  33. Hey Sylvia, thanks for this wonderful post. This is very useful and helpful, it helped me a lot to improve the view of my blog. As a novice it takes very long to learn these things but you did really awesome job with this post.

    Please give a look at my blog : http://prasantmishra.blogspot.com

    Do suggest me some tips so that I can make it more dynamic and scenic to attract readers.

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  34. Thank you, you've helped me. :)

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  35. Thank you so much! Such easy and clear instructions x

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  36. Thankyou so much its really helped me. I made a form to let people report copyright infringement. Kinda helps with a blog that sources images:

    Owner of www.wildprocrastination.blogspot.com

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  37. great!! thanks for the idea. I was looking for a secure and simple solution, and got it :D

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  38. I did use this Google contact form and wasted a good part of a day trying to get this form to work properly. It filled in the spreadsheet and all but wouldn't send me the email. Yes I checked all the setting and redid the form to make sure it was set up right. I even posted the issue on their forums for these forms and no one responded to my inquiry either. I am leaning towards the idea that the problem was due to the fact I am not a "Google+" member. I want to keep my private life separate from my blog life and do not want Google+ membership. I was able to find Kontactr and install it in minutes and it works. It does have Captcha which I find a bit annoying but other wise it looks and works fine for now.

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    1. Hi. I'm glad you found a way to work it out, even though these instructions didn't help. Sorry to hear that, and good luck with your blogging!

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  39. thank You Please Tell Me What Changes I Want to Do With This Blog
    http://guitar4learners.blogspot.in/

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    Replies
    1. Your site looks fine. The one thing I might recommend is uploading a customized banner to make it more personal. You can even just upload a photo cropped in the shape of the banner to add some additional interest.

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  40. Thank you so much. Our blog now looks more like a professional website, http://fundasinfinance.blogspot.in/

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by. Your blog looks very nice.

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