Quarterly Design Tip

My website includes a form people can fill out to contact me. I used to get a lot of submissions, but lately I haven't been getting any. Is something wrong? 

Most people want to give their clients/customers a chance to express opinions, ask a question, maybe even submit an order through a Contact Us page "form", exactly like the one we have on our site. This is a great way to create personalization on your site, and promote communication.

Enter the world of ISP's (internet service providers). Your ISP is directly responsible for ensuring that any e-mail, form or otherwise, reaches it's destination... you. If you host with us, you know that we went through a process to set up your website e-mail so it is directed to your computer.

Unfortunately, ISP's are constantly under threat from spammers. We all know the frustration of receiving e-mail we don't want, and didn't ask for. So they are constantly tightening security to try to cut down on this bane of the web.

Rarely, but it does happen... your ISP will do a security update that will cut off your site e-mail. Although we have only had this happen to one out of all our web hosting clients, we do encourage everyone to "test" their website contact form at least monthly to ensure it is working correctly. In the unlikely, but possible, event that your e-mail has been inactivated due to a security measure, we can help you re-establish it, but only if we are aware of the problem. In this, like keeping your site updated, we depend on our clients to let us know, since it would require hiring full-time employees here if we were to keep tabs on all our clients sites, whether it be for outdated content, e-mail issues, etc.

Don't panic, this is a rare, rare occurrence. However, be aware, and test your contact us "form" at least once a month!

Note: If your contact us page simply includes e-mail addresses, you don't need to worry.