The Curses of A Contact Form

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Okay, now I know that I could do research and find a spam free contact form or something along those lines. But it involves a lesson that took me a long time to learn. Chasing every bug and plugging every hole as it comes up will send me off track. I have to step back take a breath and look at the whole picture every once in a while, make a list and check it consistently. If I am not doing something on the list, I need to put myself back on course. I will be investigating hiring out soon so that some of these lists won’t be my job.

I put up a contact form so that people could contact me without leaving a comment. I didn’t want to put an email address out there just for it to become a spam magnet. I have an email address for that. I have had it for at least 5 years. I have used it on every form possible. I have signed up for so many things that I never start by registering a site. I start by testing my email address. I just found out I have a tumblr account through Google. I Google myself every once and while. I helps with the ego and it helps to know which sites that pick up my feeds have the most link juice. The end result in that email account is that gets over 1000 messages a day. I filter this down to about 100 messages a day which I only scan the titles of before hitting delete. People I haven’t heard from in 5 years reach me through this address.

So the contact form is set up on my Gmail account and it has been fun to watch what comes in through it.

For one, there must be spam software out there that can’t tell the difference between the contact form and the comment form. I get about 4 or 5 of these a day. Long lists of urls.

But sometimes I get long lists of keywords that seem to be people thinking it’s a keyword tool like the one I just got as I was typing this sentence:

handbag
gucci
gucci
sunglasses
with
handbag
watches
gucci
gucci
vuitton
gucci
gucci
replica
gucci
gucci
gucci
replica
gucci
bags
lyrics
gucci
handbags
gucci
wallets
gucci
perfume
watches
eyeglasses
2008
gucci
1
designer
gucci
air
boots
mens
layouts
cologne
gucci
gucci
gucci
original
gucci
gucci
medium
gucci
lunette
envy
gucci
wholesale
watches
wholesale
watch
waist
glasses
belts
gucci
gucci
gucci
eclipse
jewellery
location
glasses
designer
gucci
gucci
gucci
gucci
prada
gucci
timberland
the
custom
watches
handbags
gucci
nobile
mens
gucci
frames
sun
the
gucci
gucci
hats
gucci
gucci
mane
kong
gucci
paolo
gucci
discount
gucci
gucci
gucci
storess
gucci
hangbags
watch
italy
speedy
gucci
handbag
gucci
vintage
totes
one
bags
cologn
what
handbags
gucci
hologram
gucci
about
gucci
eyeglass
rss
baseball
icy
cruise
abput
of
cellphone
belt
handbags
watch
black
stallion
women
and
outlet
handbag
frames
gucci
gucci
prada
discounted
gucci
baldinini
pony
scully
for
gucci
belt
shoes
bags
gucci
gucci
vintage
girl
gucci
necklace
logo
gucci
discounted
guccio
evening
loafer
black
and
gucci
city
watch
tag
gucci
dress
locations
gucci
diamond
titus
gucci
kong
gucci
cap
gucci
jolicoeur
gucci
gucci
shoes
indy
gucci
knockoffs
2548
signature
gucci
wallet
1900l
gucci
watch
gucci
bags
gucci
paolo
gucci
belt
7200
gucci
shirts
gucci
gucci
gucci
same
bowling
cheap
saddle
prescription
gucci
mens
gucci
gucci
gucci
gucci
gucci
gucci
clothes
fragrances
heels
sun
saddle
gucci
clothes
gucci
gucci
repair
watches
zealand
hobo
gucci
collection
gucci
group
diaper
gucci
gucci

Yes, that’s the complete message.

Sometimes I get messages that need a translator.

But for the most part I am not sure how to say no or have a problem gauging how much I have on plate. One way to tell if an advertiser contacting is legit is to take a line from the email and search for it in Google. This has saved me 3 or 4 times so far. You usually will find someone posting about it if it’s spam.

I don’t know if I am taking the term "legit" too far, but the way I see it: If you use a form letter, you don’t give a crap if your ad is on my site or someone else’s site. Please go elsewhere.

Another, I have pretty much taken paid reviews off the plate. I don’t like them. Too many rules. If I was going to be someone’s bitch, I wouldn’t be attempting to completely and totally work for myself. I like affiliate programs and I usually can find more than one good product that does similar things. I like giving choices and I like products with trial periods. Devoting a post to a product would have to mean it was the "God" of that niche. Which is why I recommend Fruitful Time Manager, because you have time to see for yourself if it will work for you and I promise to get to a post on software that helps with productivity.

I don’t think I have the depth of knowledge on blogging yet to give an adequate site review. I can throw out a few pointers. I can recognize intensity and transparency like Mirjam, a great analytical mind in Tim but I want to learn more about applying SEO tactics to Wordpress from Andy Beard before I even think I have the right. Plus I have gaping holes in this blog that would only make me a hyprocrite. But I would love to do it once I myself consider this site bullet proof, because I have found a few diamonds in the rough that will give me a run for the money if given the right direction. Not that I am that quick at building traffic. I am slow but stable. I was waiting for my old knack at putting ideas to words to lubricate a little.

And this has had side effects. Yesterday I had the epiphany that I am a complete idiot. I have been looking for ways to get things done quicker. One way is to pry the padlock off of my wallet or at least redirect some advertising dollars to things that will make my job easier like paying for a theme. But I will be turning that into a new twist on a contest. Speaking of contest, check out Tim’s site. The list of prizes is longer than this post and has more variety than it’s sharp tangents.

Outsourcing will help a lot I think. I told the only client I ever had to try ScriptLance. I never tried it, but I heard good things. He would come back with complete sites built for $500. It would take months, but it took me months to create the theme for this site. Speaking of that, he is looking for a Drupal developer to finish up a social network. If you are one, leave a comment. It will probably be worth your while.

A post like this is what happens when your to do box explodes all over the place. It’s not that I have a problem with organization. The problem is with "no". On one side, I can be a push over. On the other, I just want to see if I can pull it all off.

A few things done that I wanted to get to in one fail swoop and too finish off with the last curse of a comment box: this is normal for me. The post isn’t but the things I have in lists everywhere is.

Tags: Andy Beard, comment, email, spam, tumblr

Related posts

7 Mar, 2008  Blogging, Journal, ZTD



9 Comments so far »

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  1. Tim said

    March 7 2008 @ 4:10 pm

    Hey Stephan,

    Thanks for the mention, such kind words :D The contest is pretty awesome, I’m just a sponsor though ;)

    Anyways, I have a friend who does Drupal development for a pretty big site who said he’d be interested in learning more about the details of that project. Send me an email, and perhaps we can get these 2 in contact with each other.

    Take care!

    Tim’s last blog post..AffSpy Beta - Search Affiliate Networks Fast and Easy

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  2. RennyBA said

    March 7 2008 @ 4:32 pm

    This was an interesting and very readable post - thanks for sharing your experience and well documented too.

    I also use my gmail account the same way, so that my private one (have had it for 17 years, wont be spammed to much.

    Wishing you a great end to your week :-)
    RennyBA’s last blog post..Contrasting spring weather in Oslo

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  3. Mirjam said

    March 7 2008 @ 5:41 pm

    Hey Stephan
    I just checked back in here to have another look at your Featured Post about getting this wordpress theme which I downloaded a few hours ago, when I noticed this new post :D

    Intensity and transparency, thanks a lot for that, I am pleasantly surprised (and a bit in shock :D:D)

    I have been fooling around with the great features and custom option of your theme, trying out all sorts of colour schemes untill my eyes started spinning.

    I was already planning on changing my theme the first of April along with a kick-off contest, but that plan is canceled because of the Big Bang contest the University Kid is running at the moment (the same contest Tim is sponsoring… ) so I thought now was a good a moment as any to go ahead and make the change…

    If only I could find a colour scheme I can find myself in yet still relatively easy on the eye and different enough from yours… (feeling a long weekend coming up here :D:D)

    Your More Than Multiple Widget theme seems to be pretty exiting and easy managable but … Can you believe I only just noticed your free theme today, after all this time that I have been following your blog?!

    Anyways, have a great weekend and thanks again ;)
    Mirjam’s last blog post..Dilemma of a Blogger Follow Up

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  4. Stephan Miller said

    March 8 2008 @ 3:09 pm

    Tim,

    I get the emails started and get back to you.

    Renny,

    Gmail is pretty handy. I actually have three accounts that I signed up for at different times. I used them as filters for while. Only certain messages to certain accounts. But after having Thunderbird crash a few times, I grew tired of tracking down all the accounts afterwards. So now all my Gmail accounts forward to one. All my own email accounts get forwarded to one. Now after a crash, which hasn’t been for a long time, I just have two accounts to add. Then I use filters to put emails in folders or in the trash from inside Thunderbird.

    Mirjam,

    The Adobe Kuler site http://kuler.adobe.com has some good schemes to pick from. And http://wp23.com shows some examples from sites that have used this theme. I really need to get back there to add some more showcases though.

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  5. Debo Hobo said

    March 11 2008 @ 2:29 pm

    Contact forms can be a pest, but you definitely have to use an alternate email address because the spammers are always on point.

    Debo Hobo’s last blog post..Ugly Shoes That Have No Heel

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  6. Stephan Miller said

    March 11 2008 @ 2:36 pm

    I finally found a more spam proof comment form by accident, but even that will have to wait a bit to shuffle things around here. Right now, the spam is an interesting experiment. I could see it becoming uncontrollable in a bit though.

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  7. Mary Music said

    March 12 2008 @ 9:26 am

    What about captchas? Did you try using that?
    I remember making some efforts to make it work but it is definitely worth it.

    Mary Music’s last blog post..Woodward - But Your Kids Are Gonna Love It

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  8. Stephan Miller said

    March 12 2008 @ 10:22 am

    I’ll try something like that eventually here.

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  9. Lupe Fiasco said

    June 12 2008 @ 2:49 am

    As of now I have my contact email listed as email(at)domain.com. Do you think this is safe enough to prevent me from spam? I think I should probably create an image, but maybe this is enough?

    Lupe Fiasco’s last blog post..“Best Dressed” for Lupe Fiasco

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