if you want more feedback, make it easy

little comment form on bottom of each page

[Emma McCreary]

I have a content-only site that I run as a hobby when I'm not working on for-pay sites...it's fun and I get a fair amount of traffic but I wasn't getting much feedback from my visitors, a couple of 'thanks for the info' a month or so. I wanted more. I had a contact link on each page that lead to a contact page with email and 'send comments' box, but I wasn't getting enough feedback.

So I decided to put a small comment box at the bottom of each page (I have SSI footers so it was easy to add) so they could put their comments in right there. I headed it with something like "Did you find what you were looking for? Comments, questions?" and had it send me the comments, the page they were on, and then forward them to another page where they could enter their email if they wanted a response, or go back to the page they were on. Now I'm getting 1-2 a day, some 'thank you', some 'didn't find xx' - it's very helpful. They don't always put in their emails, but some do and at least I get some feedback.

It's a huge increase in contact for such a small change. I recommend it if you have free real estate on your page and want more feedback from your customers.

[SEO practioner]

Thanks Emma this is a great suggestion. Always nice to have as much input from the most users we possibly can.

The more input a webmaster has, the better service he or she can deliver to all users.

[carfac]

I have a content site, and a pretty big one. We catalogue various facts about widgets. I have had a "Send Updated Info" sort of link to all 50,000 enties for some time. I guess I get 20-30 corrections a day! Not that I put together a bad site, mind you, but people with additional information, that send images, etc. Works very well for me, too. I do NOT requite an e-mail addy to use it either- make it as easy and painless as possible if you really want the info!

dave

[EliteWeb]

I have feedback forms on all my pages, one thing I notice oOoo too often is people thinking its a refer a friend to this page box typing in a message for their friend :D