Email link vs email form call to action

which gets better results now in a spammable world?

[jpalmer]

Greetings and gidday from downunder all,

Have been doing sites for a few years now and am seeing contact "call to action" move from plain email link to email forms.

Does anyone have any research or anecdotal evidence that plain email links are now *less* likely to get a response (apart from spambots! <grin>) from a site visitor/potential customer, than was common previously?

And if a plain email link is less likely to be used or recognised, is an email form, when it's the only method of response or contact, just as or more likely to be used, than a plain text email link?

Thanks in advance, and awaiting any replies with interest.

Regards and Hooroo
jpalmer

[choster]

There was a recent thread about e-mail addresses vs. web forms at [webmasterworld.com...] . I thought the consensus was a little different.

[jpalmer]

Gidday Choster,

I knew there was a thread around somewhere, but this one didn't show up in my seaches.

Still not sure what to do, have experimented with a variety of email address "cloaking" techniques discussed, but still getting spam.

I think the day is rapidly approaching where "free" email is no longer, if only to disuade the casual spammer. e.g. x number of emails per account/address per minute/hour/day/month free, then an overage charge applies, or some other model.

don't really want to get into it here, I'm sure various "solutions" have been canvassed elswhere <grin>.

Thanks for your response, appreciated ...

Cheers and hooroo
JP

[Receptional]

My vote is for web forms. If you are clever, you can also put hidden fields into the form whoch tells you much more about your visitor.

Dixon.

[4string]

The good thing about a form is you can specify the subject line of the incoming email. I automatically delete any email sent to that email address that does not contain that subject line. I never see spam from the form since I set it up this way.

[bobbee]

I'm new here but I found the earlier thread on forms vs. email addresses very interesting.

For structured content with required fields (ie a Request For Quote) I prefer contact forms.

I think part of the objection to forms is that there are a lot of _lousy_ forms which are poorly designed. I mean the forms with a text field of 10 columns X 5 rows requesting "a complete description of the problem including all error messages".

For ordinary contacts I am converting my sites to require 'human verification' before the email address can be viewed. (This is the system of presenting an image with a random text string which the user has to type into an entry box).

The HV system means the user won't mistype an email address & they can use their familiar email client.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Bob